Time & Destiny in the Mahabharata:- The Power of Time & Fate-: As early as the Rg Veda, there is evidence of a prcoccupation with the destructive aspect of time. Among the most poetic of the Rg Vedic hymns are those dedicated to Usas, the personificationof dawn. According to the texe, Usas, who with her daily arrival epitomizes the passage of time, “destroys human generations.”_1 & shortens the life of human._2 Later in the Brahmanas, the sacrificer who wanted to attain immortality had to overcome or “obtain” the year,-3 which was the basic unit of time & its principal manifestion, & which was now sometimes said to be death itself.4 By the time of the Mahabharata, however, time had take on an even more prominent, & more ominous role. Although the hymns to Usas & the later exhortations of the Brahmanas to overcome the year already a preoccupation with human decay & death, this concern apparently did not the basic life-affirming attitudes. By contrast, the Mahabharata views time as an oppressive, overpowering force that relentlessly pushes all beings towards death, & is inextricably intertwined with the uncontrollable force of destiny. So intense is the concern with its destructive nature, that time virtually becomes a synonym of death & destruction. (Motilal Banarsidass.)