evolution of Mahabharatham

नारायणं नमस्कृत्य नरं चैव नरोत्तमं देवीं सरस्वतीं व्यासं ततो जयं उदीरयेत्

Narayanam namaskritya naram chaiva narottamam 

deveem saraswatheem vyaasam tato jayam udeerayet..

Jeyam is treated as the primary synopsis of events originally conceived and which in due course got elaborated to eighteen huge Parvas or chapters of the epic Mahabharatham ..

It would appear that Jeyam has got included in the first Parva of Bharatham already..

And it seems that part of it has crept into subsequent parvas too..

Many descriptions of the same incidents or episodes have minor or even major variations in the narratives in different Parvas..

but no attempt has been made by any ancient author to cover up the contradictions..

It is a Herculean task to read the whole of Mahabharatham.. and even when I attempted that with the huge translated material of Kisari Mohan Ganguly,

I found that the Sanskrit text in original is too much of a challenge.. 

Moreover there are many versions of Mahabharatham .. of Vyasa himself as available across India and many incidents that are included in some editions are not finding place in other editions..

Often hundreds of chapters found in some editions are missing in some other editions..

So we can read, enjoy, evaluate and derive benefit.. 

but we may not succeed if we dig too much into the historical authenticity of all parts of Mahabharatham..

Not only with Mahabharatham, this is the case with many ancient texts too..

For example part of Balakandam and the whole of Uttarakandam in Valmikiramayanam are held as interpolations by scholars, 

and they have based their views on the style of narration and grammatical style and such factors..

Sanskrit was a living language for millenniums and the language evolved.. 

But thanks to the very sane and crisp approach of the greats like Panini, the basic foundation of the language has been enduring and consistent in spite of all the vagaries of space, time and attitudes..

Most other languages lost their shape even within four or five centuries.. 

Take the case of English which we use here.. an article in this language written five centuries ago will be abracadabra for almost anyone today..