Evil in the Mahabharata

Good and evil, loyalty and treachery, faith and doubt, honour and ignominy---the Mahabharata has served as a primer for codes of conduct of generations of Hindus. Over time, the epic has also fascinated those who love a tale well told. In its telling, however, the story has lost much of its richness and nuance, and the characters have become one-dimenssional cut-outs---either starkly good or irredeemably evil.