The Mahabharata’s account of the deluge and Manu

Record summary

The Mahabharata includes flood-related material in the Markandeya sections, including accounts of cosmic dissolution and Manu’s survival traditions. Nineteenth-century translations, notably those issued during the period of colonial Indological scholarship, made these episodes available for comparison with Puranic and biblical deluge narratives. The lead is valuable because the epic presents catastrophe within a broader framework of cyclical time, ascetic power, and moral decline. Exact chapter numbering varies by recension and translation, so a researcher should work from a critical Sanskrit edition.