The Mahabharata (and related tales from Mythology) Notes and Reading material on the Mahabharata Vedang Manerikar People have shown some interest in reading material for the Mahabharata, this po st should save me from repeatedly typing the same things 1. Introductory books These books are straight-forward narrations of the Mahabharata. They introduce t he reader to all the major characters and plot turns. In my experience, people a re not even aware of the major players in the Mahabharata. To them, it's simply the story of 5 good Pandavas vs 100 evil Kauravas. If you have never read the Ma habharata, or are unsure about what you have read, one of these books is a good place to start. - The Mahabharata - Amar Chitra Katha. [English, Comic] This book, accompanied by my grandfather's grandfather's stories, is my introduction introduction to the Mahabharata. If you read this book, be sure to also read one of the two other bo oks listed here. This book is a bit too simplistic, it's here because of nostalg ic value. - The Mahabharata - Ramesh Menon [English] - The Mahabharata - Kamala Subramaniam [English] (I recommend reading this book) 2. Point of View (POV) Narrations Now we come to the interesting part of the Mahabharata. If you choose to abandon a Sanjaya-esque all-knowing view of the Mahabharata, and read it from the point of view of a single character as it interacts with the Mahabharata world, you w ill discover that every character was right in every action they took. This is t he real beauty of the Mahabharata. The whole is greater than the sum of it's par ts. The characters behave as human beings would behave. They make decisions base d on incomplete/incorrect knowledge. They are driven by lust, ambition, revenge and other human emotions. Unfortunately, I've come across precious few English b ooks that take this approach. The bulk of the great writing related to the Mahab harata is in regional languages. (In my case, Marathi, my mother-tongue) - Bhimsen - Prem Panicker [English] (from the POV of Bhima) This book is a loose English translation of M. T. Vasudevan Nair's Malayalam m aster-piece Randaamoozham (meaning Second Turn). It is freely available on the I nternet. (I recommend reading this book) - Mrityunjaya - Shivaji Sawant [Marathi] (from the POV of Karna) 'Conqueror of Death' - Dhananjaya - Rajendra Kher [Marathi] (from the POV of Arjuna) 'Conqueror of wealth', wealth', one of Arjuna's Arjuna's names names - Duryodhana - Kaka Vidhate [Marathi] (from the POV of Duryodhana) (I recommend reading this book) - Yugandhar - Shivaji Sawant [Marathi]
(from the POV of Krishna) 'Leader of an Era' (I recommend reading this book) - Radheya - Ranjit Desai [Marathi] (from the POV of Karna) 'Son of Radha' 3. Short stories and analyses. (Intermediate level) We should now turn to books that explain the Mahabharata (or parts of it) in det ail. - Yugant - Irawati Karve [Marathi] 'The End of an Era' (I recommend reading this book) - Jaya - Devadutt Pattanaik [English] 'Victory' - Karna khara kon hota? - Daji Panashikar [Marathi] 'Who was Karna?' - Kapatneeti - Daji Panashikar [Marathi] 'Politics of treachery' 4. Short stories and analyses. (Expert Level) I've separated these books from those in the previous section because I think th ey are better books. This is my personal opinion - Mahabharat: Ek Sudacha Pravas - Daji Panashikar [Marathi] 'A Journey of Revenge' (I recommend reading this book) - The Lore of Mahabharata - Amalesa Bha??acarya [English] (Translated from the original in Bengali) (I recommend reading this book) 5. Don't touch these books with a 10-foot pole (Personal Opinion) These books are utter bunkum. Do yourself a favor and don't read them. - The Mahabharat - C Rajgopalachari [English] This book is the number one reason why people think of the Mahabharat as 5 goo d Pandavas vs 100 evil Kauravas. Throw it away if you have a copy. - Palace of Illusions - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni [English] (pretends to be from the POV of Draupadi) I hate this book. Here is a balanced review of this book, one which I agree wi th: http://jaiarjun.blogspot.in/2008... Jai Arjun Singh has been kind to it. We consider books sacred in my house, so I didn't burn it, but I gave it away as fast as I could when I finished reading it. 6. The Reference Book
Kisari Mohan Ganguly [1883-1896] translated the original Sanskrit texts into Eng lish word-for-word. He has done a great service to idiots like me, providing a r eady reference that I can look up anytime I want. You can find the translated te xt here: http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/... You can also find the entire original text of the Mahabharata in Sanskrit here: http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/... 7. Books I want to read These books are gems in Mahabharata literature (from what I've heard), and they are all inaccessible to me either because they are out of print or because they are in an unknown language. If someone has read one of these books and is willin g to explain the salient points to me, I will pay for dinner and drinks. - Yajnaseni - Pratibha Ray [Oriya] (from the POV of Draupadi) 'Daughter of Fire' - Ini ñan ur_a??a??e - P Kesavan Balakrishnan [Malayalam] (from the POV of Draupadi AND Karna - interleaving sections) 'And now let me sleep' - Randaamoozham - M.T. Vasudevan Nair [Malayalam] (from the POV of Bhima) 'The Second Turn' - The Stone Women and other stories - Shashi Deshpande [English] - Krishnavatara - Dr K M Munshi [Hindi] (on the life of Krishna) 8. Crowd-sourced Books - Parva - S L Bhyrappa [Kannada] (Suggested by Akshay Patki) A retelling of the Mahabharata that eliminates all divine elements. - Jyeshtha - Anant Manohar [Marathi] (Suggested by Sushrut Bidwai) From the POV of Yudhishthira - The Mahabharata - Bibek Debroy [English] (Suggested by Makarand Sahasrabuddhe) - Vyasaparva - Durgabai Bhagwat [Marathi] (Suggested by Aditya Kulkarni) - Mahabharata na Patro - Moolshanker Bhatt [Gujrathi] (Suggested by Rachana Sudharshan) A series of stories from the POV of various characters Written 17 Sep, 2012 Mahabharata Podcast http://mahabharatapodcast.blogspot.in/p/welcome-to-mahabharata-podcast.html
Epic fictions: the Rashomon-like world of the Mahabharata http://jaiarjun.blogspot.com/2011/07/epic-fictions-rashomon-like-world-of.html
