The Mahabharata, along with the Ramayana, is one of the two epics that form the intellectual foundation of modern Hinduism. Written around the beginning of the Christian era by one or more authors, this work—thirteen times the length of the Bible in volume—is the longest poem in human history. Its main plot, however, is quite simple: the struggle for the throne between two branches of the same family, which ends with the annihilation of the principal heroes and their descendants, with the exception of one, to whom the Mahabharata is recounted.

The attached text is a rewriting, not a compilation of translated excerpts. Ilias naturally wanted to respect, as much as possible, the characteristics of the original epic text (Ilias sometimes retained the epithets attached to the heroes' names, often for reasons of scansion in the Sanskrit version, as well as metaphors, some epic exaggerations... and the vagueness regarding settings, characters' clothing, and sometimes geography... in short, the timeless nature of the text).

Ilias also had to make the main plot as understandable as possible within a limited number of pages.

Ultimately, no episode, no character in this adaptation deviates from the original... Ilias offers as a guarantee his fourteen years of study of this text and the reliability of the sources used.

The Mahabharata is divided into eighteen books (or rather phases, according to the Sanskrit term), each of very unequal length, subdivided into a varying number of chapters. Ilias divided the work into five parts, the fifth being often omitted in vernacular versions or popular adaptations (small illustrated booklets published in India in the style of American comics, adaptations for Indian television).