Bhishma Parva
sixth book of the Mahabharata
The Bhishma Parva (Sanskrit: भीष्म पर्व) ("Book of Bhishma") is the sixth of the eighteen parvas (books) of the Indian epic Mahabharata. It has 4 sub-books and 124 chapters.
The Bhishma Parva describes the first 10 days of the 18-day Kurukshetra War and its consequences. It recites the story of Bhishma, the commander in chief of the Kauravan armies, who is fatally injured and loses his ability to lead.
This book of the Mahabharata includes the widely studied Bhagavad Gita, sometimes referred to as Gita, or The Song of the Lord, or The Celestial Song. Chapters of the Bhagavad Gita describe Arjuna's questioning of the purpose of war, the ultimate effects of violence, and the meaning of life. Arjuna's doubts and metaphysical questions are answered by Krishna. Other treatises in the Bhishma Parva include the just war theory in ancient India, as well as strategies and tactics. The book describes the deaths of Uttar (brother-in-law of Abhimanyu and brother of Uttara), the wife of Abhimanyu, and also Bhishma's fall, respectively on the 1st and 10th days of the war. Karna did not fight in these first ten days, on Bhishma's orders.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Bhishma Parva” as sixth book of the Mahabharata. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as sixth book of the Mahabharata. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2472912. VIAF identifies the subject as 175588465. The Library of Congress control number is no93027654. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bhishma Parva” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.