Customer Reviews

Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (4 Volume Set)

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I'm familiar with four translations of the Mahabharata. The first of these, that of C. Rajagopalachari (1951), contains a selection of over one hundred of the more interesting stories and episodes with interspersed comment.

Rajagopalachari's translation is a joy to read. The quality of his English style is on a par with that of the finest English writers, and his vivid and dynamic versions of these stories capture much of their humor and poignancy, and have a real vigor, sparkle, and human interest. Anyone approaching the Mahabharata for the first time could do worse than start with this wonderfully readable selection.

I wish I could say the same for the second and longer abridgement that came my way, that of Kamala Subramaniam (1965) in 766 large pages. Sadly, though one appreciates the effort that went into it, this is a book that I could not in good conscience recommend to anyone. Subramaniam seems to have had no grasp of English style at all. She has chopped each Sanskrit verse into small bite-sized pieces of English, and the staccato effect of her unending series of short, simple, unvaried sentences would, I think, weary any discerning reader.

The third translation, and the only complete one I have, is that by Kisari Mohan Ganguli, published between 1883-1896. Mine is the economy paperback reprint in four stitched and sturdily-bound though poorly printed volumes, and runs to over 5000 closely printed pages. Although not, of course, based on the recent critical Poona edition of the Sanskrit text, this edition should serve well enough as a reading text for anyone but a Sanskrit scholar.

J.A.B. van Buitenen, in the first volume of his own recent translation, comes down rather hard on Ganguli, though he apologizes for his harshness in a later volume. But to an impartial reader, van Buitenen's harshness seems hardly justified. As a native speaker of English myself, I find Ganguli's feeling for English to be on the whole superior to that of van Buitenen.

We should also remember that Ganguli did not have access to the rich resources van Buitenen enjoyed. In addition, Ganguli states clearly in his preface that he has tried to give "as literal a rendering as possible of the great work of Vyasa," and a literal rendering does not have the same aim as a more literary rendering.

The most prominent feature of Ganguli's style, apart from its literalness, is his employment of forms such as "Thee" and "Thou" and "Thine," etc., archaic forms which can at times grate on the modern sensibility. He also has a curious fondness for the word "and."

Despite his literalness and archaisms, however, and despite his occasional inaccuracies (some of which seem to be the product of misprints), Ganguli is always lively and never wooden; as an Indian, he seems really to have caught the spirit of the Mahabharata. His version, though it requires stamina to read, has great energy and succeeds marvelously in capturing the many interesting and colorful characters of the poem, and in vividly portraying the weird and wonderful things they get up to. Ganguli's is a lively edition I would certainly recommend.

As for the more recent three volumes of van Buitenen's translation (1973-78), which cover just one third of the total text (Books 1 to 5 of 18), although they represent fairly careful and up-to-date scholarship, and although they are beautiful examples of a well-thought-out layout and typography which makes for much easier reading than the cluttered pages of Ganguli, stylistically they too leave something to be desired, at least occasionally. Van Buitenen had his quirks too.

His grasp of the connotations of English words is often weak, and sometimes I even get the feeling that he may not have been a native speaker of English. Why else such eccentric usages as "Prince sans blame," or "The Age of the Trey" and "The Age of the Deuce"? Even worse, why "Baron," with its wholly inappropriate medieval European connotations, instead of the Sanskrit "ksatriya" or the English "Warrior"? A European "Baron" suggests to me something very unlike an Indian "ksatriya." Far better to keep occasionally to the Sanskrit vocabulary, which is simple enough, than flee to inappropriate equivalents.

Besides van Buitenen's occasionally quirky usage, it must be said that his rendering can sometimes be rather wooden, particularly in the passages he chose to attempt in 'verse.' On the whole, however, he has given us a version which at its best reads well, and one that is mercifully free of irksome archaic forms. His edition is also extremely well-organized, and has a substantial and helpful scholarly apparatus (lengthy introductions, plot summaries, notes, full indexes, etc.) which Ganguli's edition lacks.

So where are we? Clearly no ideal and complete English translation of the Mahabharata exists, nor is ever likely to exist given its stupendous size. Also, to really get a feeling for the magic of the Mahabharata, you have to read at least a bit of it in Sanskrit. A practical and user-friendly 'Introduction to Sanskrit' for ordinary folks (as opposed to academic linguists) is that of Thomas Egenes (1989). A few months work with this will soon find anyone reading at least some of the Sanskrit, in a bilingual edition such as Monier Williams' excellent 'Story of Nala,' with real enjoyment.

To conclude, if I had to choose between the Ganguli and van Buitenen, and although I'm grateful for both as both have much to offer, I would recommend Ganguli as being closer in spirit to the original - but I'd also suggest that those who are innocent of Sanskrit take a peek at Egenes.

