The Mahabharata

Rating:
Summary: Very Readable
Review: A few years ago I read the Bhagavad-Gita for a religious studies class and loved it. Although I knew it was part of a larger work called the Mahabharata, I remained largely ignorant of the details of this latter work until recently. When I found out that the actual unabridged Mahabharata was a poem in excess of 2000 pages I decided to opt for an abridged version. I checked out various reviews and versions until I stumbled on this very concise, modern and readable one by Narasimhan.

Now I don't claim to know much about The Mahabharata except for what I've read in this book. But I can say that this prose abridgement, at a mere 215 pages, was much more pleasant than I had expected. In fact, I read the whole thing in about 3 or 4 sittings without a hitch! Not too bad for what is, in its original form, the longest epic poem in any language. What makes all this possible is Narasimhan's simple and crystal clear writing. Everything except for the names is in modern, plain English. And the names are somewhat of an initial burden to the unsuspecting reader. In fact, the majority of the time I wouldn't bother to pronounce them but just thought "Oh yes, and this is the guy that did such and such and whose name I cannot hope to pronounce because it begins with 9 consecutive consonants and has numerous punctuational appendages that I have never seen before." Actually I guess it isn't all that bad. And once you know who's who the rest of the story is pretty easy to follow. The clarity of this translation, however, comes with a price.

While reading this book I couldn't help but feel that I was missing a large part of the real Mahabharata. Of course this is to be expected with a book that is 1/8 the original in length. Indeed, Narasimhan explains in the preface that the book is designed to be a straightforward narrative account of The Mahabharata and thus omits nearly all material that does not directly contribute to the advancement of the physical storyline. And apparently these omissions constitute a large portion of the more philosophical and theological exposition contained within the original. Thus I think Narasimhan could have more accurately titled his book "The Mahabharata: A Summary." Nevertheless, I feel much better informed about what the Mahabharata is, and at least I now know the basic plot. And if I ever decide to attempt the original I won't be going in totally blindly.

For those who don't know the story, the Mahabharata is mainly about two families of feuding cousins named the Pandavas and the Kauravas. The climax of the whole thing is a massive battle (if my reading is correct, 40,000 chariots, 200,000 horses, 400,000 soldiers, and 60,000 elephants!) between the two families over--what else--control of land. So...what did I think of the story itself? It was interesting: at times exciting, sometimes odd, unbelievable, exaggerated, or downright dull. But all stories, especially epics of this size and scope, are expected to involve a certain amount of all of these. I most enjoyed the part of the story where the Pandavas are exiled and spend their days in the forest. Arjuna's journey to see Indra and acquire weapons is also curiously interesting. The gearing up for and the beginning of the battle was another of my favorite parts. But the main struggle drew on and on...and Arjuna and Bhima and Bhishma and so and so kept firing a gazillion arrows per second, even using these so called "celestial weapons" (which I took to be arrows with certain divine powers) and discharging fireballs the size of palaces and lightning bolts as if they were gods. Actually many of them are gods, or at least incarnations of gods, so I guess this kind of behavior is excusable.

This is, however, a mythological story at its core so events that border on the unbelievable (here they do more than border) are to be expected. But more importantly we should take these stories seriously because of the insight they offer into human nature. I don't know much about mythology or its psychological importance but the kind of events and descriptions we see in The Mahabharata are not unique (in a very broad sense) to Hindu culture or religion. All cultures and people have their stories, even if they are exaggerated or taken to be true by blind faith. We modern sophisticates may occasionally scoff at what we consider blatantly unbelievable (and therefore "useless and irrelevant") in the face of modern science, skepticism and general ideology. But I cannot help but feel doubtful of our ability to live without these stories. In some strange, perhaps mysterious, way they make us feel more human and more divine and more connected to each other.

Rating:
Summary: Very Readable
Review: A few years ago I read the Bhagavad-Gita for a religious studies class and loved it. Although I knew it was part of a larger work called the Mahabharata, I remained largely ignorant of the details of this latter work until recently. When I found out that the actual unabridged Mahabharata was a poem in excess of 2000 pages I decided to opt for an abridged version. I checked out various reviews and versions until I stumbled on this very concise, modern and readable one by Narasimhan.

Now I don't claim to know much about The Mahabharata except for what I've read in this book. But I can say that this prose abridgement, at a mere 215 pages, was much more pleasant than I had expected. In fact, I read the whole thing in about 3 or 4 sittings without a hitch! Not too bad for what is, in its original form, the longest epic poem in any language. What makes all this possible is Narasimhan's simple and crystal clear writing. Everything except for the names is in modern, plain English. And the names are somewhat of an initial burden to the unsuspecting reader. In fact, the majority of the time I wouldn't bother to pronounce them but just thought "Oh yes, and this is the guy that did such and such and whose name I cannot hope to pronounce because it begins with 9 consecutive consonants and has numerous punctuational appendages that I have never seen before." Actually I guess it isn't all that bad. And once you know who's who the rest of the story is pretty easy to follow. The clarity of this translation, however, comes with a price.

