question_answer

Explain how you will prove that the text of Mahabharata was a dynamic one.

Answer:

Mahabharata is a Dynamic Text:

1. The original story was probably composed by charioteer-bards known as sutas and was circulated the story orally for many decades.

2. Then from the fifth century BCE, Brahmanas took over the story and began to commit it to writing. This was the time when chiefdoms such as those of the Kurrus and Panchalas, around whom the story of the epic revolves, were gradually becoming kingdoms.

3. The growth of the Mahabharata did not stop with the Sanskrit version. Over the centuries, versions of the epic were written in a variety of languages through an ongoing process of dialogue between peoples, communities, and those who wrote the texts.

4. Several stories that originated in specific regions or circulated amongst certain people found their way into the epic. At the same time, the central story of the epic was often retold in different ways.

5. Episodes of Mahabharata were depicted in sculpture and painting.

6. They also provided themes for a wide range of performing arts - plays, dance and other kinds of narrations.