Mahabharata Simplified (Hindu Mythology)

I hereby give my profound thanks to Wikipedia for their knowledge bank 'Free Encyclopedia' for enabling me to prepare this book "Mahabharata Simplified'.
The original version of the Mahabharata, written in Sanskrit language was authored by legendary Sage Veda Vyasa. It is the longest epic ever written in any language. As per Hindu belief, Sage Vyasa is a Chiranjivi (immortal).
This epic was dictated at one stretch by Veda Vyasa to Hindu God Ganesha with the consent of Lord Brahma. Vyasa and Ganesha made a mutual agreement before the creation of the epic. Ganesha wanted Vyasa to dictate the epic at a stretch and Vyasa wanted Ganesha to understand the Mahabharata before writing it.
The main subject in the Mahabharata is the Kurukshetra war between Kauravas and Pandavas for the kingdom of Hastinapur. The Kauravas were the sons of the blind king Dhritharashtra. The Pandavas were the sons of Pandu, the younger brother of Dhritharastra. The main story starts from king Shantanu and Hindu Goddess Ganga. Still I think that it is better to know a little bit about the ancestors of Shantanu which is already included in this book.
In Mahabharata Lord Krishna who is the eighth avatar of Lord Vishnu plays a vital role for the success of Pandavas in the Kurukshetra war against Kauravas. In the Kurukshetra war, Krishna took up the role of Arjuna’s charioteer. Many times Arjuna felt guilty about fighting against his teachers, own relations and friends. When Arjuna showed the reluctance to fight, Krishna tried to encourage Arjuna by giving him some important advices. These advices are known as the Bhagavad Gita. The lessons from the Bhagavad Gita are given in a separate section in this book.
The cast of the Mahabharata is vast and I have mentioned the summarized details of important characters separately. The story in this book is in the summarized form. So I request the readers to refer the characters for more information about them. Also the available family detail of each character is given in the section 'Families of Characters'.
Curses and Boons are very important in Hindu Mythology. An attempt is made to give important curses and boons in separate sections in this book.
While going through the story you may find many healthy characters of 4, 5 generations older who attended the war. You will find that there is no surprise in this when you read the specialities of 'Yuga' in the section 'Essential knowledge required'
The story part is divided into 36 chapters. Chapter glossary with titles is given from where you can go to the particular chapter with a touch.
Also a glossary of important Sanskrit words/terms used are given in detail.
Science in Mahabharata is also explained in the section 'Mahabharata and Science'.
The last section tells you about the weapons (Astra and Dhanush) used in Kurukshetra war. Astra can be compared with the modern day missiles and Dhanush can be compared with the Missile Launchers.

Thank you,
Enjoy reading,
Vijaykumar Pillai