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There are many condensed versions in English of the Mahabharata of Vyasa but the only one that can be called a translation is Dr V Raghavan’s rendering which, by shortening the 100, 000 shloka epic to about 2,000 shlokas, is microscopic in its compression. My aim has been to re-tell the story of the Kurukshetra war at greater length but always in Vyasa’s own words, without simplifying, interpreting, or elaborating. I have selected only such shlokas as formed a continuous narratives, leaving out the large clutch of sub-stories, legends, peripheral digressions and other tangential material that is fascinating by itself but not absolutely relevant to the tale of the Kaurava-Pandava conflict.
Some readers may wonder why the transcreation in this book differs sometimes from the transcreation of the same passages in my continuing shloka-by-shloka complete version. This is probably due to the fact that the passages happened to be transcreated at different times, the differences being the result of changes in my understanding and appreciation of Vyasa. Diacritical marks have been omitted in the main text of the Introduction and the translation.
Table of Contents: INTRODUCTION
The Doomsday Epic
The Hard Core Narrative
Complexity of Characterisation
The Message of the Mahabharata
Translating the Mahabharata
The First Book -The Beginnings
The Second Book - The Assembly
The Third Book - The Forest
The Fourth Book - The Kingdom of Virata
The Fifth Book - War Preparations
The Sixth Book-Bhishma
The Seventh Book - Drona
The Eight Book - Karna
The Ninth Book - Shalya
The Tenth Book - Night
The eleventh Book - The Women
The Twelfth Book - Consolation
The Thirteenth Book - The Last Advice
The Fourteenth Book - The Horse Sacrifice
The Fifteenth Book - The Ashrama
The Sixteenth Book - The Battle With Clubs
The Seventeenth Book - The Ascent
The Eighteenth Book - Heaven
Glossary
BIBLIOGRAPHY
About the Author:
Born in 1880, his first book of short stories written in Urdu appeared in 1908 . The British Raj considered them seditious and all copies were publicly burnt. changing his pseudonym to Premchand, he brought out his first novel Seva-Sadan in 1918 and gradually switched from Urdu to Hindi. In Hindi literature he is honored as The Tolstoy of India in recognition of his remarkable delineation of the realities of peasant life and his relentless exposure of social superstitions and hypocrisies.
He wrote over a dozen novels - his last Godan, the only one available in English till recently, and over 300 stories, of which about 50 have been translated into English.
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