The dateless and deathless epic the Mahabharata occupies prime position among the valuable relicsof old-world literature of India. It is loved with untiring love by the Hindus for it has kept alive throughmany centuries the sweet memories of the ancient heroes of the land. The Mahabharata is regarded as thestore-house of political wisdom, the repository of philosophical doctrines and cosmogonic anecdotes, thecontainer of religion, mythology, mysticism, ritualism, conduct of daily life, compendium of fairy talesand fables and at the same time a good specimen of literary art like its counterpart the Ramayana. Itexercises tremendous influence in different forms and patterns of Sanskrit. Discussion of this literary workwould help us to appreciate the supreme genius of the creative artist. Here we are required to recognizeand analyses the component parts of the poetic art such as kavyas, natakas, riddles, lyrics, prose romances,fairy tales and fables and to see how far Vyasa has been successful in the attainment of poeticalexperience on such fields and evaluate the Mahabharata as a document of literary art.Keywords-Mahabharata, literary art, epic poetry, Vyasa, narrative structure, character development, Indianliterature, Sanskrit epics, aesthetics, Fairy tales.
Bhakti Bhabana Mishra (Sun,) studied this question.