Sabha-parva, the second book of the Sanskrit epic Mahābhārata attributed to Vyāsa, recounts the glittering court life and the moral unraveling that precipitates the epic’s central war. It describes Maya’s wondrous assembly hall at Indraprastha, Yudhiṣṭhira’s royal consecration, and the fatal dice-game that strips the Pāṇḍavas of kingdom and dignity—most painfully, Draupadī’s public humiliation. Interwoven are treatises on kingship, law and courtly duty, vivid descriptions of art and architecture, and searing debates on dharma, honor and justice. Today Sabha-parva resonates as a study of concentrated power, political ethics, gendered injustice and the social costs of vice, offering timeless cautionary lessons for leadership, law and public life.