• Nagappa Gowda K

The Shanti Parvan is the twelfth and the longest of eighteen books of the epic Mahabharata. Structurally, the text appears to be complete in many respects, and actually represents the crux of the whole Mahabharata. Though composed in Sanskrit, several translations of the book in English are now available. Excluding a few critical editions, there is a general consensus regarding the contents, dialogues, characters and the total sections contained in it. The massive text brings in for dialogues a number of issues and subjects, viz, from morality to politics, and from an ordinary life to a life of spiritual savant. The book is formatted as conversations that took place between Bhishma, learned rishis, brahmins, Pandavas, elders, acharyas on the one hand, and Yudhistira on the other, after the fierce battle, and when Yudhistira was to be chapleted as the crown of Hastinapur. Baffled by the decimation of the kuru clan and close-knitted royal families of both sides in the war, Yudhistira raises a number of social, ethical and moral questions, for which, Bhishma and others clarify, thus, designing the entire book of the Shanti Parvan. Moreover, to nudge and embolden Yudhistira and to release him from discomfiture, they cited a number of stories, parables, exempla, and sayings from the ancient sacred scriptures.

Mahabharata, varna, brahmin, kshatriya, vaishya, shudra, Bhishma, Kurukshetra, Sankhya, Yoga, Kuru, Vedas, Upanishad, Bhagavadgita, Krishna, Arjuna, Bhrigu, Bharadwaj, sattva, rajas, tamas.

"The Shanti Parvan: A Text on Varna and Governance", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.2, Issue 3, page no.319-327, March-2015, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1701D01.pdf

"The Shanti Parvan: A Text on Varna and Governance", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.2, Issue 3, page no. pp319-327, March-2015, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1701D01.pdf