Editing Vyasa (section)

===The Mahabharata===
{{Main article|Mahabharata}}

[[File:Angkor Wat 006.JPG|thumb|Vyasa narrating the ''Mahabharata'' to [[Ganesha]], his scribe - [[Angkor Wat]]]]
[[File:The sage Vyasa and the king Janamejaya..jpg|thumb|Painting depicting Vyasa and the king Janamejaya. ]]
Vyāsa is regarded as the author of the Mahabharata, a major epic of Hindu literature.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lochtefeld |first=James G. |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Illustrated_Encyclopedia_of_Hinduism/GnmPzgEACAAJ?hl=en |title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: N-Z |date=2002 |publisher=Rosen |isbn=978-0-8239-3180-4 |pages=770 |language=en}}</ref> The first section of the Mahābhārata states that [[Ganesha|Gaṇesha]] wrote the text to Vyasa's dictation,{{efn|It is believed that Vyasa asks Ganesha to assist him in writing the text. Ganesha imposes a precondition that he would do so only if Vyasa would narrate the story without a pause. Vyasa set a counter-condition that Ganesha understands the verses first before transcribing them. Thus Vyasa narrated the entire ''Mahābhārata''.}} but this is regarded by scholars as a later interpolation to the epic and this part of the story is also excluded in the "Critical Edition" of the Mahābhārata.<ref>''Mahābhārata'', Vol. 1, Part 2. Critical edition, p. 884.</ref>

The five Paṇḍava brothers of the junior line of the Kuru royal house being the ultimate victors, thus India's cultural heroes, Vyāsa's relationship with the winners in this kinship war of cousin against cousin is as chronicler who sired the father of the victors. These five protagonists are the surrogate sons of [[Pandu|Pānḍu]], sired by various gods on behalf of this Kuru king whom Vyāsa himself fathered 'under Niyoga practice' in place of an elder brother who died heirless, at the behest of his mother [[Satyavati]]. Vyāsa also sired the father of the vanquished, he was certainly the surgeon who put the hundred brothers of antagonist cousins into incubation, and as they are only said to be sired by a boon he conferred on their mother, there's some possibility that he is also their biological sire himself.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Barti |first1=Kalra |display-authors=etal |title=The Mahabharata and reproductive endocrinology |doi=10.4103/2230-8210.180004 |doi-access=free |journal=Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism |year=2016 |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=404–407|pmid=27186562 |pmc=4855973 }}</ref> Hence Vyāsa's authorship of the ''Mahābhārata'' is by way of biography of his own family including its adoptees. This was the struggle between his own ex officio grandsons.<ref name="Bhattacharya">{{cite journal |last=Bhattacharya |first=Pradip |date=May–June 2004 |title=Of Kunti and Satyawati: Sexually Assertive Women of the Mahabharata |url=http://www.manushi-india.org/pdfs_issues/PDF%20142/04%20panchakanya%20pg%2021-25.pdf |journal=[[Manushi]] |issue=142 |pages=21–25}}</ref> And it is in the wake of producing this purportedly historical, [[smriti]] ''Mahābhārata'' as well as 'compiling' the essential [[sruti]] scripture of the Vedas that 'Vyāsa' was added as epithet then eclipsed his two birth names, ''Krishṇa'' and ''Dvaipāyana'', while his smiriti creation became a canon whose territorial name, drawing on either one or two legendary ruler's personal names, included in the saga's text, still underlies modern Sanskrit-to-Hindi official form, Bhārata Gaṇarājya, in the [[names for India]] through its current constitution.<ref name=Clementin-Ojha>{{cite journal |last=Clémentin-Ojha |first=Catherine |title='India, that is Bharat…': One Country, Two Names |journal=South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal |volume=10 |year=2014 |url=https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/3717}}</ref><ref>–{{citation|title=The Essential Desk Reference |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yjcOAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA76|year=2002|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-512873-4|page=76}} "Official name: Republic of India.";<br />–{{citation|author=John Da Graça|title=Heads of State and Government|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M0YfDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA421 |year=2017|publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] |location=London |isbn=978-1-349-65771-1|page=421}} "Official name: Republic of India; Bharat Ganarajya (Hindi)";<br />–{{citation|author=Graham Rhind |title=Global Sourcebook of Address Data Management: A Guide to Address Formats and Data in 194 Countries |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iGdQDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA302|year=2017|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |isbn=978-1-351-93326-1|page=302}} "Official name: Republic of India; Bharat.";<br />–{{citation|last=Bradnock|first=Robert W.|title=The Routledge Atlas of South Asian Affairs |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zzjbCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA108|year=2015|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=978-1-317-40511-5|page=108}} "Official name: English: Republic of India; Hindi:Bharat Ganarajya";<br />–{{citation|title=Penguin Compact Atlas of the World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pLw-ReHIgvQC&pg=PA140|year=2012|publisher=[[Penguin Group|Penguin]] |isbn=978-0-7566-9859-1|page=140}} "Official name: Republic of India";<br />–{{citation|title=Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Co_VIPIJerIC&pg=PA515|year=1997|isbn=978-0-87779-546-9 |edition=3rd |publisher=[[Merriam-Webster]]|pages=515–516}} "Officially, Republic of India";<br />–{{citation|title=Complete Atlas of the World, 3rd Edition: The Definitive View of the Earth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O5moCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA54-IA10|year=2016|publisher=[[DK Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-4654-5528-4|page=54}} "Official name: Republic of India";<br />–{{citation|title=Worldwide Government Directory with Intergovernmental Organizations 2013|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CQWhAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA726|date=10 May 2013|publisher=[[CQ Press]]|isbn=978-1-4522-9937-2|page=726}} "India (Republic of India; Bharat Ganarajya)"</ref>

