The Mahabharata: Volume 6

Mahabharata #6

by Bibek Debroy (Translator)

The Greatest Story Ever Told
Dispute over land and kingdom may lie at the heart of this story of war between cousins—the Pandavas and the Kouravas—but the Mahabharata is about conflicts of dharma. These conflicts are immense and various, singular and commonplace. Throughout the epic, characters face them with no clear indications of what is right and what is wrong; there are no absolute answers. Thus every possible human emotion features in the Mahabharata, the reason the epic continues to hold sway over our imagination.
In this superb and widely acclaimed translation of the complete Mahabharata, Bibek Debroy takes us on a great journey with incredible ease.

Genres: Classics, Mythology, Religion, Philosophy, Fiction, Hinduism, Audiobook

554 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 401

About the author

Bibek Debroy was an Indian economist, who served as the chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India. He was also the Chairman of the Finance Ministry's 'Expert Committee for Infrastructure Classification and Financing Framework for Amrit Kaal'. Debroy has made significant contributions to game theory, economic theory, income and social inequalities, poverty, law reforms, railway reforms and Indology among others. From its inception in January 2015 until June 2019, Mr. Debroy was a member of the NITI Aayog, the think tank of the Indian Government. He was awarded the Padma Shri (the fourth-highest civilian honour in India) in 2015.
Bibek Debroy's recent co-authored magnum opus, Inked in India, stands distinguished as the premier comprehensive documentation, capturing the entirety of recognized fountain pen, nib, and ink manufacturers in India.
In 2016, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the US-India Business Summit. In 2022, he was conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award by The Australia India Chamber of Commerce (AICC). In February 2024, Debroy was conferred Insolvency Law Academy Emeritus Fellowship, in recognition of his distinguished leadership, public service, work and contributions in the field of insolvency.
Bibek Debroy died on 1 November 2024, at the age of 69. He had been admitted to All India Institutes of Medical Sciences in New Delhi one month prior.

Reviews

[Aravind Balaji]

Amazing! So much progress in the storyline! So many intersting events

[Abhinav Agarwal]

The Incredible Savagery of War, to Restore & Uphold Dharma

The sixth installment of Bibek Debroy's translation of the unabridged Mahabharata, based on the Critical Edition by the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, features perhaps the fiercest fighting in the 18-day war, as well as a descent into an all-out, no-holds barred bloodfest with no rules left unbroken. Many warriors ganging up against one. Beheading an unarmed warrior who had given up his arms, twice. Fighting at night. The wanton killing of warriors retreating. The killing of warriors who had laid down their arms. Abuses. Much more, and much worse takes place in these three days of the 18-day war that this book covers. Specifically, this book covers days thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen of the war, and contains six sub-Parvas (Upa Parvas): Abhimanyu-Vadha Parva (67), Pratijnya Parva (68), Jayadratha-Vadha Parva (69, and at 210 pages, also the longest in this book), Ghatotakacha-Vadha Parva (70, and 120 pages long), Drona-Vadha Parva (71), and Narayana-Astra Moksha Parva (72).

[Mayank Bawari]

The battle continues with the Death of Abhimanyu - Arjuna’s vow to slay King of Sindhu - Jayadrath’s Demise - Invincible Ghatotkacha killes by Karna’s invincible spear - Krishna’s Yoga - Drona’s Death

[Tomasz Stachowiak]

The war continues pretty much as in the previous volume - so see my other review here - except that some of the prominent figures (meaning: those that I particularly liked) die at this stage. No spoilers though.

[Zach]

This covers most of (and concludes) Drona parva. The battle, having gone on for half a volume before this, continues throughout the entirety of this as well, and starts to become fairly repetitive. With that said, there are some standout scenes in this volume. Abhimanyu's death and Arjuna's grief in particular; Abhimanyu is a significantly more minor character than Bhishma but is also a lot younger and in his prime, so his death feels pretty tragic, and certainly Arjuna takes it badly.

