In my view, Mahabharat isn't that old, probably around 1500 years old. Its an exaggerated version of the reality. That's what it is. Its neo-Hinduism stuff, not the old Hindu stuff. I mean, the old day-Hindus were writing upanishads and stuff trying to understand the nature and the self. They didn't have time for all this story. So it has to be new, not from the time of the Vedas and the Upanishads. The epic is a link between the old Hindu society/thinking and the new thinking. So instead of seeing it as something that really happened and that it has to do something with God, see it as something that lets us understand the Hindu society in transition. Its a link to understand the old Hindu world and the New Hindu world.