NEW DELHI, INDIA, December 6, 2005: Millions of Indians and others have imbibed its wisdom through generations, read it in comic form and even watched the story come alive on TV. Now hundreds of experts in India and abroad are working on a $1 million project to make the epic Mahabharata available to global audiences in an encyclopaedic form. Considered a magnum opus of ancient India, the Mahabharata is a colossal saga of good triumphing over evil that has survived through the ages as a living tradition defying time, conquests and colonialism. The Mahabharata is often called the longest and, arguably, one of the greatest epic poems in any language. The tale, recorded by the Hindu sage Ved Vyas many centuries ago, is woven around the story of a conflict between two rival dynasties, the Pandavas and the Kauravas, around 3000 BC. It also provides the battlefield setting for the Bhagavad Gita.
The ready reckoner of value systems will be showcased for the first time as a bilingual English-Sanskrit encyclopaedia in 18 volumes of 1,000 pages each. The effort is aimed at enhancing scholarship on the Mahabharata worldwide and promoting research on various topics of social sciences, philosophies and technology depicted in the great epic. The Mahabharata Samshodhana Pratisthanam, the Indic research foundation based in India’s tech city Bangalore, is embarking on the epic project in a unique public-private partnership to publish the encyclopaedia over the next five years. Bringing the past into the present, renowned scholars, academic experts and young geeks from global IT majors are working on the project that involves the union ministries of human resources development and culture, a host of academic and research institutions as well as universities in India and overseas.” The encyclopaedia will cover every aspect of the Hindu epic, including the Gita, the sermon delivered by Lord Krishna to Arjuna on the battleground,” said Ramchandra Budhilal, a Wipro software specialist associated with the project. “Since the funding is tax exempted, we hope corporates will come forward to finance it. Philanthropists, cultural bodies and charitable trusts will also be approached to fund the project,” he added.