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The Mahabharata: A Modern Rendering #1
THE MAHABHARATA: A Modern Rendering, Vol 1
The Mahabharata is the more recent of India's two great epics, and by far the longer. First composed by the Maharishi Vyasa in verse, it has come down the centuries in the timeless oral tradition of guru and sishya, profoundly influencing the history, culture, and art of not only the Indian subcontinent but most of south-east Asia. At 100,000 couplets, it is seven times as long as the Iliad and the Odyssey combined: far and away the greatest recorded epic known to man.
The Mahabharata is the very Book of Life: in its variety, majesty and, also, in its violence and tragedy. It has been said that nothing exists that cannot be found within the pages of this awesome legend. The epic describes a great war of some 5000 years ago, and the events that led to it. The war on Kurukshetra sees ten million warriors slain, brings the dwapara yuga to an end, and ushers in a new and sinister age: this present kali yuga, modern times.
At the heart of the Mahabharata nestles the Bhagavad Gita, the Song of God. Senayor ubhayor madhye, between two teeming armies, Krishna expounds the eternal dharma to his warrior of light, Arjuna. At one level, all the restless action of the Mahabharata is a quest for the Gita and its sacred stillness. After the carnage, it is the Gita that survives, immortal lotus floating upon the dark waters of desolation: the final secret!
With its magnificent cast of characters, human, demonic, and divine, and its riveting narrative, the Mahabharata continues to enchant readers and scholars the world over. This new rendering brings the epic to the contemporary reader in sparkling modern prose. It brings alive all the excitement, magic, and grandeur of the original-for our times.
1278 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 18, 2006
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1101 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
August 8, 2012
A very sensual, easy to read, fast-paced, novelistic version.
Like all retellings, it shows the author's own idiosyncratic take on the characters and events. He imbues the sex scenes (particularly the sequence in which Kunti summons the Gods to father her children) with luscious detail, has a science-fictional take on the vimanas, and is perhaps excessively fond of some unusual words, like "luculent." But it's generally faithful, and it would be a good first version to read if you have never read one. If you are already familiar with the story, you will almost certainly enjoy this take on it.
It's in two volumes, which are currently going for three dollars each on Kindle at Amazon. The deal of the millennium!
Like all retellings, it shows the author's own idiosyncratic take on the characters and events. He imbues the sex scenes (particularly the sequence in which Kunti summons the Gods to father her children) with luscious detail, has a science-fictional take on the vimanas, and is perhaps excessively fond of some unusual words, like "luculent." But it's generally faithful, and it would be a good first version to read if you have never read one. If you are already familiar with the story, you will almost certainly enjoy this take on it.
It's in two volumes, which are currently going for three dollars each on Kindle at Amazon. The deal of the millennium!
July 13, 2016
Having read quite a lot of modern Indian literature I have been curious for a long time to get familiar with the famous Mahabharata - only my sanskrit skills have been somewhat lacking. Recently I started reading Shashi Tharoor's The Great Indian Novel and I realised that I'd miss half of the book if I don't know the Greatest Indian story. After reading reviews about the English novelizations of the Mahabharata, I settled for Ramesh Menon's version, and started to tackle this mammoth of a book.
The book is extremely fast-paced, however, I think it might not be part of the original story but rather is a result of the shortening Ramesh Menon made in order to make the book more readable: originally the Mahabharata is four times as long as the Bible, but here it's been compressed into 1400 pages in two volumes.
Mahabharata must be one of the best stories ever written. If there's ever been a book that should be called epic, this is the one. A complex story and infinitely appealing characters make the Mahabharata a real page-turner. Knowing its cultural significance for India and for Hindus gives it somehow more depth: there is barely an Indian that doesn't know the story of the Mahabharata. This version of the story to me seems excellent, even if the number of new characters introduced in nearly every chapter of this compressed story can get somewhat overwhelming: it might be a good idea to draw some kind of family tree to keep track of who's who - think of Hundred Years of Solitude's the Buendía family, but one that's vastly more numerous with Indian names unfamiliar to most Westerners.
The first volume works as the backdrop to the second volume, and the story is full of foreshadowing which makes it only more gripping. Reading the Mahabharata must be one of the best literary choices I've made in the last few years. And in case I didn't make it clear yet, this story is (an) epic!
The book is extremely fast-paced, however, I think it might not be part of the original story but rather is a result of the shortening Ramesh Menon made in order to make the book more readable: originally the Mahabharata is four times as long as the Bible, but here it's been compressed into 1400 pages in two volumes.
Mahabharata must be one of the best stories ever written. If there's ever been a book that should be called epic, this is the one. A complex story and infinitely appealing characters make the Mahabharata a real page-turner. Knowing its cultural significance for India and for Hindus gives it somehow more depth: there is barely an Indian that doesn't know the story of the Mahabharata. This version of the story to me seems excellent, even if the number of new characters introduced in nearly every chapter of this compressed story can get somewhat overwhelming: it might be a good idea to draw some kind of family tree to keep track of who's who - think of Hundred Years of Solitude's the Buendía family, but one that's vastly more numerous with Indian names unfamiliar to most Westerners.
The first volume works as the backdrop to the second volume, and the story is full of foreshadowing which makes it only more gripping. Reading the Mahabharata must be one of the best literary choices I've made in the last few years. And in case I didn't make it clear yet, this story is (an) epic!
May 9, 2015
This is an epic story - in every sense of the word!
I loved this story. It is "Game of Thrones"and "Star Wars" and "The Silmarillion" all mashed together with dimensional spaceships and super-magic weapons. There is family treachery and jealously, war, romance, comedy, horror - its all in there and is a wonderfully easy read. Mr Menon has done a great job with his translation into english prose!
