Shloka 102
अनुक्रमणिकाध्यायः (Anukramaṇikā Adhyāya) — Invocation, Narrator Frame, and Textual Scope
चतुर्विशतिसाहस्रीं चक्रे भारतसंहिताम्,तदनन्तर व्यासजीने उपाख्यानभागको छोड़कर चौबीस हजार श्लोकोंकी भारतसंहिता बनायी; जिसे विद्वान् पुरुष भारत कहते हैं। इसके पश्चात् महर्षिने पुनः पर्वसहित ग्रन्थमें वर्णित वृत्तान्तोंकी अनुक्रमणिका (सूची)-का एक संक्षिप्त अध्याय बनाया, जिसमें केवल डेढ़ सौ श्लोक हैं। व्यासजीने सबसे पहले अपने पुत्र शुकदेवजीको इस महाभारत-ग्रन्थका अध्ययन कराया
caturviśatisāhasrīṃ cakre bhāratasahitām | tad-anantaraṃ vyāsajī ne upākhyānabhāgako choḍakara caturviṃśati-sahasra-ślokāṃ bhārata-saṃhitāṃ banāyī; yāṃ vidvān-puruṣā bhārata iti vadanti | tataḥ paścāt maharṣiṇā punaḥ parva-sahita-granthe varṇita-vṛttāntānām anukramaṇikāyāḥ (sūcīyāḥ) ekaḥ saṃkṣipta-adhyāyaḥ kṛtaḥ, yasmin kevalaṃ śata-pañcāśat ślokāḥ santi | vyāsajī ne sarvaprathamaṃ sva-putraṃ śukadevajīṃ imaṃ mahābhārata-granthaṃ adhyāpayām āsa |
Vyāsa composed the Bhārata compendium in twenty-four thousand verses. After that, setting aside the subsidiary tales (upākhyānas), he shaped a Bhārata-saṃhitā of twenty-four thousand ślokas—what learned people call “Bhārata.” Thereupon the sage again prepared a brief chapter serving as an index (anukramaṇikā) to the events described in the work together with its books (parvans), consisting of only one hundred and fifty verses. Vyāsa first taught this Mahābhārata text to his own son, Śukadeva.
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the disciplined preservation of sacred history: a great work is carefully compiled, organized (with an index), and transmitted through qualified teaching—showing that knowledge is safeguarded by structure, scholarship, and lineage.
The text describes Vyāsa’s editorial work on the Mahābhārata—fixing a twenty-four-thousand-verse Bhārata, composing a concise anukramaṇikā (contents/index) of 150 verses, and then initiating transmission by teaching the work first to his son Śukadeva.