While reading this book I couldn't help but feel that I was missing a large part of the real Mahabharata. Of course this is to be expected with a book that is 1/8 the original in length. Indeed, Narasimhan explains in the preface that the book is designed to be a straightforward narrative account of The Mahabharata and thus omits nearly all material that does not directly contribute to the advancement of the physical storyline. And apparently these omissions constitute a large portion of the more philosophical and theological exposition contained within the original. Thus I think Narasimhan could have more accurately titled his book "The Mahabharata: A Summary." Nevertheless, I feel much better informed about what the Mahabharata is, and at least I now know the basic plot. And if I ever decide to attempt the original I won't be going in totally blindly.

For those who don't know the story, the Mahabharata is mainly about two families of feuding cousins named the Pandavas and the Kauravas. The climax of the whole thing is a massive battle (if my reading is correct, 40,000 chariots, 200,000 horses, 400,000 soldiers, and 60,000 elephants!) between the two families over--what else--control of land. So...what did I think of the story itself? It was interesting: at times exciting, sometimes odd, unbelievable, exaggerated, or downright dull. But all stories, especially epics of this size and scope, are expected to involve a certain amount of all of these. I most enjoyed the part of the story where the Pandavas are exiled and spend their days in the forest. Arjuna's journey to see Indra and acquire weapons is also curiously interesting. The gearing up for and the beginning of the battle was another of my favorite parts. But the main struggle drew on and on...and Arjuna and Bhima and Bhishma and so and so kept firing a gazillion arrows per second, even using these so called "celestial weapons" (which I took to be arrows with certain divine powers) and discharging fireballs the size of palaces and lightning bolts as if they were gods. Actually many of them are gods, or at least incarnations of gods, so I guess this kind of behavior is excusable.

This is, however, a mythological story at its core so events that border on the unbelievable (here they do more than border) are to be expected. But more importantly we should take these stories seriously because of the insight they offer into human nature. I don't know much about mythology or its psychological importance but the kind of events and descriptions we see in The Mahabharata are not unique (in a very broad sense) to Hindu culture or religion. All cultures and people have their stories, even if they are exaggerated or taken to be true by blind faith. We modern sophisticates may occasionally scoff at what we consider blatantly unbelievable (and therefore "useless and irrelevant") in the face of modern science, skepticism and general ideology. But I cannot help but feel doubtful of our ability to live without these stories. In some strange, perhaps mysterious, way they make us feel more human and more divine and more connected to each other.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent introduction to the epic. I have a question.
Review: From page 193: "Bhisma...addressing his grandson in a sweet voice..." After all the fuss about Bhisma being celebate, where did this grandson come from? If you know the answer, please let me know.

The translation is very easy to read, but you should watch the DVD first -- it helps greatly in keeping the characters straight. And you will want a separate edition of the Gita, which is here condensed into just a couple of pages!

Rick Norwood

Rating:
Summary: Excellent introduction to the epic. I have a question.
Review: From page 193: "Bhisma...addressing his grandson in a sweet voice..." After all the fuss about Bhisma being celebate, where did this grandson come from? If you know the answer, please let me know.

The translation is very easy to read, but you should watch the DVD first -- it helps greatly in keeping the characters straight. And you will want a separate edition of the Gita, which is here condensed into just a couple of pages!

Rick Norwood

Rating:
Summary: Very readable
Review: I don't know much about the Mahabharat but I can only guess how difficult it would be to read the original work. For one, it is huge, and for two, it is ancient.

This book suffers from neither. It's a nice and very readable introduction to the epic. I liked it because you can experience the atmosphere of the ancient India vividly with this book. This is due both to the story itself and the corresponding use of language.

Rating:
Summary: Mahabharata I was looking for
Review: Reading any abridgement gives me a bad feeling of missing something important, but this book deserves five stars:

- It is written in simple English, without archaic words, so I was able to read it without using my dictionary too much. It means much to me, English not being either my mother or second, but learned language.

- Every Sanskrit word is written using diacritics, so that you know how to pronounce names and places. I like to know that Pandu's brother is DhritaraSHtra and not DhritaraStra.

- All the ninety-nine chapters are self-contained, each forming a logical unit, so you can read one chapter at a time.

- It has very useful genealogical tables, glossary and list of alternative names.

Like the Mahabharata by Rajagopalachari this is a very good book for introduction to this great epic.