And then there's the effect the war is having on the Pandavas. Krishna, of all people, goads Ghatotkacha into attacking Karna and rejoices when Karna kills him using the weapon he was planning on using on Arjuna. This is quite a ways to fall for the author of the Bhagavad Vita. And then Bhima, and more surprisingly, Yudhishthira, lie to Drona, saying that his son was killed so that he no longer desires to fight. And then he gets brutally beheaded.

The first half volume covering the war has plenty of dark imagery, but it's in this volume that the destructive and dehumanizing effect of the war becomes very, very clear.

[Silvio Curtis]

I've been waiting four years for this newest attempt at a complete translation of the Mahābhārata to catch up so I could keep reading it. This volume covers all the Book of Droṇa, part of which the I read in the Clay Sanskrit Library version, so I started in the middle. It's still more battle scenes. The irregularity of Droṇa and Kṛpa's position as warrior brahmins comes out strongly. The Pāṇḍavas regularly accuse them of not living up to their caste responsibilities. At the same time their own king, Duryodhana, accuses them with some justification of going easy on their pupils, now their enemies. As always the battle scenes are pretty repetitive, but there are some memorable moments. In particular, I'll remember Bhīmasena's reaction to one magic weapon: Kṛṣṇa tips everyone off that it won't affect you if you drop your weapons and stop resisting, but wouldn't you know it, he tries to keep charging with his club anyway.

[Bhakta Kishor]

The language used by Bibek Debroy is not archaic English like some other translation. It’s a natural translation. He has given enough footnotes if he thinks there could be multiple meanings at that word or sentence. I think Debroy’s version is suitable for Scholars as well as layman's. Additionally it’s based on one of best unabridged version of Mahabharata available today, i.e. BORI’s critical edition of Mahabharata.

[Samyuktha Ell]

Like all the previous books in this series, volume 6 is written in an easy-to-understand language. We see many shocking scenes such as many warriors ganging up against one, people being killed wantonly even when they are trying to retreat, and so on. This is what happens in battle. The book tells all. War isn't pretty.

This is an exact translation of the original tome and, though the content tends to get repetitive at times, there is no doubt that this is a gripping read.

[Nishant]

The mention of Abhimanyu is so less in the BR Chopra's Mahabharat and it astounds me of his role in the war. It shows that reading is much better then watching it until it is made word to word from the book.

It is so much engrossing that I want to re-read the book again and again.

Book #11 series Indic books

[Jay Sharma]

In this part of the volume, the slaying of Drona and the arguments made for the way he was deceived and the dilemma of it being dharma or adharma was perhaps one of the best parts of this part of the story.

[Satdeep Gill]

The war continues in this volume and there are some situations in which the supposed heros act like villains and vice versa. The question of dharma comes in time and again. Killing Drona by deceit is a highlight of this volume.

Looking forward to the next volume which concludes the war.

[Ravi Kumar Dandapani]

nice

[Y]

After the death of Bhishma, Drona is appointed commander of the Kurus. Drona kills Bhima’s half-rakshasa son Ghatotkacha by using Shakra’s spear. The weapon was irresistible and could only be used once and had been planned to kill Arjuna. Bhima then kills an elephant named Ashvatthama, the same as Drona’s sons’s name. King Yudhishthira then tells Drona that Ashvatthama has died, adding indistinctly that was an elephant. This was a great moral problem for the king and his chariot, which had always floated above the ground the span of four fingers, drops to the ground.

Drona believes the king incapable of lying and casts down his weapons in grief and begins to meditate. Dhrishtadyumna strikes him down with a sword and Drona goes to heaven, his body disappearing in a flash of light. Drona’s still living son then uses a divine weapon Narayana. By invoking the divine weapon, winds and earthquakes shake the ground and thousands of flaming arrows rain from the sky to kill the Pandavas. Krishna advises them to lay their weapons down as the Narayana will only work against combatants. The war continues…

[Asha Gopalakrishnan]

Bibek Debroy continues to enthrall...