How the epic is built
The eighteen parvas
The Mahabharata is divided into eighteen books, each called a parva. The war fills only five of them. Before the war come the births, the dice game and the years in the forest. After the war come grief, long lessons from Bhishma, and four short books that tell how everyone's story ends.
Eighteen, or a hundred
The Mahabharata itself says how it is divided.
The smallest piece of the Mahabharata is the shloka, a verse of two lines. Shlokas make a chapter, called an adhyaya. Chapters make a parva, a book.
Most people know that there are eighteen parvas. Fewer know that the epic also counts them another way. In its second chapter, it lists one hundred smaller parvas, from the first story to the last. Then it says that the bard who recited it in the Naimisha forest arranged those hundred into eighteen.
The same chapter then goes through the eighteen one by one and says what is in each. The table below follows it.
The Critical Edition, the text rebuilt at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, keeps 98 of the hundred. Its text has 1,995 chapters and 73,787 shlokas. That is far short of the hundred thousand verses the Mahabharata is famous for.
The eighteen books
| Book | What happens | Chapters |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Adi the beginning | The snake sacrifice, where Vaishampayana tells the story to King Janamejaya. The Kuru line, the births of the Pandavas and the Kauravas, the house of lac, Draupadi's marriage and the burning of the Khandava forest. | 225 |
| 2. Sabha the assembly hall | Maya builds the hall. Yudhishthira's royal sacrifice, the deaths of Jarasandha and Shishupala, and the two games of dice. | 72 |
| 3. Aranyaka the forest | Twelve years in the forest. Arjuna wins divine weapons. Sages tell the stories of Nala and Damayanti, Savitri and Rama. Also called Vana Parva. | 299 |
| 4. Virata King Virata | The thirteenth year, in disguise at Virata's court. Bhima kills Kichaka, and Arjuna drives off the Kauravas when they steal Virata's cattle. | 67 |
| 5. Udyoga effort | The efforts for peace. Sanjaya's mission, Vidura's advice, Krishna's visit to Hastinapura. When peace fails, the armies march. | 197 |
| 6. Bhishma | The first ten days of the war, with Bhishma in command. The Bhagavad Gita. Bhishma falls. | 117 |
| 7. Drona | Five days under Drona. Abhimanyu, Jayadratha and Ghatotkacha are killed, and then Drona. | 173 |
| 8. Karna | Two days under Karna, with Shalya driving his chariot. Arjuna kills Karna. | 69 |
| 9. Shalya | The last day. Yudhishthira kills Shalya, and Bhima breaks Duryodhana's thighs in the fight with clubs. | 64 |
| 10. Sauptika the sleepers | Ashwatthama's night raid on the sleeping Pandava camp. | 18 |
| 11. Stri the women | The women mourn on the battlefield. Funeral rites for the dead. | 27 |
| 12. Shanti peace | Yudhishthira's grief. From his bed of arrows, Bhishma teaches him the duties of kings, what to do in hard times, and the path to liberation. | 353 |
| 13. Anushasana instruction | Bhishma's teaching goes on: dharma, gifts, the rules of living. Then Bhishma dies. | 154 |
| 14. Ashvamedhika the horse sacrifice | Krishna's second teaching to Arjuna, the Anugita. Parikshit is born dead and brought back to life. Arjuna follows the sacrificial horse across the land. | 96 |
| 15. Ashramavasika life in the hermitage | Dhritarashtra, Gandhari and Kunti leave for the forest and never come back. | 47 |
| 16. Mausala the clubs | The Yadavas destroy one another. Krishna and Balarama leave the world, and the sea takes Dvaraka. | 9 |
| 17. Mahaprasthanika the great departure | The Pandavas and Draupadi walk north, past the Himalayas, and fall one by one. | 3 |
| 18. Svargarohana the ascent to heaven | Yudhishthira reaches heaven and is shown hell. His last test. | 5 |
Chapter counts are the Critical Edition's. The war runs from book 6 to book 10.
Longest and shortest
353 chapters, and three.
Shanti Parva is the longest book in the epic, with 353 chapters. Aranyaka Parva comes second, with 299. Neither is mainly a story of battle. Shanti is a long lesson. Aranyaka is a forest full of stories told by sages.
