Ashramavasika Parva

Ashramvasik Parva (Sanskrit: आश्रमवासिक पर्व), or the "Book of Hermitage", is the fifteenth of eighteen books of the Indian epic Mahabharata. It has 3 sub-books and 92 chapters.

Ashramvasik Parva describes 15 years of prosperous rule by Yudhishthira after the great war. The Pandavas and Kauravas have lived in peace, with Yudhishthira consulting with Dhritarashtra on matters of governance. Draupadi becomes friends with Gandhari, Vyasa and other sages visit the kingdom with their fables and wisdom. The parva recites the next two years when Dhritarashtra and Gandhari take Sannyasa and live a hermit's life in a forest.

Ashramvasik Parva (book) has 3 sub-parvas (sub-books or little books) and 92 adhyayas (sections, chapters). The sub-parvas are:

The parva describes the 15 year rule by Pandavas with Yudhishthira as the king. After 15 years of peaceful co-existence, Dhritarashtra and his wife seek sannyasa (renunciation of domestic life for moksha). They leave the kingdom and head into the forest to Vyasa's hermitage. Yudhishthira attempts to dissuade them, but they insist on completing their fourth period of ashrama life. Kunti, Sanjaya and Vidura join them in the hermitage. Vidura was the first to die. After two years of hermit life, all three - Kunti, Dhritarashtra and Gandhari - too pass away, in a forest fire. The news of their death causes grief to Pandavas and citizens of the kingdom. Sage Narada appears and consoles them. Yudhishthira performs Shraddha rites for those who had died at the hermitage.

Ashramvasik Parva was composed in Sanskrit. Several translations of the book in English are available. Two translations from the 19th century, now in the public domain, are those by Kisari Mohan Ganguli and Manmatha Nath Dutt. The translations vary with each translator's interpretations.

Debroy, in 2011, notes that updated critical edition of Ashramvasik Parva, after removing about 30% of verses generally accepted so far as spurious and inserted into the original, has 3 sub-books, 47 adhyayas (chapters) and 1,061 shlokas (verses).

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