The Mahābhārata and Greco-Roman sources: mapping out the destruction plan

Abstract

In previous publications (The Mahābhārata and Greek Mythology, New Delhi, 2014, for example) I have argued that the Mahābhārata poets worked from a Greco-Roman “repertory” or “archive” in which the Iliad’s and the Greek Epic Cycle’s (the Cypria in particular) description of the Theban and the Trojan wars gave a kind of global model or overall framework for the main story. Although the idea of both wars as part of a plan for the destruction of a generation of heroes can be defended for the Iliad (and Odyssey) it is clearly evident in the Epic Cycle, in Hesiod, and even in other authors, such as Euripides. Under this broad umbrella other Greco-Roman materials, taken from very different sources, were used for the Mbh.’s composition.