I have to keep reminding myself that this is a story written, literally, over two thousand years ago, with some parts originating up to a thousand years earlier! At first the names of various titles and places were a little offputting, but as the story progresses they become second nature, and the characters are fascinating.
If you like epic stories like the ones produced by Martin, Tolkien, and the like - give this a read!
I loved this story. It is "Game of Thrones"and "Star Wars" and "The Silmarillion" all mashed together with dimensional spaceships and super-magic weapons. There is family treachery and jealously, war, romance, comedy, horror - its all in there and is a wonderfully easy read. Mr Menon has done a great job with his translation into english prose!
I have to keep reminding myself that this is a story written, literally, over two thousand years ago, with some parts originating up to a thousand years earlier! At first the names of various titles and places were a little offputting, but as the story progresses they become second nature, and the characters are fascinating.
If you like epic stories like the ones produced by Martin, Tolkien, and the like - give this a read!
May 23, 2013
Mahabharata is one of the epics of Indian mythology and unfortunately, the stories of Mahabharata are not really accessible unless you read the complex (for us) Sanskrit or translated Hindi texts. You also have the comics written for children, Amar Chitra Katha, but then, you will not get the flow of events. Most of us know of the stories though the television series by the same name and then some through the stories passed down by our grandparents. But what was lacking was a readable English version of the events in a narrative style. This book meets that need. Going to start part 2 now.
November 9, 2018
I have always been intrigued with Mahabharata, it's the most awesome epic I have ever known. I have been meaning to read this book from a long time. Now that I have read it, I feel so nice. It's full of the most trivial of details, the oned that I have been searching for. I don't think I can ever get enough of the Pandavas and their exquisite Panchali.
September 23, 2013
This is an absolutely wonderful book. Ramesh Menon has a penchant for telling tale and telling it well. He remains true to the spirit of the epic, while allowing himself some liberties with details. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes mythology or is a fan of fantasy .
January 14, 2014
What can one really say about such a work as important as the Mahabharata? Besides being of the pinnacle works in human civilization and a backbone of our mythology, it is also a spiritual tale that offers so much to those who are willing to plumb its depths. There have been many translations over the years, some good, many bad, but fewer are the ones that truly capture the beauty, ugliness, tragedy and drama. Part fantasy novel, part political thriller, and part spiritual journey, Ramesh Menon's rendering of the Mahabharata into prose is a translation I had waited for so long to make it to the world, and that wait was worth it. Everything is here in great and wonderfully wrought detail, action, and narrative.
My only criticism is the overuse and over-description that sometimes plagues Menon's work, and this isn't helped by numerous typos and somewhat uneven formatting. Still, for a labor of love such as this, the fact that he soldiered on through to the end and really captured his people's internal history is fantastic.
I recommend this to everyone.
My only criticism is the overuse and over-description that sometimes plagues Menon's work, and this isn't helped by numerous typos and somewhat uneven formatting. Still, for a labor of love such as this, the fact that he soldiered on through to the end and really captured his people's internal history is fantastic.
I recommend this to everyone.
November 6, 2017
I never tire of this tale because there are just so many layers to this tale. As a child I thought it was all black and white but as I grew up and read this fabulous tale, I realised that the only colour possible here is gray.
The heros have their weaknesses while the dark ones have their own woes. Reading this tale from different perspectives as well as authors is something I intend to continue.
If you don't know much about this tale than the Comic version, I suggest you to read this book for starters
The heros have their weaknesses while the dark ones have their own woes. Reading this tale from different perspectives as well as authors is something I intend to continue.
If you don't know much about this tale than the Comic version, I suggest you to read this book for starters
April 4, 2012
A Epic and an equally well rendered version. This is a real page turner.
BTW all those Guardians of Morality, who invariably also happen to be the kinds that bemoan the passing of an era, should read this version to understand how sexually liberated the "hindus" of old were.
BTW all those Guardians of Morality, who invariably also happen to be the kinds that bemoan the passing of an era, should read this version to understand how sexually liberated the "hindus" of old were.
February 13, 2022
This is a joint review for both volumes of the Mahabharata. Ramesh Menon talks about using KM Ganguli's translation of the epic from Sanskrit as his source. He then dives into the different Yugas and how this book is at the cusp of the end of one and the beginning of another Yuga.
The most beautiful part about this series is the sensual visual appeal added to it. The language is poignant, colorful, rich, and evocative. We grew up hearing and breathing these stories, and I have read various renditions before this, but nothing even comes close.
Let me leave you with a thought. You are the eldest brother of the Pandavas, the son of Dharma himself. Yet you have just lost your entire kingdom in a game of dice; you have lost yourself and your brothers, and finally your wife. You have seen your cousins attempt to disrobe her while the entire "sabha" watched. You are now in a 13-year exile with your siblings and wife. How do you live now? How do you face life, your own family, and the world? What stops you from jumping into a lake and drowning yourself. The biggest gift this book gave me is a renewed respect and love for Yudhishtara.
The most beautiful part about this series is the sensual visual appeal added to it. The language is poignant, colorful, rich, and evocative. We grew up hearing and breathing these stories, and I have read various renditions before this, but nothing even comes close.
Let me leave you with a thought. You are the eldest brother of the Pandavas, the son of Dharma himself. Yet you have just lost your entire kingdom in a game of dice; you have lost yourself and your brothers, and finally your wife. You have seen your cousins attempt to disrobe her while the entire "sabha" watched. You are now in a 13-year exile with your siblings and wife. How do you live now? How do you face life, your own family, and the world? What stops you from jumping into a lake and drowning yourself. The biggest gift this book gave me is a renewed respect and love for Yudhishtara.
