In plain words
Bhāratagītopāsana: The Mahabharata is the fifth Veda. It is a treasury of dharmas, both of this world and of the world beyond. Madhava, having set down his own theatrical props upon the stage of Bharata's field of Dharma, played the wondrous drama that is the Mahabharata. For Bharata's drama, he who assembled the characters, the dialogues and the songs was its author, its actor,