Ten Things to Know about The Mahabharata: #6
The Hindu god Ganesh was the first to write down The Mahabharata, according to the epic.
6. It’s a narrative. The first to tell the Mahabharata was the sage Vyāsa; the first to listen, the elephant-headed Ganesh.
Vyāsa — who appears in the epic as the princes’ grandfather — promised to continue the story as long as the god could keep writing.
So when Ganesh’s pen gave out, he broke off his tusk, dipped it in ink, and kept writing. This is why the god is often depicted with a broken tusk (left).
The epic goes on to describe human kings who told and retold the epic until it reached full size.
That’s the legend, anyway. (“Vyāsa” is also a general term for “composer” or “compiler.”)
Throughout the Mahabharata, characters tell each other stories, largely to explain why things are the way they are. Why should the blind king plot the downfall of his nephews? His minister convinces him with a fable about a cunning jackal.
Other questions are thornier. Why does the princess Draupadi end up marrying all five princes? Why do the princes, with God on their side, slay the very men they should revere, including their cousins, guru, and brother?
The answer, as we shall see in #5, often lies in a past life — or beyond human understanding.
