మహాభారతం: కూర్పుల మధ్య తేడాలు

 

===Historical references===

The earliest known references to the Mahābhārata and its core ''Bhārata'' date to the ''[[Ashtadhyayi|Aṣṭādhyāyī]]'' ([[sutra]] 6.2.38) of [[Pāṇini]] (''fl.'' 4th century BCE) and in the ''[[Grhya Sutras|Aśvalāyana Gṛhyasūtra]]'' (3.4.4). This may mean the core 24,000 verses, known as the ''Bhārata'', as well as an early version of the extended ''Mahābhārata'', were composed by the 4th century BCE. A report by the Greek writer [[Dio Chrysostom]] (c. 40 - c. 120 CE) about [[Homer]]'s poetry being sung even in India<ref>Dio Chrysostom, 53.[http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dio_Chrysostom/Discourses/53*.html#6 6]-7, trans. H. Lamar Crosby, [[Loeb Classical Library]], 1946, vol. 4, p. 363.</ref> seems to imply that the ''[[Iliad]]'' had been translated into Sanskrit. However, Indian scholars have, in general, taken this as evidence for the existence of a Mahābhārata at this date, whose episodes Dio or his sources identify with the story of the ''Iliad''.<ref>[[Christian Lassen]], in his ''Indische Alterthumskunde'', supposed that the reference is ultimately to Dhritarashtra's sorrows, the laments of Gandhari and Draupadi, and the valor of Arjuna and Suyodhana or Karna (cited approvingly in [[Maximilian Wolfgang Duncker|Max Duncker]], ''The History of Antiquity'' (trans. [[Evelyn Abbott]], London 1880), vol. 4, [https://books.google.com/books?id=gIkBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA81 p. 81]). This interpretation is endorsed in such standard references as [[Albrecht Weber]]'s ''History of Indian Literature'' but has sometimes been repeated as fact instead of as interpretation.</ref>