(INTRODUCTION, TEXT WITH NILKANTHI 
                        SANSKRIT COMMENTARY, SLOKAINDEX AND 
                                                   NAME INDEX)  
The world’s biggest epic, the Mahabharata has attracted the notice of the international community to the extent no other work has. Not only is it large in volume with its. One hundred thousand stanzas in its present form, it is full of inordinate depth as well. Rightly does the text justify its name on both these counts: mahattvad bharavattvac on mahabharatam ucyate, on account of its large extent, mahattvat andits’ depth, bharavattvat (bhara=sara) the work is given the name mahab=harata. The kernel of the conflict between the Kauravas and sthe Pandavas, the members of the same caln is expanded here with the insertion of a whole lot of episodes, narratives and parables to make it assume the ponderous dimensions that make the text proclaim : yad ihasti tad anyatra yan nehasti na tat kvacit, whatever is here is found elsewhere too, whatever is not here, is found nowhere. Such is its sweep, such is the comnprehensiveness.
With all the work done on the Mahabharata, it is no longer an epic confined to India. It has become a part of world literature by being owned, adopted and adapted by different nationalities.
Nilakantha Life
As with most scholars of pre-modern India, little is known of his life. He was from a Marathi-speaking Brahmin family that had been established in a town on the banks of the river Godavari. He moved to 
Varanasi, where he studied Veda and Vedanga, Mimamsa, Srauta, Yoga, Saiva texts, Tarka, and Advaita Vedanta from several teachers, before beginning his literary career.His teachers and mentors at Varanasi, which was then a hub of śāstric learning, included his guru referred to him as Lakṣmaṇārya, and Nārāyaṇa Tīrtha. 
Mahabharata commentary
MAHABHARATA with Bhāratabhāvadīpa by Nilakantha Chaturdhara
His commentary, Bhāratabhāvadīpa, is the only one that is widely used in Sanskrit studies today.His commentary was from the viewpoint of Advaita Vedānta.
 
                                                                                                    9 VOLS SET