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Mahabharata: A Modern Retelling
Originally composed approximately two thousand years ago, the Mahabharata tells the story of a royal dynasty, descended from gods, whose feud over their kingdom results in a devastating war. But it contains much more than conflict. An epic masterpiece of huge sweep and magisterial power, “a hundred times more interesting” than the Iliad and the Odyssey, writes Wendy Doniger in the introduction, the Mahabharata is a timeless work that evokes a world of myth, passion, and warfare while exploring eternal questions of duty, love, and spiritual freedom. A seminal Hindu text, which includes the Bhagavad Gita, it is also one of the most important and influential works in the history of world civilization.
Innovatively composed in blank verse rather than prose, Carole Satyamurti’s English retelling covers all eighteen books of the Mahabharata. This new version masterfully captures the beauty, excitement, and profundity of the original Sanskrit poem as well as its magnificent architecture and extraordinary scope.
928 pages, Paperback
First published February 23, 2015
159 people are currently reading
1122 people want to read
About the author
Carole Satyamurti
17 books10 followersCarole Satyamurti (born 1939) is a British poet, sociologist, and translator.
She grew up in Kent, and lived in North America, Singapore and Uganda. She taught at the University of East London, and at the Tavistock Clinic where her main interest was relating psycholanalytic ideas to the stories people tell about themselves whether in formal autobiography or everyday encounters.
She teaches for the Arvon Foundation and for the Poetry School. She is vice-president of Ver Poets.
She runs poetry programs in Venice, Corfu and the National Gallery (London), with Gregory Warren Wilson.
She has been writer in residence at the University of Sussex, and the College of Charleston.
She lives and works in London.
(from Wikipedia)
She grew up in Kent, and lived in North America, Singapore and Uganda. She taught at the University of East London, and at the Tavistock Clinic where her main interest was relating psycholanalytic ideas to the stories people tell about themselves whether in formal autobiography or everyday encounters.
She teaches for the Arvon Foundation and for the Poetry School. She is vice-president of Ver Poets.
She runs poetry programs in Venice, Corfu and the National Gallery (London), with Gregory Warren Wilson.
She has been writer in residence at the University of Sussex, and the College of Charleston.
She lives and works in London.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
April 17, 2025
160220: reading some about how to interpret the ‘bhagavad gita’ as metaphor, rather than simple argument for war, think of it as krishna (lord) explains right and wrong, as something in everyone that must be fought. in arjuna for example...
301216: 'whatever is found here may be found somewhere else, but what is not found here is found nowhere else' on the mahabharata...
everything about this cultural, religious, philosophical epic is the essence of India, is authored by and concerns, in plot and thought, so much, so many, and is an epic which has no equal. as a translation i cannot comment, as i do not read Sanskrit, as a poem, this is the most engaging epic poem ever read, though last read any sort in u years ago (decades...), then a prose adaptation of the Odyssey later. by sheer numbers the compiled text is amazingly epic, from about two thousand years past reflecting on yet older tales, in this retelling satyamurti uses twenty-seven thousand blank verse lines. original text is 21 volumes, five hundred named characters, twenty-four main characters (just d: devavrata, drishtadtumna, dhritarashta (d1), drona, drupada, duryodhana(d2)), twenty four frames in three main narrative frames, eighteen books, meant to be recited- taking seventy-one days at eight hour days reciting...
i have wanted to read this for some time. as i am trying to read much 'Indic' philosophy, have read some Indian novels, i have decided to fill in my sense of history and culture of the subcontinent, and fortunately came across this work. Indian readers are perhaps already familiar with much of the plot, at least through three recent Hindi tv production miniseries, but for those of us westerners, europeans, north and south americans, who do not know: it starts with a game of dice. by this time you know many characters. by this time you know the enmity between the pandavas and kauravas, cousins, of the 'bharata' family- and i cannot think of another dice game as riveting and tense and tragic... one side loses, to skill and cheating, the gambling stakes getting higher and higher... and in keeping their honour the losing pandavas accept their banishment to the forests for thirteen years...