September 11, 2013
It took me a bit to get into it, but once I did I found myself loving it. It's so nice to finally read the Mahabharata for the first time after having read the Gita many times over the years. The fuller context is so helpful. Plus beyond the greater context the marvelous bits of foreshadowing that appear throughout are fascinating.
I haven't read other translations of it yet to contrast but it is a very readable translation overall. I'll read other ones in the future (I like have multiple translations of important texts like this - I have three of the Tale of Genji for example.)
Very recommended although it can be slow going at first, and it takes time to pick up as we draw closer to the pivotal events of the work, but by the end of volume 1 it goes by very quickly. I've already started volume 2.
I'll definitely be re-read this one in the future.
I haven't read other translations of it yet to contrast but it is a very readable translation overall. I'll read other ones in the future (I like have multiple translations of important texts like this - I have three of the Tale of Genji for example.)
Very recommended although it can be slow going at first, and it takes time to pick up as we draw closer to the pivotal events of the work, but by the end of volume 1 it goes by very quickly. I've already started volume 2.
I'll definitely be re-read this one in the future.
July 19, 2017
I wait this "novel" my whole life. I read Mahabharata in comic version by Indonesian comic artist, R. A. Kosasih, when I was still in elementary school. Since then, I tried to get my hands on of a text version of this epic, unfortunately, they're all in poem format, which was I can't bear to read.
This Menon's version, 99% perfectly similar with the comic I read before. I love the detail, and to think Mr. Menon omitted a lot.
I find this book was enjoy to read. Some English words were strange, enough to make me open a dictionary, but maybe because I haven't read other than fantasy in a long time. Now, I can't wait to read the second volume.
This Menon's version, 99% perfectly similar with the comic I read before. I love the detail, and to think Mr. Menon omitted a lot.
I find this book was enjoy to read. Some English words were strange, enough to make me open a dictionary, but maybe because I haven't read other than fantasy in a long time. Now, I can't wait to read the second volume.
May 2, 2014
my most fantastic read till date I would say. Mahabharata is not about the war of ages but more about the understanding of world, time and events. must read chapters of this book are the ones with markandeya, riddles between dharma and yudhishtra and incident between Karna and Indra. beautifully written book
April 1, 2008
such a great book. a great story. beyond the religious themes, it is just an epic story and an amazing rendition that is not littered with odd anglo-indian translations/literations.
November 29, 2010
This is the closest that it came to the kind of translation which I wanted. Brilliant piece of work.
December 31, 2013
A fast paced version of an extremely complex story, although the story itself has repeating plot elements.
May 28, 2016
Just lovely. I enjoyed turning every one of its 687 pages.
If they ever make a revised edition, it would be helpful to add a family tree to the appendix.
If they ever make a revised edition, it would be helpful to add a family tree to the appendix.
October 30, 2021
Completed the first volume of this beautiful translation which is based on the Kisori Mohan Ganguli's original translation of the Sanskrit version. It is a modern version as I found out. It is quite detailed and I am on to the Volume 2. Even considering to read Bibek Debroys' 10 volume version after I finish with this. I read there are some differences.
December 5, 2020
After almost a year just finished the first cut, actually didn't have the print had to manage it and now done...very detailed some interim plots are as important as any Martin Scorsese scenes
March 12, 2020
I'm about halfway through this book and it's fantastic. I've always loved Epic stories. From The Lord of the Rings to Ancient Epics like Oedipus. This is no different but so much more. This is probably the longest, most intricate book I have read in many years. It's beautifully written with footnotes to help you understand what the author has left out from the original story, which already has many different versions! I decided to read this after reading the authors version of the Ramayana which is JUST AS GOOD. Very interested in Ancient Indian literature now. Thank you Mr. Menon for such beautifully written and understandable modern translations.
February 1, 2019
The earth may lose her fragrance, water its sweetness, the sun may lose his lustre, or the moon his enchanted coolness, but I shall never forget the joy I savored by reading this book. It is excruciating to write a review for a book that embodies the very life of mortal beings; and it is as much difficult to fill the mind with lessons from it; for every line, every page of the book is a lesson — a bane becomes a boon, a boon becomes a bane; it is a chalice of knowledge that may slop if dealt clumsily. All that is past when the sun sets on one day, who can call him back so you can live the same day; but it has been said that whatever has happened in Mahabharata may happen to us — so you can relive the life of the people ones walked this very earth — and what did not happen in Mahabharata will never happen to us. In other words, what is not in it, is nowhere. It has also been said that nothing exists that cannot be found within the pages of this awesome legend. Mahabharata, that happened circa 3000 BC, is an epic of 100,000 couplets which is seven times as long as the Iliad and the Odyssey combined. It seems that Ramesh Menon has borrowed the pen of Maharshi, the great poet, Vyasa for this modern rendering; for it is heavily ladened with poetic illustrations of heroic men and women, of some who are divine. It is ineffable to describe the book, and it is beyond the human tongue to describe it in earthly words. This book presents an account of the events up to the wedding of Abhimanyu in Upaplavya. I look forward to reading the vol.2 with as much joy I savoured in reading vol. 1
July 17, 2008
I was amazed at how much I remembered from the Amar Chitra Katha comic book versions I read and re-read as a kid, I spoke of it with my father, questioning if perhaps all of the gore (Bhisma's deathbed of arrows is an image that jumps immediately to mind) warped me in some way, he said no, but then he's probably warped in the same way...this version has a lot more of the old lingam and yoni (wink) though. I am loving diving back into this world though, I burned through it so quickly that I almost wish I got a longer version. The translation is enthusiastic, which honestly is nice to read even if some liberties were taken, perhaps this version is a good stop on the way to reading a line by line lyric translation. As I was reading it, it made me a little sad I didn't grow up in India, to have the rivers and land surrounding me that are saturated with this mythology, the mythology of my own heritage. The characters in this version are wonderfully rich, though that might just be in comparison to the aforementioned comic book version, there's a lot of nuance that makes me wonder if it is the translator's exploration or part of the original text...another reason to get another version i guess...might have to wait till i get that raise though...(to be continued in review of part 2)
August 2, 2014
The story of Mahabharata is one that everyone in India must have either read or more likely watched on television. It is a fascinating story which Ramesh Menon through his writing has made more simple and readable. Throughout reading of this first part, the book kept me engrossed and involved. While reading the book, I kept getting to know so many important and yet no so normally known facts about the pandavas and other characters. It also made me think more about various aspects of Hinduism that are pretty much way of life for us but we never think about them or question the reasons for them to be so.
