History Literature / Mahabharata

* GoodVersusEvil: ''Every character'' in the work is an incarnation of either a ''deva'' or an ''aśura'', or at least a child thereof. Even minor ones.

* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: Subverted. Princess Kunti gets pregnant before marriage. Princess Amba, Ambika and Ambalika are kidnapped at their marriage ceremony to marry Satyavati's son. Princess Draupadi decides to marry five men at once and her life is full of suck.

Received a 94 episode television adaptation on India’s state run Doordarshan channel from 1988 to 1990. This show remains the Indian TV show with the highest ever viewership. All episodes are available on Website/YouTube with English subtitles.

Subject to countless AlternativeCharacterInterpretation. Mostly because of MoralDissonance and most characters being JerkAss or worse, or some characters being [[YouCantFightFate Screwed by Destiny]]. Countless adaptations have taken place; this epic is often compared to the works of Creator/{{Homer}}.

* TogetherInDeath: Combined with AscendedToAHigherPlainOfExistence, it's the ultimate fate of the feuding Pandavas and Kauravas; stuck together in paradise for eternity.

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: The Kurushetra War can be avoided in several ways [[ForgoneConclusion alas...]]

* DeadPanSnarker: Karna. To quote Yuddhistira, he was "one whose teeth are spears and arrows and whose tongue is a sword".

** you can't really blame her. she was humiliated by the other half of the pandava family. the bad half. if she was a warrior or knew how to defend herself she would've took her honor back from the kuravas. but she doesn't know how to fight. so she leaves it to her husbands who took her honor back.

** Draupadi, the Pandavas's wife, in the Mahabharata yearned for a husband in her previous life. She wanted her husband to be as strong as Vayu, as talented as Indra, as moral as Dharma and as beautiful as the Ashwini twins. She forgot to specify that she wanted * one husband* . As a result, in her next incarnation, she married five men and was the wife of five husbands simultaneously. Her qualities of an ideal husband were satisfied in that the five princes were conceived by Kunti with the aid of five different gods (Bhima from Vayu, Arjuna from Indra, Yuddhistira from Dharma, and Nakula and Sahadev from the Ashwins).

** Striparva (or the Chapter of the women) where Abhimanyu's widowed teenage wife weeps as she tries to assemble his cut bodyparts and pleads with her love to remember her in heaven is one.

* ScrewTheRulesTheyBrokeThemFirst: The Pandavas justify their increasing deviation from the rules of warfare with the way Abimaniyu was unlawfully overwhelmed by Kaurava warriors.

Received a 94 episode television adaptation on India’s state run Doordarshan channel from 1988 to 1990. This show remains the Indian TV show with the highest ever viewership. All episodes are available on YouTube with English subtitles.

* ArtificialHuman: There are a lot of ArtificialHumans in the Mahabharata which might serve as a metaphor for their fierce character (as the logic goes: if they are made, not born, that explains their awesome character). The Kauravas, the sons of Queen Gandhari and King Dhritarastra were born artificially.

'''The Pandavas''' are five brothers, plus Draupadi, their wife; and Krishna, [[GodInHumanForm the eight incarnation of Vishnu]].

* TryingToCatchMeFightingDirty: The war becomes increasingly dirty and in violation of the laws of war as it goes on. The Pandavas break the laws of war in order to defeat Karna (see KickThemWhileTheyAreDown) and Duryodhana. With Duryodhana, Bhima kills him by breaking his thigh, a violation of the code as it counts as hitting below the belt.

* BadassGrandpa: Bhishma is one of the best examples in Hindu mythology. He was absolutely invincible on the battlefield and the Pandavas had to ask '''him''' for advice on how to defeat him. ( He promised them that they could always meet him for advice after sunset, and he ''kept'' his promises. ) Even after being impaled on a ''bed of arrows'' he had the grace to choose the time of his death, and he lay there for days to wait for time which was considered holy(the start of the period when the length of nights start reducing and length of days start increasing i.e around middle of January) before he finally decided to leave the world.

** Krishna does all that he can to prevent a war between the Pandavas and Kauravas by serving as an emissary. Even so, Gandhari points out that he could have stopped it outright by using his full powers as an avatar and curses him for not doing that when the war is over and no one has truly won.

* AllClothUnravels: Used by Krishna to save Draupadi from being gang-raped by her own in-laws.

* MrFanservice: Arjuna. Too many women fall for him during his travels.
%%** Krishna. Need I say more?
%%Yes. Yes, you need say more. This is a Administrivia/ZeroContextExample.

* MySisterIsOffLimits: {{Inverted}}. Krishna is perfectly happy to have Arjun fall in love with his sister Subhadra. He goes out of his way to encourage Arjun to [[AbductionIsLove abduct]] her, as the quickest way to put an end to all arguments with his brother about whether Subhadra should be married to some other prince.

%%Yes. Yes, you need say more. This is a ZeroContextExample.

* LawfulStupid: Many characters in the epic come off this way at times, due to large amounts of HonorBeforeReason. Many of the Kaurava allies love the Pandavas and end up fighting against them due to technicalities of vows they made, ultimately dying pointlessly.

* TragicVillain: Poor Karna...
* UndyingLoyalty: Karna ought to be the saint of this trope. Even after being told the Pandavas are his brothers, being offered the throne and every other birthright he had been denied, and knowing that much of what Duryodhana does is wrong, Karna still supports him because Duryodhana stood by his side when no one else did. This isn't a one way street either:
** There's a story that Karna was playing a game once with Duryodhana's wife, and she was losing badly. When she saw her husband coming, she stood up to greet him. Thinking she was running away to avoid admitting defeat, he playfully grabbed her and they ended up wrestling into a very... awkward position, with her necklace of pearls snapping and flying everywhere. Instead of thinking the worst or flying into a temper as others would have, he simply asked, "Do you want to me to just pick up the pearls, or should I string them together as well?" He trusted both of them to know nothing happenned
** Another example (twofold actually) was after Karna's death. Duryodhana had not shed a single tear upon the deaths of his brothers and sons but broke down completely when he learned Karna had been killed. And he said that had he known that Karna was not just his best friend, [[spoiler: but his older brother]], he would have happily given the throne to him and served him faithfully, something that he would never have done for Yuddhistra.

* BadassDriver: [[{{God}} Krishna]], who decides to be Arjuna's charioteer.

* TheHighQueen: Draupadi. She is a bit Yandere, a bit DefrostingIceQueen, a bit LadyMacbeth and a bit of everything else. It's hard to classify her. She vows revenge on the Kauravas for [[BreakTheCutie her humiliation]] and gets it but in the process loses [[spoiler:her five children, her father and both her brothers]].
* HotBlooded: Karna. It's InTheBlood, of course. He seeks heroic skills and exploits, but also can't keep his mouth shut when he has something to say. Karna did not only offended Draupadi in [[WhosLaughingNow the dice incident]], but also apparently annoyed the hell out of Bhishma, extinguishing any trace of respect Bhishma could ever have for his warrior's abilities, which led to AchillesInHisTent situation.