---
type: Reference
title: "Mahābhārata"
description: "The great epic and dharma-encyclopedia; source of ahiṃsā paramo dharmaḥ, the Anuśāsana Parva's teaching on dāna, and the hard cases that test svadharma."
darshana:
  - pan-dharmic (sādhāraṇa-dharma)
tags:
  - primary-source
  - itihasa
  - smriti
timestamp: "2026-06-25"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Mahābhārata

## What It Is

The great epic (itihāsa) attributed to Vyāsa, and the tradition's largest repository of dharma teaching, containing the Bhagavad Gītā within it. Its didactic books, especially the Śānti Parva and Anuśāsana Parva, treat dharma at length: the maxim ahiṃsā paramo dharmaḥ (non-harm is the highest dharma) and its careful qualification for the kṣatriya; an extended teaching on dāna, its forms, recipients, and the merit of gupta-dāna; and the recurring dictum that dharma is subtle (sūkṣma), dramatized in the moral dilemmas of the narrative where duties collide.

## Why It Matters Here

A primary witness for ahimsa (the highest-dharma maxim held with the warrior's duty), dana (the Anuśāsana Parva teaching), and svadharma (the epic's hard cases). Its insistence that dharma is subtle supports the bundle's refusal to reduce dharmic ethics to a flat rulebook.
