List of characters in the Mahabharata

The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India composed by Veda Vyasa. At its heart lies the epic struggle between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. The central characters include the five Pandava brothers—Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva—along with their wife Draupadi. On the opposing side, the hundred Kaurava brothers are led by the elder brother, Duryodhana. However, the Mahabharata is richly populated with other notable figures including Krishna, Bhishma, Drona, Karna, Kunti, Dushasana, Kripa, Dhritrashtra, Gandhari, Shakuni, Ashwatthama, Balarama, Subhadra, Vyasa, Abhimanyu, Pandu, Satyavati and Amba.

The Mahabharata manuscripts exist in numerous versions, wherein the specifics and details of major characters and episodes vary, often significantly. Except for the sections containing the Bhagavad Gita which is remarkably consistent between the numerous manuscripts, the rest of the epic exists in many versions.[1] The differences between the Northern and Southern recensions are particularly significant, with the Southern manuscripts more profuse and longer.[2] The manuscripts found in the North and South India have "great divergence" in details, though the thematic essence is similar.[3] Scholars have attempted to construct a critical edition, relying mostly on a study of the Bombay edition, the Poona edition, the Calcutta edition and the south Indian editions of the Mahabharata manuscripts. The most accepted version is one prepared by scholars led by Vishnu Sukthankar at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, preserved at the Kyoto University, the Cambridge University and various Indian universities.[4][5]

This list follows the Critical Edition of the Mahabharata, but may have characters exclusive to a particular recension.[note 1]

  1. ^ Minor, Robert N. (1982). Bhagavad Gita: An Exegetical Commentary. South Asia Books. pp. L–Li. ISBN 978-0-8364-0862-1.; Quote: "The current text of the Bhagavad gita is well-preserved with relatively few variant readings and none quite serious. This is especially remarkable in the light of the numerous variants for the remainder of the Mahabharata, some of which are quite serious. Secondary insertions are found in individual manuscripts of the Gita, but these are clearly secondary. The number of stanzas in the Gita is 700, a number confirmed by Shankara, and possibly deliberately chosen in order to prevent interpolations."
  2. ^ McGrath 2004, pp. 19–21 with footnotes.
  3. ^ McGrath 2004, pp. 21–22.
  4. ^ McGrath 2004, pp. 21–26 with footnotes.
  5. ^ Critical Edition Prepared by Scholars at Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute BORI, Muneo Tokunaga, Kyoto University (1998)


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