but this is the beginning, for after passing exile the kauravas- or rather one leader in particular, d2- refuses to let the pandavas reclaim their half kingdoms, does not listen to his father d1, and sets off a massive war which involves all the cousins, their allies, their gods, celestial weapons, a lot of battles- have they been abridged? no idea, but these battles take up several hundred pages. there is here integrated the 'song of the lord', otherwise known as 'the bhagavad gita', where Arjuna argues with his charioteer krishna against the idea of going forth to fight his kin, and this pauses the action for a bit, but the final argument seems to be: do your duty! so he does...
d1 is the blind king listener to these accounts with us the readers, and the simple heroes become more and more complex: cousin against cousin, nephew against uncle, there is no limit to who fights who and how the fights go. innumerable unnamed soldiers die. named heroes clash. blood, wounds, death, mud, scavengers, and so on, for thousands of lines. d1 tries to get d2 to see sense and end carnage and repeatedly fails. fantastic heroes battle other fantastic heroes. this war goes on for many, many lines, and includes strategy, tricks, lies, espionage and ambush, as much as face-to-face battles- this is compelling in her rendering, and makes me think of those epic battles in modern fantasy movies between the light and the dark with all their ancient or medieval weaponry... and in the end, one side wins, at terrible cost...
but it is still not over. after winning the war comes winning the peace. at this point the work starts to become more philosophical, more integrating other texts, more about how to be a victor and mourn the war dead, how it is now duty to rule and not remove in grief or take up goals to reach the One (absolute, godhood etc), how this is the right way to rule, how this is the wrong way to rule, how to be man or how to be a woman- by this point it seems the work has become a sort of 'open-source' frame for countless stories, parables, assertions, of more philosophical content, the general way to be worthy (seems to be primarily, feed, listen to, honour, the Brahmins), and as a flexible text gives justification of everything from caste to eating meat to ends justify the means...
so the work does not seem to end as much as sort of disperse. admittedly, for me, much of the postwar philosophizing is contrary to my egalitarian, democratic, political beliefs, and the characterization of duties, of dualities, of the individual, is not coherent with my thoughts. but i can certainly see how this is such an essential Indian epic- i would have to learn Sanskrit, read originals, to critique it any more...
301216: 'whatever is found here may be found somewhere else, but what is not found here is found nowhere else' on the mahabharata...
everything about this cultural, religious, philosophical epic is the essence of India, is authored by and concerns, in plot and thought, so much, so many, and is an epic which has no equal. as a translation i cannot comment, as i do not read Sanskrit, as a poem, this is the most engaging epic poem ever read, though last read any sort in u years ago (decades...), then a prose adaptation of the Odyssey later. by sheer numbers the compiled text is amazingly epic, from about two thousand years past reflecting on yet older tales, in this retelling satyamurti uses twenty-seven thousand blank verse lines. original text is 21 volumes, five hundred named characters, twenty-four main characters (just d: devavrata, drishtadtumna, dhritarashta (d1), drona, drupada, duryodhana(d2)), twenty four frames in three main narrative frames, eighteen books, meant to be recited- taking seventy-one days at eight hour days reciting...
i have wanted to read this for some time. as i am trying to read much 'Indic' philosophy, have read some Indian novels, i have decided to fill in my sense of history and culture of the subcontinent, and fortunately came across this work. Indian readers are perhaps already familiar with much of the plot, at least through three recent Hindi tv production miniseries, but for those of us westerners, europeans, north and south americans, who do not know: it starts with a game of dice. by this time you know many characters. by this time you know the enmity between the pandavas and kauravas, cousins, of the 'bharata' family- and i cannot think of another dice game as riveting and tense and tragic... one side loses, to skill and cheating, the gambling stakes getting higher and higher... and in keeping their honour the losing pandavas accept their banishment to the forests for thirteen years...
but this is the beginning, for after passing exile the kauravas- or rather one leader in particular, d2- refuses to let the pandavas reclaim their half kingdoms, does not listen to his father d1, and sets off a massive war which involves all the cousins, their allies, their gods, celestial weapons, a lot of battles- have they been abridged? no idea, but these battles take up several hundred pages. there is here integrated the 'song of the lord', otherwise known as 'the bhagavad gita', where Arjuna argues with his charioteer krishna against the idea of going forth to fight his kin, and this pauses the action for a bit, but the final argument seems to be: do your duty! so he does...
