Gauleketo,

I am glad you asked this question, because there are stupids like BirajSharma who make pronouncements without any underlying basis, and some people believe such pronouncements and the whole saga get distorted.

So,regarding your question of whether Mahabharata war actually happened, the answer is yes. It is a historical document. However, it was written over time, written probably several times, and several stuffs in it are probably untrue. But there is no denying that a war of epic proportion happened in Delhi about five thousand years ago--and that the kings of Hastinapur (i.e. near Delhi these days) wielded such power in Indian subcontinent that kings from around the subcontinent took part in it--a total of 4 million armies (18 akshyauhini) fought with each other for 18 days until everything was over. People involved in the war were great men of their time, good people were in both sides, but make no mistake, one side was evil and the other side was good.

Mahabharata survived for other substories and philosophies within it. The most famous of which is Srimadbhagabat Gita. Bidur's idea of how a state should be run is enshrined in Bidurniti, and Bhishma's ideas of how to govern a country are recorded in shantiparba as he tells these things to Yudhisthir. The book is a fountain of knowledge, and it served as a guide to generations.

Here is one beautiful example: Gorkhalis often claimed that they fought Dharmayuddha--a war that is not fought in the night, and after the war, you give back the bodies of fallen soldier without harming them. If you read the English writers describing England-Nepal war, you see this was exactly how they fought. While in countries such as Afganisthan, after a white soldier was fallen, the Afgans used to cut his genitals and put it in his mouth, dismember part of his bodies, steal shoes, in Nepal, Gorkhalis used to start the war in the morning, and in the evening, both sides used to exchange the corpse. The way British saw it, in the whole world, they didn't see such spirit of war.