A very well written book and a must read for anyone looking to read Mahabharata. Now I am moving on to the part 2.
A very well written book and a must read for anyone looking to read Mahabharata. Now I am moving on to the part 2.
November 11, 2014
I absolutely enjoyed reading this book. it was highly recommended by a friend and I think the book did justice. For someone who is not familiar with the original texts of mahabharatha ( like me) , I think this book is perfect. It is easy on the reader and is paced well. The author has refrained from elongated descriptions. I think all the significant episodes have been covered though at some points I thought the author started running out of adjectives to describe the splendour of the era and of its heroes so it seemed like a lot of repetition of words :). I recommend this book for readers interested in our mythology.
December 20, 2023
Incredible story. Decent rendition
Possibly the greatest story ever told. Rich in imagination, depth and emotions. Menon's rendition is good for most parts and is clunky in others. But a must read for anything interested in the rich storytelling culture and history of India.
Possibly the greatest story ever told. Rich in imagination, depth and emotions. Menon's rendition is good for most parts and is clunky in others. But a must read for anything interested in the rich storytelling culture and history of India.
March 22, 2021
There is no easy way to pigeon hole this book. The date of the actual events happening in this story will always be in dispute. What's generally settled upon is circa 3000 BCE but it could of been well before or sometime after. Without enough archeological proof it remains a guess and that provides for those that say its' partly myth.
What is known is the story was handed down in the oral tradition for hundreds if not thousand's of years and surfaced in writing circa 500 BCE, for which there are proofs for both the manuscripts and the oral traditions themselves, as such are still in practice to this day. This alone should make it a must read, as the story is easily comparable to the Iliad and even the Bible and surpasses both in age and length. While there are many ancient texts now known and available to the public that predate those two books coming from Summer, Akkad, Assyria, Babylon and Egypt sources no singular one is comparable in totality to the Mahabharata.
Ramesh Menon's Modern Rendering manages to take the full 16 volume Mahabharata and synthesis it down to an easily manageable 2 volume set of approximately 1,200 pages while keeping the integrity of the full story giving us something people will have time to read in this fast paced world we find ourselves in. Obviously there must of been some interesting things lost in that transaction, (for me I wish he added in book I) but that's for those with more time on their hands. I did obtain a 500 plus page Illustrated copy (Dorling Kindersley's Penguin Random House, The Illustrated Mahabharata , The Definitive Guide to Inia's Greatest Epic) which I'd recommend, that relied upon differing sources and between that and the internet it's easy to see that Menon brought us all the important parts of the story and didn't appear to fib much at all. So yes, they wrote of vampires as well as strange air craft that long ago, (but I'm not buying into the aluminum m.boat until I see a more original source. I think Ramesh was having some fun there and should remind you to read with a discerning eye).
Now the hard part, describing the Mahabharata with out giving away to much of the story line. With in the Mahabharata most know that the Baghavad Gita is part of this story so there is a deeper philosophical, transcendental aspect to this story that bears close attention. However the book reads like a story (tragedy/drama/romance) and is themed like a story. One of the more important themes that runs throughout the full story is that of dharma vs. adharma. In a nut shell, dharma is; the rules for right living, the right way, proper conduct for men and leaders. The other, adharma is just the opposite, the type of stuff that leads to trouble, and you will see this come up continuously in the story in countless ways so that people who are familiar with these concepts can apply them to their own lives as well as to survey their own times.
Having the opportunity to have read this in the middle of the "The Great Steal" here in the USA, I was actually astounded to learn that events that happened so long ago were mirrored with knuckle gripping exactness in this age while many of those events then are still to play out in our near future. Yeah it's that kind of book, loaded with not just enduring truths but quite of bit of prescience and foreshadowing for our times too (when you come across the rishi Markandeya, I believe in the "forest book", it's suggested if what he has to say interests you then do a deeper dive out side the book and you'll be much surprised to what more he has to say about the age of Kali).
The story itself opens up at what is called the Crack of Ages. The time between one age ending another one beginning, ( visitations from the gods have largely diminished though they still play important parts). I won't bother you with which, but as the story goes, we have been in the Kali Age for some time now and it is debatable about how long these ages last or that these ages are of equal lengths or even if the concept is useful, but for the story it is, so there's that.
They'll be a bit of run up on separate stories to get you to the point where you meet the protagonists in the story along with the antagonists so that you understand their origins and place in the story. As a guy, I find that there's a certain syrupy tone through out the story and a courser tone would help, but it does not distract too much and if anything it's more of what I'd suspect coming from India.
For Christians solid in their faith, its my opinion that this is not a story that needs to be avoided. Indeed the story is quite compatible and one can find it strengthens the faith. Indeed you could likely drop either faith into the other and be fine with the result and likely be enriched by it. I believe the commandant here is that you "put no god in front of God". Not that there are or were no other gods.