This translation, first published (1883-1896) by the Bharata Press in Calcutta has been much maligned by 20th-century scholarship, but it will always remain a classic. Anyone who has used it extensively will realize its enormous value. Even J.A.B van Buitenen took back the harsh criticism made in his introduction of Volume I (p.36-37) of the Critical Edition translation in Volume II-III (p.10-11) after evidently examining the Ganguli (the correct spelling of his name) translation more carefully.

First of all, it is still the only complete translation of the Mahabharata. (The one by M.N. Dutt published a few years later, and currently unavailable, seems to copy Ganguli.) Nonetheless, the stilted Victorian English prose may be difficult to get used to at first. For example, words such as "welkin" instead of sky, or "kine" instead of cows, or "celerity" instead of speed are used, and the sentences are sometimes quite convoluted. Once the reader is used to Ganguli's style it is relatively easy to read this translation. I have compared this translation to other partial transaltions, and it holds its own. The Bhagavad Gita is rendered better than some recent translations.

It is also a classic because of the superhuman effort made by the Publisher P.C. Roy and the translator K.M. Ganguli to finish this work. Ganguli was, except for short interruptions due to illness, the only translator of the 85,622 verses (3,500+ pages in the present translation), which took twelve years to complete. Considering the gargantuan task, the translation is remarkably even. In some of the philosophical portions, in particular the difficult Mokshadharmaparva, of Book XII the Shantiparva, Ganguli has some problems. If you are seriously interested in the Mokshadharmaparva, seek out Deussen here instead, which is the only other (German) translation.

The main drawbacks are, that apart from a rudimentary table of contents, this 12 volume set has no index, and no Critical Apparatus whatsoever, making a daunting task to read in this form. Yet the first edition, has verse numbers and short explanations for each chapter. This makes finding specific verses a difficult task. Why these are not present in subsequent Editions is difficult to understand. Why not just reprint the First edition, which is incidentally better type-set than the present. Without Books such as Sörensen's "Index to the Names in the Mahabharata", Jacobi's "Inhaltsangabe", and others, this edition is quite difficult to use. Another complaint I have, and for other Books published in India is that the binding and the quality of the paper are inferior. This problem seems to be getting worse.

Still, this edition is a must have for all enthusiasts of the Mahabharata, students of Sanskrit literature, and Sanskrit scholars. Buy it before it goes out of print permanently. Email me if you have questions.

I have read several translations of the Mahabharata. This was for me the most complete, and the one that follows the original verses in Sanskrit the closest. The richness of details is amazing, and you can just sit and follow all the situations as if you were right there. Yes, the English is not the most up to date, and does use some archaic forms. But still, it is very readable and enjoyable. I recommend this series after you have read some other book so you can have a good grasp of the main events in the story. I wanted to get every single subplot in the Mahabharata, as well as understand more of the culture and habits of that time.
One point I love about this book is that the author does not seem to have any political intentions or inclinations as in many other translations by western scholars, where they have to align the story to their beliefs, sometimes forgetting the depth of meaning of sanskrit and also the clarity of most of the verses. In fact, most of the verses in sanskrit are written in a way to evoke your own personal interpretation and emphasis about this drama. Make up your own mind about the facts and incidents related here. Enjoy!

The long review below is very helpful in laying out the problems with both the older complete or quasi-complete editions of Mahabharata. Ganguli (in Victorian-English) and van Buitenen (in Dutch-English) have now been joined by an in-progress edition on the Clay Sanskrit Library, done by various hands. The problem with this, for me, is that it is rendered in prose (as is Ganguli of course), and a careful, joyless prose at that. But that said, if you can read it this way, it certainly looks like an improvement over Ganguli. Maybe it should be called Academic-English.

Luckily for us, there is a readable, poetic and involving edition that's almost finished (14 of the 18 volumes are available as of today). It's the one translated by P. Lal and published by Writers Workshop in Calcutta. The Lal edition, rendered in free (unrhymed and freely-metered) verse, is the most complete in any language, since it includes all the verses in all the different recensions of the work. (Professor Lal calls it the "ragbag edition.") Having been translated by a good poet, this version also has the life and immediate spirit of poetry, unlike any other edition I've seen.

The only difficulty is in finding a copy, since Writers Workshop doesn't distribute its books very well. One place to start is with their website ([...]).

(I don't work for them or anything, I'm just grateful to Professor Lal for accomplishing this great task single-handedly, and want other interested folks to know about it. As a sheer reading experience it's changed my life.)

I had quite the ordeal getting this book. I ordered it from Warehouse Deals/Amazon and instead of getting 4 Volumes, I got the 4th Volume. Then UPS and I had a bit of a tiff.

In the end, I had to order it from India [by the publisher]

Just got the book today, and it's GREAT. Nice print, fine pages [even if a bit on the thin side] and from what i can tell, it's well printed. A little dusty and probably used, but it's still in GREAT shape.
Highly suggest getting it.