d1 is the blind king listener to these accounts with us the readers, and the simple heroes become more and more complex: cousin against cousin, nephew against uncle, there is no limit to who fights who and how the fights go. innumerable unnamed soldiers die. named heroes clash. blood, wounds, death, mud, scavengers, and so on, for thousands of lines. d1 tries to get d2 to see sense and end carnage and repeatedly fails. fantastic heroes battle other fantastic heroes. this war goes on for many, many lines, and includes strategy, tricks, lies, espionage and ambush, as much as face-to-face battles- this is compelling in her rendering, and makes me think of those epic battles in modern fantasy movies between the light and the dark with all their ancient or medieval weaponry... and in the end, one side wins, at terrible cost...
but it is still not over. after winning the war comes winning the peace. at this point the work starts to become more philosophical, more integrating other texts, more about how to be a victor and mourn the war dead, how it is now duty to rule and not remove in grief or take up goals to reach the One (absolute, godhood etc), how this is the right way to rule, how this is the wrong way to rule, how to be man or how to be a woman- by this point it seems the work has become a sort of 'open-source' frame for countless stories, parables, assertions, of more philosophical content, the general way to be worthy (seems to be primarily, feed, listen to, honour, the Brahmins), and as a flexible text gives justification of everything from caste to eating meat to ends justify the means...
so the work does not seem to end as much as sort of disperse. admittedly, for me, much of the postwar philosophizing is contrary to my egalitarian, democratic, political beliefs, and the characterization of duties, of dualities, of the individual, is not coherent with my thoughts. but i can certainly see how this is such an essential Indian epic- i would have to learn Sanskrit, read originals, to critique it any more...
September 3, 2024
For a long time, i wanted to learn more about Mahabharata. But the lack of proper knowledge of the context as well as its size and the absence of the popular, accessible translation was always a factor of my reluctance. However, finally I've found a way how to approach it “sideways”. And it was a very satisfying experience. This review is a bit sketchy and I rely on the quotes a lot. But it is for the good reason: I think in this case it is the best attempt to "encompass" the multitude what this poem contains.
So what is this particular book to start with? In the Afterword I've found this interesting, very useful piece of theory:
Carole Satyamurti is a wonderful English poet in her own right. I've first come across her poems when my son was studying for his English literature exams. The one of her poems was included into his syllabus. I've read it.It was called "War Photographer". And the philosophical depth as well as penetrating power of her image in this poem has moved me deeply. I really recommend this poem. But I am sidetracking. Satyamurti possess extensive knowledge of Indian history and culture. According to the above classification, her work on Mahabharata would be a “paraphrase”.
She did not use a Sanskrit original as a base. Instead she used a translation. She also transformed the shloka of the original poem (with 16 syllables per line) into an English blank verse with “a flexible line of nine to eleven syllables, with an average of five stresses.” She also has chosen her own emphasis, which parts of the poem to render in full and which to skip or anything in between. The result is just a twelfth of the original text. But it seems she has kept the structure of the poem which is very unique. However, she kept fidelity to the original in terms of perspectives. In other words she did not try to create her own story and rewrite the text from a perspective of a character different from the original - a very popular genre of some modern novelistic endeavours. The original is still very recognisable in her text. The result is wonderfully enjoyable, but also ver informative reading experience that served me as a brilliant introduction into the complex tradition.
I would not attempt here a lengthy discussion what is Mahabharata and how important it is for Indian culture. I do not have sufficient knowledge and it won’t be enough space. However it is worth mentioning that for everyone born on a subcontinent its characters and subplots do not need any special introduction - they are just part of growing up with. From the same Afterword:
But the most succinctly it is expressed in the text itself (everything further quoted in Satyamurti”s rendition):
The poem fully delivers on its ambition. Though it deals with the war, it cannot be easily compared with other epics such as Homer's Iliad. It is much more complex than the Iliad both in its content, but also in a way it is told (and consequently written). It has got a very compact structure, the narratives within narrative, flashbacks and multiple narrators. According to the Afterword, “a rough estimate is that, inside the three outermost frames, we encounter some four hundred distinct narrative frames that fall along a spectrum, one end of which is marked by narrators who appear many times, and the other end by narrators who appear only once each, to convey a single fable, explanation, vignette, or thumbnail sketch."
