Sabha Parva, also called the "Book of the Assembly Hall", is the second of eighteen books of Mahabharata. Sabha Parva traditionally has 10 sub-books and 81 chapters. The critical edition of Sabha Parva has 9 sub-books and 72 chapters. Sabha Parva starts with the description of the palace and assembly hall built by Maya, at Indraprastha. Chapter 5 of the book outlines over a hundred principles of governance and administration necessary for a kingdom and its citizens to be prosperous, virtuous and happy. The middle sub-books describe life at the court, Yudhishthira's Rajasuya Yajna that leads to the expansion of the Pandava brothers' empire. The last two sub-books describe the one vice and addiction of the virtuous king Yudhishthira - gambling. Shakuni, encouraged by evil Dhritarashtra, mocks Yudhishthira and tempts him into a game of dice. Yudhishthira bets everything and loses the game, leading to the eventual exile of the Pandavas. The book also details the principle of evil and crime against humanity, of why individuals who themselves have not been harmed must act regardless when society at large suffers systematic crime and injustice - this theory is outlined in the story of Magadha, Chapters 20 through 24, where the trio of Krishna, Arujna and Bheem slay Jarasandha.
Structure and chapters
Sabha Parva has 10 sub-parvas, and a total of 81 chapters. The following are the sub-parvas:
English Translations
Several translations of the Sanskrit book Sabha Parva in English are available. Two translations from 19th century, now in public domain, are those by Kisari Mohan Ganguli and Manmatha Nath Dutt. The translations are not consistent in parts, and vary with each translator's interpretations. For example: Chapter 5, Verses 2-9 from Sabha Parva in Sanskrit: is considered as the inventor of musical instrument Veena; in Mahabharata, he is depicted as a highly talented scholar dedicated to arts, history and knowledge. Translation by Manmatha Nath Dutt: Translation by Kisari Mohan Ganguli: The total number of original verses depend on which Sanskrit source is used, and these do not equal the total number of translated verses in each chapter, in both Ganguli and Dutt translations. Mahabharata, like many ancient Sanskrit texts, was transmitted across generations verbally, a practice that was a source of corruption of its text, deletion of verses, as well as the addition of extraneous verses over time. The structure, prose, meter and style of translations vary within chapters between the translating authors. Clay Sanskrit Library has published a 15volume set of the Mahabharata which includes a translation of Sabha Parva by Paul Wilmot. This translation is modern and uses an old manuscript of the Epic. The translation does not remove verses and chapters now widely believed to be spurious and smuggled into the Epic in 1st or 2nd millennium AD. J. A. B. van Buitenen published an annotated edition of Sabha Parva, reflecting the verses common in multiple versions of the Mahabharata. Buitenen suggests Sabha Parva had less corruption, deletion and addition of extraneous verses over time than Adi Parva. Debroy, in his 2011 overview of Mahabharata, notes that updated critical edition of Sabha Parva, with spurious and corrupted text removed, has 9 sub-books, 72 adhyayas and 2,387 shlokas. Debroy's translation of the critical edition of Sabha Parva appears in Volume 2 of his series. Sabha Parva is considered one of pivotable books among the eighteen books, the gambling and exile episode is often dramatized in modern productions of the Mahabharata.
