Parva (parva)

A parva is a book or major division of the Mahabharata, of which there are eighteen, from the Adi Parva of beginnings to the Svargarohana Parva of the ascent to heaven. The number matches the eighteen days of the war, the eighteen chapters of the Bhagavad Gita and the eighteen armies that fought, a repetition the epic clearly enjoys. Each parva is further divided into sub-parvas, so that a named section such as the Yaksha Prashna or the Vidura Niti sits inside a larger book.