NationStates Jolt Archive

I stumbled across the worlds longest and oldest text yesterday- Its called the Mahatarahba. Its 1.8 million words long and I think about 9 times longer than the whole Illiad. Its from Ancient India, and its interesting as hell. Anyone here really know much about it and acient indian cultures? some of the text itself is really intense. I only have read about it and certain excripts, is there a modern version in english at all? because i'd love to get my hands on a copy.

Are you sure you've spelt it right, 'cos Google doesn't have anything. But I have heard of something similar-sounding, and it will almost certainly be available as a Penguin Classic or something.

Personally, I don't see the point of reading anything that was written before the Renaissance...

I stumbled across the worlds longest and oldest text yesterday- Its called the Mahatarahba. Its 1.8 million words long and I think about 9 times longer than the whole Illiad. Its from Ancient India, and its interesting as hell. Anyone here really know much about it and acient indian cultures? some of the text itself is really intense. I only have read about it and certain excripts, is there a modern version in english at all? because i'd love to get my hands on a copy.

You probably mean Mahabharata.

As far as ancient India, I know about the music...but not much else.

You probably mean Mahabharata.

As far as ancient India, I know about the music, but not much else.

Why read anything before the Rennaissance? You're joking...right?

Are you sure you've spelt it right, 'cos Google doesn't have anything. But I have heard of something similar-sounding, and it will almost certainly be available as a Penguin Classic or something.

Personally, I don't see the point of reading anything that was written before the Renaissance...

Not even the Oddyssey?

Anyway, yeah, it's Mahabharata (Maha [big/large] Bharatha [India]), about a war for succession that scholars believe took place around the 3rd millenium BCE.

I stumbled across the worlds longest and oldest text yesterday- Its called the Mahatarahba. Its 1.8 million words long and I think about 9 times longer than the whole Illiad. Its from Ancient India, and its interesting as hell. Anyone here really know much about it and acient indian cultures? some of the text itself is really intense. I only have read about it and certain excripts, is there a modern version in english at all? because i'd love to get my hands on a copy.

longest epic poem...not the longest text. Last I knew, that went to Henry Darger's The Story of the Vivian Girls, sometimes estimated to be in the tens of millions of words (never published) or Madeleine de Scudéry's Artamène, with something just over 2 million words

If you're interested in ancient Indian literature, I'd also recommend the Ramayana (recounting of a war between ancient India and ancient Sri Lanka).

Also the Vedas, though those are, of course, religious texts.

Anyone here really know much about it and acient indian cultures? some of the text itself is really intense. I only have read about it and certain excripts, is there a modern version in english at all? because i'd love to get my hands on a copy.

There should be many English versions. I read it in Tamil, my native tongue. If you want to just get the story, you can visit a local Indian store and they should have the DVD set of the TV serial "Mahabaratha".

The more famous book "The Bhagvad Gita" is actually a part of Mahabaratha. During the climactic Kurukshetra war between the clans of Pandavas (the heroes) and the Kauravas (villains) - Lord Krishna speaks the Gita to Arjuna (a Pandava prince).

Personally, I don't see the point of reading anything that was written before the Renaissance...

It is your loss :cool: