Ved Vyas's and not B.R. Chopra's

B.R. Chopra's Mahabharat was shown a few times in some channels. I watched one of those times (I think when I watched it was on Zee TV, though not sure). I missed some of episodes but saw most of them.

I am writing this post because I find that many people are comparing Ekta's Mahabharat with B.R. Chopra's and treating B.R. Chopra's Mahabharat as fully authentic. Please do not do so. If you really want to see how close this serial is with the epic, then compare with Mahabharat epic authored by Ved Vyas and not with B.R. Chopra's Mahabharat serial. This is because, even though B.R. Chopra's Mahabharat was very close to the epic, it differed significantly in some respects from the epic.

Take two examples

1. During rajsuya yajna, Yudhisthir was wondering whom to worship first. B.R. Chopra's Mahabharat showed that Bhism Pitamah suggested Krishna's name. But, according to Ved Vyas's Mahabharat, it was Sahdev, who made this suggestion.

2. In B.R. Chopra's Mahabharat, it was shown that Bhim is not happy when Krishna is going to convince Duryodhan to avoid war. He cites his oath of killing Duryodhan and Duhsasan. At this, Krishna gets angry and says that peace is important.

But the epic Mahabharat by Ved Vyas says that Bhim himself requests Krishn to try his best that war is avoided. Krishn laughs at Bhim and says that Bhim is afraid of Duryodhan. Bhim gets angry and says that he is never afraid, he can easily defeat Kauravas. He wants war to be avoided because many people, who are not our enemies, will also be killed.

Then Krishn says that he has full faith in Bhim's strength. But if Duryodhan does not agree, then war is inevitable. At that time, if Bhim continues to have compassion, it will not be good for Pandava army. That is why he provoked Bhim.

There are some more examples.

What are your thoughts on this?

wow, i do wish i had your knowledge of the original to comment informatively. unfortunately, my knowledge too seems to have come from BR Chopra's version and the amar chitra kathas that showed everyone in golden crowns and gold and pearl jewellery.

one thing that did strike me odd yesterday was the mughal looking large building in the background. i hope i was mistaken there...

Great post brother! 👏

In fact, even I was going to post something along these lines, because I know of a few examples also where the BR Chopra version deviated from the book -

(1) Unlike what was shown in the BR Chopra version, it was NOT just Yudhistir and Arjun that approached Bhishma Pitamah on the 9th night of the war to ask how to remove him from battle - it was ALL 5 Pandavas AND Lord Krishna that went.

(2) The BR Chopra version showed Duryodhan finding out at the start of the 10th day that Bhishma Pitamah will not fight against Shikhandi - actually, Bhishma Pitamah made that clear to Duryodhan at the start of the war!

(3) After Prince Dhristadyumna of Panchal beheaded Aarcharya Drona (via unfair means), from the Pandav army, Yadav warrior Satyaki protested and wanted to whup Dhristadyumna - the BR Chopra version made out that Arjun was the one that charged at the prince of Panchal!

(4) Bheem's son Ghatotkach was involved in the great war from the start... but the BR Chopra version made out that the he only turned up after Abhimanyu was slain!

(5) In the Virata war, the BR Chopra version showed Arjun's Samohana weapon putting the entire Hastinapur army to sleep and therefore unable to fight - that was innacurate. Whilst the other warriors all got separated from their senses, Bhishma Pitamah was NOT affected by it, because He knew how to counter it... and so him and Arjun continued to fight after the rest of the Kuru warriors were temporerily unconscious.

(6) Speaking of the Virata war, the BR Chopra version had Arjun telling Princess Uttara (before the war) that he would not bring back the white clothing from Aacharya Drona and Aacharya Kripa... but the book has Arjun instructing Prince Uttar to indeed take the white clothes from the two Gurus!

(7) Bhishma Pitamah lived on his bed of arrows for over 50 days after the war had finished. One of the main reasons for this was that He was waiting for sun to set in the northern declension (until that point, it was in the southern declension which was considered inauspicious)... but of course, the BR Chopra version totally missed that important thing out!


Those are just the ones that instantly come to my mind... I'm sure that there are many more examples. This is a very good topic... if anyone can remember more examples, please do share them 😊

God bless.

Since it has been many years, I do not remember everything from B.R. Chopra's Mahabharat and moreover I missed some of episodes.

thanks avinash and ravi 4 ur comments

though b.r chopra had made some mistake but his mahabharat was very near to authentic. ppl hv already accepted that mahabharat to be authentic and best. and its a normal human tendency to compare. so comparison is obvious. i think very few of us have read mahabharat by ved vyash and thus the only best source 4 them is b.r chopra's mahabharat.

besides if u want to watch brc mb then pm me i will give u the link 4rm whr u can watch 😊

Originally posted by: RaviMalhotra69

(6) Speaking of the Virata war, the BR Chopra version had Arjun telling Princess Uttara (before the war) that he would not bring back the white clothing from Aacharya Drona and Aacharya Kripa... but the book has Arjun instructing Prince Uttar to indeed take the white clothes from the two Gurus!

Yes, that is correct. As told by Arjun, prince Uttar Kumar collected white garments of Drona and Kripa, yellow ones of Karna, blue ones of Duryodhan and blue ones of Ashwatthama. Arjun told Uttar not to go near Bhism because he knew that Bhism had the knowledge of countering sammohana weapon.

you see avinash, we are far from the epic war scene as fo yet all we are comparing is costume,s et and draupadi, so you cannot tell we are treating BRS as authentic, moreover it was shown earlier, it made a mark on us, it had critical acclaim, it made history, so comparison is inveitable
personally i take everything taht comes, i am trying to like thsi show to, and infact i like the modern way its been treated, but still its your heart whihc refuses to listen
i have seen BRS version full and over and over again, it was a weekly versiona dn so few details have been ommited,BR did not give vedvyas that importance, tehre were many suhc things, but as many of us haven't got the knowledge of original one, so we are bound to BR s as a stnd one

The BR Chopra version was overall faithful to the book 👍🏼 But yeah, it wasn't 100% perfect either... but then again, nothing is 😆

Avinash, you're spot on about the colour of the clothing brother! 👏

Off the top of my head, I think that points to another deviation in BR Chopra's Mahabharat (with respect to the book) -

If memory serves me correct, Karna was not shown wearing yellow in the BRC version! I think that Karna was shown there to be wearing some sort of pink colour instead 😕

I can't remember for certain... but I do remember that Ashwatthama was correctly shown to be wearing blue 👏

I remember that the book said that Aacharya Kripa wore tiger skin... but the BRC version never showed that either.

God bless.

i have'nt read or watched mahabharat completely 😛
this one would be great to watch no matter how and what twists they give as per required! as long as it interests me and does not bore im watching it coz i like everything about the first episode right now!!

and yes that clarification made regarding comparisons 👏
it is mahabharat in ekta's style 😛