Editing Mahabharata (section)

=== Historical references ===
{{See also|Bhagavad Gita#Date and text}}
The earliest known references to ''bhārata'' and the [[Compound (linguistics)|compound]] ''mahābhārata'' date to the [[Aṣṭādhyāyī|''Ashtadhyayi'']]  ([[sutra]] 6.2.38)<ref>''mahān vrīhyaparāhṇagṛṣṭīṣvāsajābālabhārabhāratahailihilarauravapravṛddheṣu'', [http://sanskritdictionary.com/panini/6-2-38 'Pāṇini Research Tool', Sanskrit Dictionary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210930033631/http://sanskritdictionary.com/panini/6-2-38 |date=30 September 2021 }}</ref> of [[Pāṇini|Panini]] (''fl.'' 4th century BCE) and the ''[[Grhya Sutras|Ashvalayana Grihyasutra]]'' (3.4.4). This may mean that 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. However, it is uncertain whether Panini referred to the epic, as ''bhārata'' was also used to describe other things. [[Albrecht Weber]] mentions the [[Rigveda|Rigvedic]] tribe of the [[Bharatas (tribe)|Bharatas]], where a great person might have been designated as ''Mahā-Bhārata.'' However, as Panini also mentions figures that play a role in the ''Mahābhārata'', some parts of the epic may have already been known in his day. Another aspect is that Panini determined the [[Pitch-accent language|accent]] of ''mahā-bhārata''. However, the ''Mahābhārata'' was not recited in [[Vedic accent]].<ref>[[Johannes Bronkhorst|Bronkhorst, J.]] (2016): ''How the Brahmins Won. From Alexander to the Guptas'', Brill, p. 78-80, 97</ref>

The Greek writer [[Dio Chrysostom]] ({{Circa|40|120 CE}}) reported that [[Homer]]'s poetry was being sung even in India.<ref>Dio Chrysostom, 53.[https://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> Many scholars have taken this as evidence for the existence of a ''Māhabhārata'' 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 ultimate 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>

Several stories within the ''Mahābhārata'' took on separate identities of their own in [[Classical Sanskrit literature]]. For instance, the [[Abhijñānaśākuntalam|''Abhijnanashakuntala'']] by the Sanskrit poet [[Kalidasa]] ({{Circa|400 CE}}), believed to have lived in the era of the [[Gupta Empire|Gupta]] dynasty, is based on a story that is the precursor to the ''Mahābhārata''. The ''[[Urubhanga]]'', a Sanskrit play written by [[Bhāsa|Bhasa]] who is believed to have lived before Kalidasa, is based on the slaying of Duryodhana by the splitting of his thighs by [[Bhima]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Ghadyalpatil|first=Abhiram|date=2016-10-10|title=Maharashtra builds up a case for providing quotas to Marathas|url=https://www.livemint.com/Politics/q71WZs7MNRESfXzM7UEnKI/Maharashtra-builds-up-case-for-providing-quotas-to-Marathas.html|access-date=2020-06-07|website=Livemint|language=en|archive-date=7 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200607165207/https://www.livemint.com/Politics/q71WZs7MNRESfXzM7UEnKI/Maharashtra-builds-up-case-for-providing-quotas-to-Marathas.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The copper-plate inscription of the [[Maharaja]] Sharvanatha (533–534 CE) from Khoh ([[Satna]] District, [[Madhya Pradesh]]) describes the ''Mahābhārata'' as a "collection of 100,000 verses" (''śata-sahasri saṃhitā'').<ref name=":0" />