This epic poem, made up of around 100,000 couplets (seven times as long as the Iliad and the Odyssey combined), is one of the major literary achievements of India. It tells the story of two families, the Kauravas and the Pandavas, who struggled for supremacy. Possibly based on events which took place between 1400BC and 1000BC, it was written over many years in the form of legends which were eventually compiled by the sage Vyasa around AD400.
The text is a mixture of heroics and religion. It contains the `Song of the Lord,' the most important religious text of Hinduism. The basis of the text is a story of divided families, jealousy, exile, great battles and revenge; but interwoven are romances, legends and myths. Above all, the Mahabharata shows the proper way for a king and a warrior to behave. It is a code of conduct (dharma) for men to follow. The [G 05 / bas-relief] carvings at Angkor illustrating scenes from the Mahabharata show to what extent Cambodian society was influenced by this ideal of the heroic warrior.
