Customer Reviews

The Mahabharata

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the best abridgment of the Mahabharata currently available. Unlike other abridgments it is based on an actual translation of Sanskrit verses Chakravarti Narasimhan has selected. He includes an index of the verses and a glossary of names at the end of the book, as well as several simplified genealogical tables. The introduction could be more inofrmative, but at least it is accurate in its refrences to previous translations. In my opinion more verses should have been inlcluded from the Philosophical portions of the Mahabharata, especially from the Santi- and Anusasanaparva. Still, the translation is accurate and it a much better introduction than some of the other abridgnents. For the beginning student, wanting to get a glimpse of the Epic, I highly recommend this book.

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.

Although Narasimhan has done a proficient enough job in this translation - his English is certainly much better than most full length translations currently available -- it is nevertheless a rather dry version of the great epic. If you are new to the text this will be heavy going, IMO, and you will probably soon find yourself lost in the morass of characters and their complicated relationships. He has not done much to help the reader make sense of the whole thing, unlike some other introductory versions, such as that by Krishna Dharma. It is a page turner only in the sense that you will be constantly turning backwards to remind yourself what is going on. But three stars anyway, as it is after all a faithful version of this wonderful work.

This is one of those important texts that I have always wanted to read, but have never gotten around to reading. To be honest, the length daunted me (1.8 million words), and I never know which abridged version to buy or which is worth reading.

This abridged translation weighs in at 216 pages, and the translator prepared this book with the purpose of providing only the main story of the epic. In his own words: "I have selected only those verses which relate to the main theme, and which help provide a more or less continuous narrative. This process of selection reduced the total number of verses translated to some 4,000." (The 4,000 is out of the possible 74,000.)

Although the nature of an abridgment like this nearly guarantees that the poetry in an epic poem will be lost, I still found it worthwhile to read. The nested story-in-a-story was great, and the rivalry between the Pandavas and the Kauravas was interesting. I have read enough references in Indian literature to be aware of the story without ever really understanding the subject. This gave me enough base to connect the dots.

I am sure that there are scholars out there who can point out the positives and negatives of this particular translation. I am uniquely unqualified to say anything at all about its respective qualities. It does seem to be generally well-respected.

What I can say is that for someone who wants to get a bare-bones understanding of the narrative, then this appears to be a good choice. It is clearly and cleanly written.

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.

Relationships in Indian Culture are somewhat different than in Western Culture...First Cousins are often times regarded as brothers and sisters. Similarly, Yudhistra looked to his own grandfather's half brother (Bishma), as his own grandfather.

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

Narasimhan's translation has condensed India's most famous religious poem down to about one-tenth of its original length but from what I've seen in comparison with the larger work, the author has managed to do so and yet leave very little out.

This is a wandering, unhurried epic of unknown origins, whose impact on Indian society is immeasurable. It is sometimes compared to the later Homerian works of ancient Greece, but the importance of those pieces to westerners does not come close to matching the significance of this poem to Hindus.

The Mahabharata is many things: morality fable, history, inspirational tall tale, religious discourse, literary masterpiece and national epic. It tells of the lives of members of two feuding, inter-related families, whose fortunes rise and fall over the course of many years. In its verses, gods come to earth to speak with men, heroes and villains share center stage, and in the end the largest battle ever fought on the subcontient is waged. (60,000 war elephants along with several million other assorted troops.)

I personally found this poem dismaying to my western mind but also interesting. It does have long boring stretches, especially in the Krishna sermons (in which the great battle is suspended so the blue-skinned warrior-god may speak to a single man) but its soap opera-like tales of the wavering fortunes of the characters at its heart should be sufficiently vibrant to hold the interest of dedicated readers.