INTRODUCTION The Mahabharata (composed between 300 BC and 300 AD) has the honor of being the longest epic in world literature, 100, 000 2-line stanzas (although the most recent critical edition edits this down to about 88, 000), making it eight times as long as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey together, and over 3 times as long as the Bible (Chaitanya vii). According to the Narasimhan version, only about ...