Prakshipta

[Shrinivas Gadkari]

>||AUM namo bhagavate vAsuDevAya||
>
>
>Namaskar,
>
>I have heard that the original MahaBharata (Jayam) by
>Maharshi VedaVyasa was made up of 18000 verses where
>as today it is more than 50000 (approx.__ What is the
>exact figure?)verses.
>
>If so, what about the great Ramayana ? or the Shrutis
>themselves for that matter?
>
>Wasn't it a common practice to pass on the knowledge
>to the desciple by reciting and not by writing? Is it
>possible that some portions of our shastras got
>distorted or added to by every generation?
>
>I would like to know anybody has undertaken the
>purification work to restore it to its original form?
>How do they know which hymn or verse is prakshipta
>(added later)? How do they date the language used?
>Were there any eras in gIrvaNavANi - samskRT?
>

Namaste,

At the risk of sounding foolish, I would like to
mention the following:

maharShi vyAsa is supposed to be living even today. The texts
that we use today are probably the latest edition that has
approval of maharShi vyAsa. May be these texts were somewhat
different in their earlier editions (especially itihAsa/ purANa
portions). But as long as the current version has approval of
the maharShi, we may as well treat the current texts as good
as original.

(What about the contradictions in the texts? May be these are not
very important as far the the real message intended to be conveyed
by the texts.)

Best regards
Shrinivas Gadkari