How was the Mahabharatha written?

The Mahabharatha is a very big story. In fact it is one of the biggest

stories every written. It is the story of the Pandavas and the Kauravas
and tells about how good will win over evil.

Have you ever wondered who wrote the Mahabharatha?

It is believed that the Mahabharatha was written by the great sage Veda
Vyasa. He was the grandfather of the Pandavas and the Kauravas. He
had great powers of meditation and hence lived a very long life. He lived
even after all his grandchildren the Pandavas and the Kauravas had
died.

Once when Veda Vyasa was meditating in the Himalayas, the God of
creation Lord Brahma appeared before him.

Brahma asked Veda Vyasa to write the story of Mahabharatha. Brahma
told Veda Vyasa that as he had seen the entire story and knew all the
characters intimately, he was the best person to write the story.

However Veda Vyasa was perturbed when he heard this. He knew that the
Mahabharatha was a very complex story. He could not compose and write
such a huge story at the same time. He needed somebody's help to write
the story.

Brahma asked Veda Vyasa to ask Lord Ganesha the elephant headed
God, for help.

Veda Vyasa started meditating on Lord Ganesha. When Lord Ganesha
appeared before him, Veda Vyasa saluted Lord Ganesha and told him of
the reason of his meditation.

However Lord Ganesha was a very playful God. He came up with a
mischievous idea.
He knew that Vyasa was capable of composing the epic at a very fast
pace. In order to test Vyasa, he imposed a very novel condition. Once
Veda Vyasa started narrating the epic, he would not stop. If Veda Vyasa
stopped the narration at any time, Ganesha would stop writing and walk
away from the whole project.

Veda Vyasa knew that Lord Ganesha being the God of Knowledge would
take down the narration very fast. Though Veda Vyasa was confident that
he could compose the epic at a very fast pace, he doubted whether he
could match the speed of Lord Ganesha. He wondered how he could meet
up to that condition, when he had a sudden idea.

He smiled and asked a favour of Lord Ganesha. He said that Lord
Ganesha was not to write anything unless he understood the meaning of
what was narrated to him.

Lord Ganesha smiled and accepted the condition.

Thus Veda Vyasa began narrating the story and Lord Ganesha wrote down
the story accurately.

Whenever the sage needed some rest, he would compose a stanza with a
very difficult meaning. Lord Ganesha would ponder over the meaning of
the stanza, while the sage refreshed himself, or composed more stanzas.

However after the duo began writing the story, another complication
arose.

The 'pen' with which Lord Ganesha started writing the story was not able
to keep up with the pace of the two of them. Lord Ganesha was writing
the story so fast that the pen broke! However Lord Ganesha did not stop
writing, he just broke one of his tusks and started writing with it!

That is the reason Lord Ganesha is seen in most of the pictures with only
one tusk and the broken tusk in his hand.

Thus, though the Mahabharatha was the longest story ever written, it was
written in a total of three years!