Mahabharata

The Mahabharata (; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India. The other is the Ramayana. It tells of issues between two groups of cousins in the Kurukshetra War. It also tells the fates of the Kaurava and the Pandava princes and their successors.
The Mahabharata includes philosophical and devotional material. It has a discussion of the four "goals of life" or purusartha (12.161). The stories in the Mahabharata include the Bhagavad Gita, the story of Damayanti, the story of Shakuntala, the story of Pururava and Urvashi, the story of Savitri and Satyavan, the story of Kacha and Devyani and the story of Rishyasringa. It also has a shortened version of the Ramayana.
The Mahabharata is normally said to be written by Vyasa. Most of it was probably put together between the 3rd century BCE and the 3rd century CE. The oldest parts o it are not much older than around 400 BCE. The text probably became in its final form by the early Gupta period (c. 4th century CE).
The Mahabharata is the longest epic poem known. It has been said to be "the longest poem ever written". Its longest version has over 100,000 sloka or over 200,000 individual verse lines. It also has and long sections of prose. The Mahabharata has about 1.8 million words in total. It is about ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined, It is about four times the length of the Ramayana. The importance of the Mahabharata to world civilization has been compared to that of the Bible, the Quran, the works of Homer, Greek drama, or the works of William Shakespeare. It is sometimes called the fifth Veda.
These sections deal with a number of topics such as a number of aspects of Hinduism, Hindu mythology, ethics, and the Hindu way of life. There is also a nineteenth section named Harivamsha. The Bhagavadgita, a dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna, is a part of the Mahabharata.
Sage Vyasa taught this epic to his son Suka and his students Vaisampayana and others. King Janamejaya, the son of Parikshit and grandson of the heroes of the epic, performed a great sacrifice (yajna). The epic was retold by Vaisampayana to Janamejaya at the advice of Vyasa. Later on, the other sage Suta retold the Mahabharata similar to Vaisampayana to Janamejaya, to Saunaka and others, during a sacrifice performed by Saunaka in Naimisaranya, which is near Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh.
Parvas
Noted below are few words about the eighteen sections of the Mahabharata. In Mahabharata, these sections are called parvan. A parvan means a book. The names of all parvas or books of the Mahabharata are noted below.
The Pandavas
Kunti wants to fulfil her maternal expectations, but she has no man. She recollects the moment when her first son Karna was conceived from an arcane mantra which had given her once. Surya, the Sun God, appeared to her then. Thus, Kunti remembers her secret mantra and gives birth to the three sons - Yudhistra, Bhima and Arjuna. Yudhisthira's father was god Yama, Bhima's father was god Vayu, and Arjuna's father was Indra.
Madri, the second wife of Pandu, gave birth to two other sons - the twins, whose fathers were Ashwins (divine twins). Madri's sons are Nakula and Sahadeva.
These all are called the five Pandavas.
Donation for it's compilation
In the year 1932, The Bhandarkar oriental research institute located in Pune, needed money for the compilation and publication of the Holy Mahabharata and a guest house. A formal request was made to the seventh Nizam of Hyderabad State, Mir Osman Ali Khan who in no time released a farman to donate Rs.1000 per year for a period of 11 years.
Whereas, Rs. 50,000 was offered for the guest which is known as "Nizam guest house".
Related page
Manipur of Odisha
More information
Mahabharata - The Complete Translation of Vyasa Mahabharata and Stories from Mahabharata
Some nice info on Hinduism including the Mahabharata
References
4th-century books