Abstract:
The Mahābhārata is not only a monumental piece of literature, a thrilling epic, a tragedy
as large as life itself, an unrivalled teacher of Dharma, but also (and much more so than
its elder brother, the Rāmāyaṇa) a confluence of kingdoms, dynasties, peoples, regions
and languages. In fact, at the start of the Epic, Vyāsa informs Brahmā that he has
composed in his mind a work that is to be include all branches of knowledge, and, of
interest to us here, to contain in particular “a description of ... the different kinds of
nations and languages: the nature of the manners of the people..