The book does have a glossary and you'll be wise to make good use of it at least in the beginning, after which you shouldn't need it much later.
Anyway, lots to learn and enjoy here if your of the mind to accept wisdom from the ancients.
What is known is the story was handed down in the oral tradition for hundreds if not thousand's of years and surfaced in writing circa 500 BCE, for which there are proofs for both the manuscripts and the oral traditions themselves, as such are still in practice to this day. This alone should make it a must read, as the story is easily comparable to the Iliad and even the Bible and surpasses both in age and length. While there are many ancient texts now known and available to the public that predate those two books coming from Summer, Akkad, Assyria, Babylon and Egypt sources no singular one is comparable in totality to the Mahabharata.
Ramesh Menon's Modern Rendering manages to take the full 16 volume Mahabharata and synthesis it down to an easily manageable 2 volume set of approximately 1,200 pages while keeping the integrity of the full story giving us something people will have time to read in this fast paced world we find ourselves in. Obviously there must of been some interesting things lost in that transaction, (for me I wish he added in book I) but that's for those with more time on their hands. I did obtain a 500 plus page Illustrated copy (Dorling Kindersley's Penguin Random House, The Illustrated Mahabharata , The Definitive Guide to Inia's Greatest Epic) which I'd recommend, that relied upon differing sources and between that and the internet it's easy to see that Menon brought us all the important parts of the story and didn't appear to fib much at all. So yes, they wrote of vampires as well as strange air craft that long ago, (but I'm not buying into the aluminum m.boat until I see a more original source. I think Ramesh was having some fun there and should remind you to read with a discerning eye).
Now the hard part, describing the Mahabharata with out giving away to much of the story line. With in the Mahabharata most know that the Baghavad Gita is part of this story so there is a deeper philosophical, transcendental aspect to this story that bears close attention. However the book reads like a story (tragedy/drama/romance) and is themed like a story. One of the more important themes that runs throughout the full story is that of dharma vs. adharma. In a nut shell, dharma is; the rules for right living, the right way, proper conduct for men and leaders. The other, adharma is just the opposite, the type of stuff that leads to trouble, and you will see this come up continuously in the story in countless ways so that people who are familiar with these concepts can apply them to their own lives as well as to survey their own times.
Having the opportunity to have read this in the middle of the "The Great Steal" here in the USA, I was actually astounded to learn that events that happened so long ago were mirrored with knuckle gripping exactness in this age while many of those events then are still to play out in our near future. Yeah it's that kind of book, loaded with not just enduring truths but quite of bit of prescience and foreshadowing for our times too (when you come across the rishi Markandeya, I believe in the "forest book", it's suggested if what he has to say interests you then do a deeper dive out side the book and you'll be much surprised to what more he has to say about the age of Kali).
The story itself opens up at what is called the Crack of Ages. The time between one age ending another one beginning, ( visitations from the gods have largely diminished though they still play important parts). I won't bother you with which, but as the story goes, we have been in the Kali Age for some time now and it is debatable about how long these ages last or that these ages are of equal lengths or even if the concept is useful, but for the story it is, so there's that.
They'll be a bit of run up on separate stories to get you to the point where you meet the protagonists in the story along with the antagonists so that you understand their origins and place in the story. As a guy, I find that there's a certain syrupy tone through out the story and a courser tone would help, but it does not distract too much and if anything it's more of what I'd suspect coming from India.
For Christians solid in their faith, its my opinion that this is not a story that needs to be avoided. Indeed the story is quite compatible and one can find it strengthens the faith. Indeed you could likely drop either faith into the other and be fine with the result and likely be enriched by it. I believe the commandant here is that you "put no god in front of God". Not that there are or were no other gods.
The book does have a glossary and you'll be wise to make good use of it at least in the beginning, after which you shouldn't need it much later.
Anyway, lots to learn and enjoy here if your of the mind to accept wisdom from the ancients.
December 22, 2014
very well described and intricately written. loved it.
January 19, 2016
I've read this whole book parts 1 and 2, cover to cover, about 3 times now and it is still my favourite book ever. Ramesh Menon has such a gripping writing style that I can't seem to find in others.
July 30, 2025
Some books really are so magnificent that you put off finishing them for fear their delights will end. When that end comes, your two-sided relationship with the book ceases, and all you can do is re-experience your encounters with the same situations. Re-reading a book is like a friend long gone. Reliving it can be a wonderful experience, but the accompanying ruefulness can be crippling.
The Mahabharata attempts to solve this problem - it's a book to which you almost literally can't get to the end. The Mahabharata took roughly 1400 years to write, it is ten times longer than the Iliad and the Odyssey combined. It is a poem of 18 books, 200,000 lines, 1.8 million words. Its central story is perhaps the most exciting epic ever composed, and it has enough time left over for six side stories, countless folk tales and parables recounted from the oral tradition, and an endless profusion of debates over morality and theology.
This is the real multiculturalism. If you want to understand other cultures, you can't just read a couple writers your own age who make political points you conveniently agree with. You have to understand these cultures at their root and read the documents which formed them and all the generations before them. So if we need to place a text as central to World Literature as Shakespeare to Western lit and the Gospels to Christianity, there The Mahabharata sits as its shelves buckle under the weight of content so inexhaustible that only Hindu scholar or a Vedic priest can reach its end.
Like Shakespeare and The Bible, The Mahabharata is just that good because it always stays ahead of us - it's so universal that it seems to anticipate every new development around the world. The Mahabharata's central epic has scenes as dramatic as Shakespeare, battles as visceral as Homer, moral debates as nuanced as anything in Plato, and its own terrifyingly vast cosmos as spiritually charged as anything in Dante or The Bible.
