Adi Parva

The Adi Parva or The Book of the Beginning is the first of eighteen books of the Mahabharata. "Ādi" (आदि) in Sanskrit means "first".

Adi Parva traditionally has 19 parts and 236 adhyayas (chapters).^[1][2] The critical edition of Adi Parva has 19 parts and 225 chapters.^[3][4]

Adi Parva describes how the epic came to be recited by Ugrasrava Sauti to the assembled rishis at the Naimisha Forest after first having been narrated at the sarpasatra of Janamejaya by Vaishampayana at Taxila. It includes an outline of contents from the eighteen books, along with the book's significance. The history of the Bhāratas and the Bhrigus are described. The main part of the work covers the birth and early life of the princes of the Kuru Kingdom and the persecution of the Pandavas by Dhritarashtra.