Ramesh Menon’s rendering of the Mahabharata in two volumes (Rupa & Co) brings the epic alive for contemporary readers in modern, lyrical prose. Tehelka begins a weekly serialisation of this work

Three hundred and sixty-five human years make one year of the Devas and the Pitrs, the Gods and the ancestors.

Four are the ages in the land of Bharata: the krita, treta, dwapara and kali. The krita yuga lasts for 4800 divine years, the treta for 3600, the dwapara for 2400 and the kali for 1200; and, then, another krita begins.

The krita or satya yuga is an age of purity; it is sinless. Dharma, righteousness, is perfect and walks on four feet in the krita. However, from the treta yuga, adharma, evil, comes to the world and the very fabric of time begins to decay. Finally, the kali yuga, the fourth age, is almost entirely corrupt, with dharma barely surviving, hobbling on one foot.

A chaturyuga, a cycle of four ages, is 12,000 divine years, or 365 x 12,000 human years long. Seventy-one chaturyugas make a manvantara; fourteen manvantaras, a kalpa. A kalpa of the thousand chaturyugas, 12 million divine years, is one day of Brahma, the creator.

8,000 Brahma years make one Brahma yuga; 1,000 Brahma yugas make a savana and Brahma’s life is 3,003 savanas long. One day of Mahavishnu is the lifetime of Brahma…’

The Great War, the Mahabharata, is fought at the very end of a dwapara yuga, the third age, just before the sinister kali yuga begins. Once, in time out of mind, the Gods created the kshatriyas to establish dharma, justice, in an anarchic world. Most royal kshatriya bloodlines can be traced back to the Devas themselves: in the most ancient days, the Gods came freely to the earth. But in time, the noble race of warrior kings has grown arrogant and greedy. By the end of the dwapara yuga, they have become tyrants, and they are still practically invincible.

Krishna, the Avatara, and his cousins, the Pandavas, are born to destroy the power of the kshatriyas of Bharatavarsha (India) forever. This is what the Mahabharata yuddha, the war on the crack of the ages, accomplishes; and thus, ushers in the kali yuga, modern times. By the Hindu calendar, the Great War was fought some five thousand years ago.

The House of Kuru is one of the oldest and noblest royal houses. It traces its origins to Soma Deva, the Moon God. Timeless Hastinapura, the city of elephants, is the capital of the Kuru kingdom and one great king after another has ruled from here. The legend of the Mahabharata begins with King Shantanu of the Kurus, and how a son is born to him. But that prince, Devavrata, will never sit upon his father’s throne. Instead, Shantanu’s blind grandson, Dhritarashtra, will become king.