chronological inconsistencies in Mahabharatham

This is only a reiteration of a discussion in a thread.. A good friend has raised the issue of chronological inconsistencies in Mahabharatham... My two pennies on it..

View of my friend

A very good point, Sir! I too have one confusion, albeit an usual one, and has no connection whatsoever to the theme or what it tries to convey.

It says, that the first verse of Bhagawad Gita was spoken by Drtrashtra on the 10th day shattered out of disbelief enquiring with Sanjaya about the death of Bhishma Pitamaha.

Now if Sanjaya were reporting all the day-to-day events to Drtrashtra from day one, then why does he have to explain all the facts from the start??

I understand my question is an illogical one, but couldn't resist the temptation after reading your above post. Thank you, Sir!

My reply

Ambareesh Iyer to answer this question we have to analyze the structure of narration in the epic Mahabharatham.. First, by way of introduction, Vyasa, or Suka, or some othe disciple or Suuta Like Vaisampayana explains the essentials and main story line of Mahabharatham.. The story is narrated usually in the evening intervals the learned scholars like rishis and ritwiks and other participants and guest get during the recesses of great Ashwamedha or such yajnas conducted by the powerful kings.. One such occasion is the Sarpasatram of King Janamejaya the son of Pareekshit.. The conversation occurs in respect of various distinctive happenings.. and some of these are divided an arranged as parvas.. and usually the description comes as a narration of a storyteller who just recaps the whole thing in his own way to prepare the ground for effectively expostulating the scenario on which the narrator was called upon to lecture.. Thus the epic goes by lecture inside sub-lecture pattern like the old chinese boxes, one inside the other.. There will be repetitions.. The original Storyline of Bharatham would not be lesser that 3000 slokas and not more than 5000. The same will come back for expansion in parvas like adhi, bhishma, karana etc.. Many moderen narrators including Rajaji have skipped such repetitions and presented the epic as a continuous story.. But the epic in its primary poetic version does not provied such condensation.. So, we have to create chronology in Bharatham on the basis of narratives and rearranging the incidents as they would have happened logically.. So you will be in a sort of Maze if you hazard to read the original text ( there are various sources.. Calcutta Vernacular editions, Bombay Editions, TamilNadu edtions ..etc) and some masterly stanza by stanza translation by Maxmuller(German-english) and Kisari Mohan Ganguli (the ultimate masterpiece) and others , you should have to negotiate the maze for a lifetime, and still may not find complete satisfaction. ( I have read KM Ganguli Once, some parts of the sanskrit texts from Intenet Archives, but I do not think there is time left for further deep studies..) So do not waste time on logic of Chronology in Mahabharatam.. it is not there..