ABSTRACT
Delhi, and the great plain north of it, are associated with the most stirring events in both the ancient and modern history of India, and have witnessed the most decisive struggles for empire which have occurred south of the Himalayas. The authorship of the "Mahabharata" is ascribed to the sage Vyasa, or the compiler, and its production is, at least, as remarkable as that of the "Ramayana" already referred to. The authors told in the introduction to the poem itself that, "The son of Satyavati (Vyasa) having by penance and meditation analyzed the eternal Yeda afterwards compiled this holy history." For the Indian people it is the great war ending with Kurukshetra, which is the central event of their history. It closes for them their golden age. Before that was a world of transcendent knowledge and heroic deeds; since then intellectual decay and physical degeneracy.
