The Mahābhārata survives not as a single, fixed book, but as a family of related texts transmitted through different regions and lineages. Scholars commonly speak of distinct recensions, especially a Northern recension preserved in manuscripts from North India and Nepal, and a Southern recension preserved in South Indian manuscripts. There is also recognition of a Western or Gujarati stream of transmission in some manuscript traditions. These recensions share the same overarching story of the Kuru dynasty and the great war, yet they diverge in scale, detail, and emphasis, reflecting centuries of living interaction between text, community, and region.

The differences are striking when one looks at length and content. Manuscripts range roughly between about seventy‑five thousand and one hundred twenty‑five thousand verses, with some traditions describing the epic as having one hundred thousand verses while actual counts vary. The Southern recension is often described as longer, with additional episodes, expanded narratives, and more supplementary or didactic material, while Northern manuscripts tend to be comparatively concise. In some traditions, the Northern recension is instead seen as the longer one, with extra moral stories, philosophical passages, and local legends, which shows how fluid the textual history can appear from different scholarly angles. Across recensions, one finds variations in individual verses, alternative tellings of certain events, and shifts in the portrayal of figures such as Kṛṣṇa, Arjuna, and Karṇa.

These textual streams also differ in structure and regional coloring. While the core parvans and the central narrative arc remain recognizable, the arrangement and inclusion of sub‑episodes can vary, as can the presence of extended genealogies, pilgrimage lists, and additional tales attached to major books like the Śānti and Anuśāsana Parvas. Regional influences are visible in the incorporation of local cultural elements, place names, and folk narratives, as well as in differing emphases on philosophical teachings, ritual descriptions, and devotional tones. In some strands, bhakti elements directed toward deities such as Kṛṣṇa or Śiva are more pronounced, whereas others preserve a more neutral or archaic flavor.

Against this backdrop, the so‑called Critical Edition prepared at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute represents a distinct kind of witness. It is not a traditional recension, but a scholarly reconstruction based on the comparison of a large number of manuscripts from various regions. Its editors sought to approximate the earliest recoverable core by including verses widely supported across the manuscript tradition and treating more localized or clearly secondary material as later additions. The resulting text is shorter than many traditional printed versions, omitting or abbreviating some popular episodes and devotional expansions, and it stands as a kind of distilled axis around which the diverse living Mahābhāratas can be contemplated.