Description
international community to the extent no other work has. Not only is it
large in volume with its. One hundred thousand stanzas in its present
form, it is full of inordinate depth as well. Rightly does the text justify its
name on both these counts: mahattvad bharavattvac on mahabharatam
ucyate, on account of its large extent, mahattvat andits’ depth,
bharavattvat (bhara=Sara) the work is given the name mahab=harata.
The kernel of the conflict between the Kauravas and sthe Pandavas, the
members of the same caln is expanded here with the insertion of a whole
lot of episodes, narratives and parables to make it assume the ponderous
dimensions that make the text proclaim: yad ihasti tad anyatra yan
nehasti na tat kvacit, whatever is here is found elsewhere too, whatever
is not here, is found nowhere. Such is its sweep, such is the
comnprehensiveness.
With all the work done on the Mahabharata, it is no longer an epic
confined to India. It has become a part of world literature by being
owned, adopted and adapted by different nationalities.
Nilakantha Life
As with most scholars of pre-modern India, little is known of his life. He
was from a Marathi-speaking Brahmin family that had been established
in a town on the banks of the river Godavari. He moved to
Varanasi, where he studied Veda and Vedanga, Mimamsa, Srauta, Yoga,
Saiva texts, Tarka, and Advaita Vedanta from several teachers, before
beginning his literary career.His teachers and mentors at Varanasi, which
was then a hub of śāstric learning, included his guru referred to him as
Lakṣmaṇārya, and Nārāyaṇa Tīrtha.MAHABHARATA with Bhāratabhāvadīpa by Nilakantha Chaturdhara
His commentary, Bhāratabhāvadīpa, is the only one that is widely used
in Sanskrit studies today.His commentary was from the viewpoint of
Advaita Vedānta.