And it terms of content, it is estimated that a poem contains around “two dozen main subplots”. But what amazed me how it integrated different genres as well: it is an epic like The Iliad; also it is a religious, cosmological text containing a certain metaphysical view that presented in a dialogue. Respectively there is a moral teaching, but again far from didactic - the characters are asking each other questions and exchange opinions on such things like the nature of evil or justice of revenge. It is full of the little fables and short stories integrated into the main narration. But even that is not everything - there is a chapter when the one of the characters Bhishma teaches another Yudhishthira how to be a good governor. This bit is not far in the spirit from Machiavelli’s treatise which was written circa 1000 years later.
A few examples from the poem of various threads mentioned above:
Yudhishthira (the king) to Draupadi, his wife who was publicly assaulted and seeks to revenge her honour:
Very different in spirit from “The Iliad” if i am not mistaken.
This is from the part that is often read separately as The Bhagavad Gita. Krishna (the God) to Arjuna (the Warrior reluctant to commit to the battle):
And finally Bhishma, the fallen patriarch of a dynasty is teaching Yudhishthira, the kind how to govern. First, a bit of a theory of evolvement of state as an authority and class based society.
And even the comment on the nature of taxation. Note the idea of inequality “it is impossible to treat all alike”, but everyone should behave. The idea still seems to be ingrained even in democratic polities:
“As for paying tax, which no one likes, the king should make it clear that they are living under constant threat of aggression by invading hordes who will certainly lay waste to the land and rape the women if not beaten back by a strong army—for which tax is needed. Tax is the king’s wealth, but if the burden is felt to be oppressive and unjust, rich cattle owners may migrate elsewhere. A wise king encourages the wealthy since their wealth will benefit the kingdom. It is impossible to treat all alike. The king should cultivate the powerful and ensure the compliance of the rest. But the rich should not despise the poor, nor must the strong take advantage of the weak.”
I enjoyed every minute of reading this poem. I have to say i liked it more than the Odyssey for example. Even apart from all additional elements, the characters here seemed to be more like real people, more alive in their needs and passions, more uncertain in their actions. I hope to continue my journey into the Indian culture and its foundational texts.
So what is this particular book to start with? In the Afterword I've found this interesting, very useful piece of theory:
“A text that represents another text may be a translation (“faithful”), an adaptation (somewhat “loose”), a retelling (relatively “free”), or even a reworking (“creative”). In the past two decades, literary theorists have argued persuasively that all these categories can be placed on a single conceptual gradient called “translation” in the broadest sense, which moves from the most literal rendering of a text at one end to the most approximate at the other. In the late seventeenth century, John Dryden suggested brilliantly that the three defining positions on this spectrum be labeled “metaphrase,” which is a word-for-word or interlinear version; “paraphrase,” which deviates from the letter of a text, but not its spirit; and “imitation,” which ignores the letter, and also merely “strives after” its spirit. In general, translators may pursue any of these shades of rendering legitimately, provided they identify the genre of their output without ambiguity—that is, as a translation, a paraphrase, an adaptation, an imitation, and so on.”
Carole Satyamurti is a wonderful English poet in her own right. I've first come across her poems when my son was studying for his English literature exams. The one of her poems was included into his syllabus. I've read it.It was called "War Photographer". And the philosophical depth as well as penetrating power of her image in this poem has moved me deeply. I really recommend this poem. But I am sidetracking. Satyamurti possess extensive knowledge of Indian history and culture. According to the above classification, her work on Mahabharata would be a “paraphrase”.
She did not use a Sanskrit original as a base. Instead she used a translation. She also transformed the shloka of the original poem (with 16 syllables per line) into an English blank verse with “a flexible line of nine to eleven syllables, with an average of five stresses.” She also has chosen her own emphasis, which parts of the poem to render in full and which to skip or anything in between. The result is just a twelfth of the original text. But it seems she has kept the structure of the poem which is very unique. However, she kept fidelity to the original in terms of perspectives. In other words she did not try to create her own story and rewrite the text from a perspective of a character different from the original - a very popular genre of some modern novelistic endeavours. The original is still very recognisable in her text. The result is wonderfully enjoyable, but also ver informative reading experience that served me as a brilliant introduction into the complex tradition.