And yet... the second half of The Mahabharata is basically a multi-player video game. The Mahabharata's main characters comb the Earth in search of spirits with unworldly powers, special weapons forged in unknown realms, special boons and blessings that allow them to fight with more ostentatious skill, and meanwhile, they kill literal millions of nameless soldiers who seem to come at them in packs of thousands only so its dozen-odd protagonists can mow them down.
And yet amid its distinct currency for the 'RPG'-era, it speaks to morality in a way that cuts through every potential thought we have that this book is only a game. It is a tale of Dharma, contrasting one potential king who follows the path of righteousness to a perhaps ridiculous extreme against his cousin, a potential king who completely disregards the Path of Dharma.
I have to imagine that it is impossible for any American to read those many many chapters of the good prince/demigod Yudhishtira who leads his followers through vulnerability, undergoing yet another episode of his crippling depression and anxiety, and not see in him the image of Abraham Lincoln. Yudhishtira is a man of good faith who lead his civilization into its bloodiest war - and like Lincoln, perhaps his very virtue is the force which drained so much life out of an old, corrupt era. In the wake of virtuous leaders like Lincoln and Yudhishtira, better new worlds are formed, but the price for the old world is so spectacular that one might be forgiven for thinking that maybe there would have been a little less pain if a little corruption remained. One of the many facets of The Mahabharata's genius is the fact that it so easily lets you say to yourself 'no virtue is worth this amount of pain.' The moral implications of this book are meant to be struggled with, and The Mahabharata trusts that eventually your life experience will bear out the view that the world is only livable through the path of maximum virtue.
And at the same time, it's impossible for any American to read of the bad prince, Duryodhana: venal, narcissistic, a collector of resentment who always operates in bad faith, and not think of Trump. Duryodhana is the very embodiment of a decadent society due for collapse. From birth, it's made clear that Duryodhana is every bit the demi-demon that Yudhishtira is the demigod. But everything about him is not only spoiled, but a complete embodiment of corruption in every manifestation - political, financial, sexual, human... He is, maybe, the best incarnation of villainy in literature, or certainly up there among the best I've read... He isn't just a bad guy or an evil guy, he shows us exactly how evil operates; Duryodhana and his blind father, Dhritarashta (maybe that symbolism's a little heavy-handed...), are the perfect incarnations of how evil is eternally able to seem like virtue. No matter how awful their motivations, their arguments are always sensible and show how easy it is for even the most comically obvious evildoers to convince people that theirs is the path of righteousness.
It's the Prophet Isaiah who says 'woe unto them that call good evil and evil good,' but nothing in the Bible or even Shakespeare has The Mahabharata's uncanny ability to show how people reason themselves to a conclusion in bad faith. There are always two sides to every story, but even so, in every disagreement, the odds that both sides are '50% right' are as slim as the chance that one side is 100% right and one is 100% wrong. The 'bad side' may be mostly wrong, but they always have a legitimate point. There is always a justification to act badly and double down on the original sin - and none of us are Yudhishtira. There is a little bit of Duryodhana in us all, and the fact that we can recognize small parts of ourselves in him makes him all the more more sinister. The difference, and the didactic purpose the Mahabharata serves, is to show that we in the real world should have the sense to turn back from our greatest sins before we lose everything. And yet civilization after civilization creates its Duryodhana figure, who causes the country to double down on mistake upon mistake until everything is truly lost. Let no one say that Great Man History as Europe traditionally taught it has no precedent in the East...
We have not even mentioned the other five Pandavas yet. We haven't told of Arjuna and his bow or Bheema and his mace, we haven't told of the absolutely Shakespearean casus belli involving the Pandava wife, Dhraupadi, or the truly awesome scenes involving Krishna, whose presence occasionally seems more majestic and uncanny than Yahweh himself. And most tragically, as in the story, we have forgotten about Kama.
Even more than Yudhishtira, Kama is The Mahabharata's truest hero, and the one I'd imagine inspires the most devotion in believing Hindus, because unlike Yudhishtira and his Pandava brothers, Kama has lived a cursed life. The Mahabharata, like every ancient epic, is a story of the highest born people, who once were considered the only people worth singing about. But while born high, Kama was cast into the lowest classes from right after birth, and he is every person who has born their humiliations with nobility. Kama was offered multiple times the chance to be King of the World in Yudhishtira's place, but he refused every time. Why? Because the only person who recognized his nobility and gifts when he had nothing at all was Duryodhana, and even if Duryodhana is the evilest man on the planet, his loyalty is more important to him than the Empire. Perhaps that description makes him sound stuffy and wooden, but there are a number of moments in Kama's story that easily reduce a reader to tears.
Like all ancient tragedies, The Mahabharata is really about the overwhelming cost of pride. But epics are not only tragic, they are also celebrational, epic are supposed to take in all of life in its many seasons. The story of the Mahabharata is as much about how to navigate life to minimize tragedy as it is about the tragedy itself. It's partially a sacred text, and therefore supposed to have practical application, and it's also a joyful celebration of virtue - some of those virtues are warlike, yes, but also patience, generosity, sincerity, vulnerability, and emotional resilience.
On the one hand, The Mahabharata is a legend of the sort that I would imagine will soon be scrawled all over fantasy literature. All the tropes of medieval European epics were contained in The Mahabharata, and there's no way the original bards of Beowulf and Roland and King Arthur happened upon some versions of various tales from The Mahabharata's pages. But now that the world of Kings and Swords and Gods is so definitively back, I would imagine we're about to see an epic profusion of such tales taking place Asia and Africa before the West came to allegedly spoil it.