Vyāsa's ''Jaya'' (literally, "victory"), the core of the ''Mahābhārata'', is a dialogue between Dhritarāshtra (the [[Kuru Kingdom|Kuru]] king and the father of the Kauravas, who opposed the [[Pāndavas|Pāṇḍavas]] in the [[Kurukshetra War]]) and [[Sanjaya]], his adviser and charioteer. Sanjaya narrates the particulars of the Kurukshetra War, fought in eighteen days, chronologically. Dhritarashtra at times asks questions and expresses doubts, sometimes lamenting, fearing the destruction the war would bring on his family, friends and kin.

The Bhagavad Gita is contained in the Bhishma Parva, which comprises chapters 23-40 of book 6 of the ''Mahābhārata''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mahabharata |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Mahabharata/ |access-date=2022-04-01 |website=World History Encyclopedia |language=en}}</ref> The ''Gita'', dated to the second half of the first millennium BCE, in its own right is one of the most influential philosophico-religious dialogues, producing numerous commentaries and a global audience. Like the "Jaya", it is also a dialogue, in which Paṇḍava Prince Arjuna's hesitation to attack his cousins is counseled from 'the perspective of the gods' by his charioteer, revealed to be an avatar of Vishnu.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bhagavadgita {{!}} Definition, Contents, & Significance {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bhagavadgita |access-date=2022-12-27 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> In 1981, Larson stated that "a complete listing of Gita translations and a related secondary bibliography would be nearly endless".<ref name=larson81>{{Citation |doi=10.2307/1398797 |author=Gerald James Larson |year=1981 |title=The Song Celestial: Two centuries of the Bhagavad Gita in English |journal=Philosophy East and West |publisher= University of Hawai'i Press |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=513–40 |jstor=1398797}}</ref> The Bhagavad Gita has been highly praised, not only by prominent Indians including [[Mahatma Gandhi]] and [[Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan]],<ref>''Modern Indian Interpreters of the Bhagavad Gita'', by Robert Neil Minor, 1986, p. 161</ref> but also by [[Aldous Huxley]], [[Henry David Thoreau]], [[J. Robert Oppenheimer]],{{sfn|Hijiya|2000}} [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]], [[Carl Jung]], [[Hermann Hesse]],<ref name="bansi">{{harvnb|Pandit|2005|page=27}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Hume|1959|page=29}}</ref> and [[Bülent Ecevit]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.telegraphindia.com/1021114/asp/opinion/story_1363040.asp|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021123210030/http://www.telegraphindia.com/1021114/asp/opinion/story_1363040.asp|url-status=dead|archive-date=23 November 2002|title=The Telegraph – Calcutta: Opinion|work=The Telegraph|location=Kolkota}}</ref>