The Mahabharata

By: R. K. Narayan

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Paperback | 1 March 2001 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback
208 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
19.8 x 12.9 x 1.2

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The Mahabharata is some 3,500 years old and is the longest poem in existence. It is one of the founding epics of Indian culture, yet is also a highly dramatic and enthralling story. It centres around a royal family who are at war with each other, and is filled with heroism, bloodshed, satanic hates and intrigue, gods, heavenly cities and vivid, super-human characters. Its often violent narrative also encompasses philosophy, history and cosmology, and contains the Bhagavad Gita, the masterly spiritual discussion between Krishna and the prince Arjuna which forms the cornerstone of the Hindu religion. R. K. Narayan's brilliant shortened prose interpretation of this monumental, cosmic drama is one of his finest achievements, and brings all the excitement and depth of this great Indian epic to life.

Industry Reviews

In this volume the Indian novelist R. K. Narayan, who has previously produced a prose rendition of the Ramayana, presents an unadorned summary of the tale of the great rivalry between the five Pandava brothers and their evil cousins, the sons of King Dhritarashtra. No unprecedented contribution - creative or scholarly - to the literature dealing with India's great epic will be found here. The book's lack of novelty is compensated for, however, by the simple and straightforward grace of Narayan's retelling, and by his good sense to stick with the frame-story and to ignore entirely the countless digressions of the original. The flow of the narrative is sometimes marred by the author's tendency to interject that "the Mahabharata may be said to be a tale of conflict" or whatever. Such interruptions suggest to the reader a college-outline plot-summary, and noticeably diminish the power of this story of deceit and vengeance. Nonetheless, Narayan's Mahabharata is a fine introduction to the mythology of the epic, particularly for those who have had no previous background in Indian classical literature. The interested reader will find here a painless dose of what may then inspire a true addiction. (Kirkus Reviews)

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