And yet, The Mahabharata is inexhaustibly more than just a sword and sandal epic. It just might be the foundational document in the literature of the entire earth, and once people around the world come to appreciate as Indians have for nearly 2000 years, it will perhaps light a path that will make the greatest writers of human history still ahead of us.
So here's the thing... I just read a 1450 page version, and I've got a little less than 100 pages to go. I know how it ends: all the Pandavas die. I'm so not ready to kill them off yet. So in a little while, I'm going to try to read a slightly longer, perhaps more inclusive version that gives us some of the detail I didn't get the first time, and my relationship to these characters will not die for as long as I need them to live.
https://archive.org/details/MenonRame...
The Mahabharata attempts to solve this problem - it's a book to which you almost literally can't get to the end. The Mahabharata took roughly 1400 years to write, it is ten times longer than the Iliad and the Odyssey combined. It is a poem of 18 books, 200,000 lines, 1.8 million words. Its central story is perhaps the most exciting epic ever composed, and it has enough time left over for six side stories, countless folk tales and parables recounted from the oral tradition, and an endless profusion of debates over morality and theology.
This is the real multiculturalism. If you want to understand other cultures, you can't just read a couple writers your own age who make political points you conveniently agree with. You have to understand these cultures at their root and read the documents which formed them and all the generations before them. So if we need to place a text as central to World Literature as Shakespeare to Western lit and the Gospels to Christianity, there The Mahabharata sits as its shelves buckle under the weight of content so inexhaustible that only Hindu scholar or a Vedic priest can reach its end.
Like Shakespeare and The Bible, The Mahabharata is just that good because it always stays ahead of us - it's so universal that it seems to anticipate every new development around the world. The Mahabharata's central epic has scenes as dramatic as Shakespeare, battles as visceral as Homer, moral debates as nuanced as anything in Plato, and its own terrifyingly vast cosmos as spiritually charged as anything in Dante or The Bible.
And yet... the second half of The Mahabharata is basically a multi-player video game. The Mahabharata's main characters comb the Earth in search of spirits with unworldly powers, special weapons forged in unknown realms, special boons and blessings that allow them to fight with more ostentatious skill, and meanwhile, they kill literal millions of nameless soldiers who seem to come at them in packs of thousands only so its dozen-odd protagonists can mow them down.
And yet amid its distinct currency for the 'RPG'-era, it speaks to morality in a way that cuts through every potential thought we have that this book is only a game. It is a tale of Dharma, contrasting one potential king who follows the path of righteousness to a perhaps ridiculous extreme against his cousin, a potential king who completely disregards the Path of Dharma.
I have to imagine that it is impossible for any American to read those many many chapters of the good prince/demigod Yudhishtira who leads his followers through vulnerability, undergoing yet another episode of his crippling depression and anxiety, and not see in him the image of Abraham Lincoln. Yudhishtira is a man of good faith who lead his civilization into its bloodiest war - and like Lincoln, perhaps his very virtue is the force which drained so much life out of an old, corrupt era. In the wake of virtuous leaders like Lincoln and Yudhishtira, better new worlds are formed, but the price for the old world is so spectacular that one might be forgiven for thinking that maybe there would have been a little less pain if a little corruption remained. One of the many facets of The Mahabharata's genius is the fact that it so easily lets you say to yourself 'no virtue is worth this amount of pain.' The moral implications of this book are meant to be struggled with, and The Mahabharata trusts that eventually your life experience will bear out the view that the world is only livable through the path of maximum virtue.
And at the same time, it's impossible for any American to read of the bad prince, Duryodhana: venal, narcissistic, a collector of resentment who always operates in bad faith, and not think of Trump. Duryodhana is the very embodiment of a decadent society due for collapse. From birth, it's made clear that Duryodhana is every bit the demi-demon that Yudhishtira is the demigod. But everything about him is not only spoiled, but a complete embodiment of corruption in every manifestation - political, financial, sexual, human... He is, maybe, the best incarnation of villainy in literature, or certainly up there among the best I've read... He isn't just a bad guy or an evil guy, he shows us exactly how evil operates; Duryodhana and his blind father, Dhritarashta (maybe that symbolism's a little heavy-handed...), are the perfect incarnations of how evil is eternally able to seem like virtue. No matter how awful their motivations, their arguments are always sensible and show how easy it is for even the most comically obvious evildoers to convince people that theirs is the path of righteousness.
It's the Prophet Isaiah who says 'woe unto them that call good evil and evil good,' but nothing in the Bible or even Shakespeare has The Mahabharata's uncanny ability to show how people reason themselves to a conclusion in bad faith. There are always two sides to every story, but even so, in every disagreement, the odds that both sides are '50% right' are as slim as the chance that one side is 100% right and one is 100% wrong. The 'bad side' may be mostly wrong, but they always have a legitimate point. There is always a justification to act badly and double down on the original sin - and none of us are Yudhishtira. There is a little bit of Duryodhana in us all, and the fact that we can recognize small parts of ourselves in him makes him all the more more sinister. The difference, and the didactic purpose the Mahabharata serves, is to show that we in the real world should have the sense to turn back from our greatest sins before we lose everything. And yet civilization after civilization creates its Duryodhana figure, who causes the country to double down on mistake upon mistake until everything is truly lost. Let no one say that Great Man History as Europe traditionally taught it has no precedent in the East...
We have not even mentioned the other five Pandavas yet. We haven't told of Arjuna and his bow or Bheema and his mace, we haven't told of the absolutely Shakespearean casus belli involving the Pandava wife, Dhraupadi, or the truly awesome scenes involving Krishna, whose presence occasionally seems more majestic and uncanny than Yahweh himself. And most tragically, as in the story, we have forgotten about Kama.