The shortest is Mahaprasthanika Parva, with only three chapters. Together, the last four books have 64 chapters, the same as Shalya Parva alone. That may be why so many retellings stop at the war, or at Yudhishthira's coronation. But these four books are where the story ends.
Book 15
One night by the Ganga.
For fifteen years after the war, Dhritarashtra lived in Hastinapura, honoured by the Pandavas. Then he left for the forest with Gandhari. Kunti went with them, and so did Vidura.
In the forest, Vidura grew so thin that Yudhishthira could barely recognise him. When they met, Vidura fixed his eyes on Yudhishthira's and, by the power of yoga, entered his body. His own body stayed where it was, leaning on a tree.
Later, Vyasa called the dead of both armies out of the Ganga. The kings and their soldiers rose from the water, with Bhishma and Drona at their head. The living and the dead spent one whole night together, without anger or sorrow, and then the dead went back. Some time after that, a forest fire killed Dhritarashtra, Gandhari and Kunti.
Book 16
Thirty-six years after the war.
The book's name, Mausala, comes from musala, a club. Some young Yadavas played a trick on visiting sages, and the sages cursed them: their whole clan would be destroyed by a club. Thirty-six years after Kurukshetra, the Yadavas got drunk on the seashore and fought. The grass they pulled up became clubs in their hands, and they killed one another.
Balarama and Krishna then left the world. Arjuna came to Dvaraka to lead the women and children away, and as soon as they left, the sea flooded the city. On the road, bandits attacked them. Arjuna strung the Gandiva only with great effort, and he could not remember his divine weapons.
Books 17 and 18
A dog, and a view of hell.
The Pandavas gave up their kingdom and set out with Draupadi on a last journey around the earth. A dog followed them. They turned north at the end and passed beyond the Himalayas to an ocean of sand. Mount Meru was in sight when they began to fall, one by one: Draupadi first, then Sahadeva, Nakula, Arjuna and Bhima. Only Yudhishthira and the dog were left.
Indra came in his chariot to take Yudhishthira to heaven, but said the dog could not come. Yudhishthira would not leave it behind. The dog was Dharma, and this was a test.
In heaven, Yudhishthira found Duryodhana sitting in glory, and his own brothers nowhere. He was taken to a terrible place where he heard their voices crying out. It was an illusion. Indra told him that every king must see hell. He had seen it for a short while because of the lie he told Drona in the war. Dharma said this was his third test, and he had passed.
After the eighteen
The Harivamsha is an appendix.
The Harivamsha, the story of Krishna's family and childhood, comes after the eighteen books. It is not one of them. The epic calls it a khila, a supplement. The Critical Edition prints it in a volume of its own.
From the quiz
Six questions on this, from the thousand.
Which is the longest among the 18 parvas of the Mahabharata?
Show the answer
Shanti Parva.
The Anugita is the second discourse by Krishna to Arjuna and occured after the Kurukshetra war. In which parva of the Mahabharata does it appear?
Show the answer
Ashwamedhika Parva.
Which parva covers Dhritarashtra, Gandhari, and Kunti departing for the forest?
Show the answer
Ashramavasika Parva.
Which person left his own body and entered Yudhishthira's?
Show the answer
Vidura.
Which of these is NOT covered in the Mausala Parva?
Show the answer
Journey of the Pandavas to the Himalayas.
Which is the last parva (book) of the Mahabharata?
Show the answer
Svargarohana Parva.
The quiz has 994 more questions like these.
Play nowWhere this comes from
This site follows the Critical Edition, the text rebuilt at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.
What each book contains is from Adi Parva, chapter 2, where the epic summarises its own eighteen books. That chapter gives its own chapter counts, and they differ. The counts in the table are the Critical Edition's. The last four books are retold from Ashramavasika, Mausala, Mahaprasthanika and Svargarohana Parva. The totals and the note on the Harivamsha are from the introduction to the Critical Edition's translation.
Keep reading
Books 6 to 10 hold the war. Read it day by day in the eighteen days of Kurukshetra. Or find out who the bard in the Naimisha forest was, and who told the story to whom, in who narrated the Mahabharata.