Author(s) and dates

The Mahabharata was not written by a single author at one time. It grew over centuries, and different groups of people shaped it for different purposes.

The earliest composers were sutas, charioteer-bards who accompanied Kshatriya warriors to battle. They composed poems celebrating victories and achievements, and these poems circulated orally. This was the original core of the story.

From about the fifth century BCE, Brahmanas took over the narrative and began to write it down. This shift happened at a time when chiefdoms like those of the Kurus and Panchalas — around whom the epic revolves — were turning into kingdoms. It is possible that these new kings wanted their itihasa (history) to be recorded and preserved more systematically. The upheavals of state formation, where old social values were replaced by new norms, may also be reflected in parts of the story.

A second major phase of composition occurred between c. 200 BCE and 200 CE. During this period, the worship of Vishnu was growing in importance, and Krishna — a key figure in the epic — came to be identified with Vishnu. This theological development influenced the text.

Finally, between c. 200 and 400 CE, large didactic sections resembling the Manusmriti were added. These additions transformed a text that initially had fewer than 10,000 verses into a colossal work of about 100,000 verses. …