Even more than Yudhishtira, Kama is The Mahabharata's truest hero, and the one I'd imagine inspires the most devotion in believing Hindus, because unlike Yudhishtira and his Pandava brothers, Kama has lived a cursed life. The Mahabharata, like every ancient epic, is a story of the highest born people, who once were considered the only people worth singing about. But while born high, Kama was cast into the lowest classes from right after birth, and he is every person who has born their humiliations with nobility. Kama was offered multiple times the chance to be King of the World in Yudhishtira's place, but he refused every time. Why? Because the only person who recognized his nobility and gifts when he had nothing at all was Duryodhana, and even if Duryodhana is the evilest man on the planet, his loyalty is more important to him than the Empire. Perhaps that description makes him sound stuffy and wooden, but there are a number of moments in Kama's story that easily reduce a reader to tears.
Like all ancient tragedies, The Mahabharata is really about the overwhelming cost of pride. But epics are not only tragic, they are also celebrational, epic are supposed to take in all of life in its many seasons. The story of the Mahabharata is as much about how to navigate life to minimize tragedy as it is about the tragedy itself. It's partially a sacred text, and therefore supposed to have practical application, and it's also a joyful celebration of virtue - some of those virtues are warlike, yes, but also patience, generosity, sincerity, vulnerability, and emotional resilience.
On the one hand, The Mahabharata is a legend of the sort that I would imagine will soon be scrawled all over fantasy literature. All the tropes of medieval European epics were contained in The Mahabharata, and there's no way the original bards of Beowulf and Roland and King Arthur happened upon some versions of various tales from The Mahabharata's pages. But now that the world of Kings and Swords and Gods is so definitively back, I would imagine we're about to see an epic profusion of such tales taking place Asia and Africa before the West came to allegedly spoil it.
And yet, The Mahabharata is inexhaustibly more than just a sword and sandal epic. It just might be the foundational document in the literature of the entire earth, and once people around the world come to appreciate as Indians have for nearly 2000 years, it will perhaps light a path that will make the greatest writers of human history still ahead of us.
So here's the thing... I just read a 1450 page version, and I've got a little less than 100 pages to go. I know how it ends: all the Pandavas die. I'm so not ready to kill them off yet. So in a little while, I'm going to try to read a slightly longer, perhaps more inclusive version that gives us some of the detail I didn't get the first time, and my relationship to these characters will not die for as long as I need them to live.
https://archive.org/details/MenonRame...
April 3, 2024
basic review of both volumes of Ramesh Menon's Mahabharata:
Okay, so this isn't a translation. Apparently there are only a few options for an unabridged translation (Ganguli at around 6000 pages, Debroy at nearly 6000 and P Lal, who called his poetic translation as "transcreation" and comes in longer due to being rendered in verse). Menon has also brought together a team which has produced an updated version of Ganguli which he says is "not a translation from the Sanskrit but based almost entirely on the Ganguli text" and is just upwards of 7000 pages.
I deeply enjoyed Menon's rendering of the central story of the Mahabharata. In some notes at the back he mentioned that the original Mahabharata was estimated to have been about 24,000 slokas, which then swelled to 100,000 over some time. He said his telling comes closer to the length of the original 24,000 slokas. If you're like me and are afraid of the length of an unabridged translation, but don't want to miss out on the story of the Mahabharata (which is profound in depth as much as length), then Menon has done the work of artfully editing away the portions you might find less interesting (lengthy descriptions of pilgrimage sites, lakes, generals, warriors, etc). It's an exhilarating read!
I have only read portions of other condensed versions of the Mahabharata, but I find Menon's most compelling. (with P Lal's abridgment behind that)
The Mahabharata itself gives much to contemplate, and I can see myself returning to the story relatively soon. Personally, if I tackled the unabridged translation, I would attempt P Lal's poetic rendering. But then, there's always Menon's unabridged version...
related: after finishing this, I bought Menon's version of the Ramayana. I have read Arshia Sattar's abridgment of Valmiki's Ramayana, which I enjoyed, but I think Menon's sense of immediacy and sense for imagery may be more accessible. time will tell...
Okay, so this isn't a translation. Apparently there are only a few options for an unabridged translation (Ganguli at around 6000 pages, Debroy at nearly 6000 and P Lal, who called his poetic translation as "transcreation" and comes in longer due to being rendered in verse). Menon has also brought together a team which has produced an updated version of Ganguli which he says is "not a translation from the Sanskrit but based almost entirely on the Ganguli text" and is just upwards of 7000 pages.
I deeply enjoyed Menon's rendering of the central story of the Mahabharata. In some notes at the back he mentioned that the original Mahabharata was estimated to have been about 24,000 slokas, which then swelled to 100,000 over some time. He said his telling comes closer to the length of the original 24,000 slokas. If you're like me and are afraid of the length of an unabridged translation, but don't want to miss out on the story of the Mahabharata (which is profound in depth as much as length), then Menon has done the work of artfully editing away the portions you might find less interesting (lengthy descriptions of pilgrimage sites, lakes, generals, warriors, etc). It's an exhilarating read!
I have only read portions of other condensed versions of the Mahabharata, but I find Menon's most compelling. (with P Lal's abridgment behind that)
The Mahabharata itself gives much to contemplate, and I can see myself returning to the story relatively soon. Personally, if I tackled the unabridged translation, I would attempt P Lal's poetic rendering. But then, there's always Menon's unabridged version...
related: after finishing this, I bought Menon's version of the Ramayana. I have read Arshia Sattar's abridgment of Valmiki's Ramayana, which I enjoyed, but I think Menon's sense of immediacy and sense for imagery may be more accessible. time will tell...
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