I would not attempt here a lengthy discussion what is Mahabharata and how important it is for Indian culture. I do not have sufficient knowledge and it won’t be enough space. However it is worth mentioning that for everyone born on a subcontinent its characters and subplots do not need any special introduction - they are just part of growing up with. From the same Afterword:
“Readers and listeners who grow up with the Mahabharata in their inherited cultural environment learn, from others around them, to imaginatively traverse the poem’s aggregate plot many times over, and to grasp the totality of the represented action from the different points of view of different principal characters. Many Indians, perhaps the majority of those familiar with the Mahabharata, internalize this (non-Aristotelian) process of shifting interpretation over a lifetime, and hence entertain multiple perspectives on the characters, events, and meanings of the epic.”
But the most succinctly it is expressed in the text itself (everything further quoted in Satyamurti”s rendition):
“What the poem contains concerning dharma, pursuit of wealth, pleasure, and final freedom, may be found elsewhere. But you can be sure that what it does not contain is found nowhere.”
The poem fully delivers on its ambition. Though it deals with the war, it cannot be easily compared with other epics such as Homer's Iliad. It is much more complex than the Iliad both in its content, but also in a way it is told (and consequently written). It has got a very compact structure, the narratives within narrative, flashbacks and multiple narrators. According to the Afterword, “a rough estimate is that, inside the three outermost frames, we encounter some four hundred distinct narrative frames that fall along a spectrum, one end of which is marked by narrators who appear many times, and the other end by narrators who appear only once each, to convey a single fable, explanation, vignette, or thumbnail sketch."
And it terms of content, it is estimated that a poem contains around “two dozen main subplots”. But what amazed me how it integrated different genres as well: it is an epic like The Iliad; also it is a religious, cosmological text containing a certain metaphysical view that presented in a dialogue. Respectively there is a moral teaching, but again far from didactic - the characters are asking each other questions and exchange opinions on such things like the nature of evil or justice of revenge. It is full of the little fables and short stories integrated into the main narration. But even that is not everything - there is a chapter when the one of the characters Bhishma teaches another Yudhishthira how to be a good governor. This bit is not far in the spirit from Machiavelli’s treatise which was written circa 1000 years later.
A few examples from the poem of various threads mentioned above:
Yudhishthira (the king) to Draupadi, his wife who was publicly assaulted and seeks to revenge her honour:
“But, Draupadi, as the wise know, sinful acts arise from overhasty rushing to revenge. One who is wronged and who responds with anger is prone to bad judgment, liable to act impulsively. Good rarely comes of it. If every person with a sense of grievance struck back immediately, where would it end? Unceasing death inflicted, death returned. An endless round of blow and counter-blow allows for no reflection or repentance and only leads to sorrow upon sorrow. A peaceful world is founded upon patience and only when a kingdom is at peace can children flourish, cows grow fat, and farmers plant seeds with confidence, watch their crops grow, and gather a rich harvest.”
Very different in spirit from “The Iliad” if i am not mistaken.
This is from the part that is often read separately as The Bhagavad Gita. Krishna (the God) to Arjuna (the Warrior reluctant to commit to the battle):
“You need to refine your understanding. In this life, nothing is permanent, nothing can be held, or truly owned. The individual ‘I’ a person clings to— the ego with a sense of past and future, furnished with memories and with intentions— is illusory. Time is the present, an infinite parade of present moments to be experienced, to be endured, misery and pleasure equally. Beings have mysterious origins. They emerge into the light, then disappear into shadow. Why should this cause grief?...So gather your strength, Arjuna, stand up! “The wise mind is as clear as pure water. The unwise wallow in complexity; they cast about, pursuing this practice, that ritual, craving some benefit, their senses agitated, minds distracted. Often such behaviour is applauded, What a devout person, people say.”
“People who are caught up in delusion think they are sole authors of their actions and of the consequences. So they are proud of their success, and suffer shame or guilt when their efforts fail. But the workings of cause and effect are infinitely complex, beyond the scope of human understanding, part of the eternal cosmic dance in which each atom mirrors every other; unknowable and inexpressible.”
“Krishna, what impels a man to do evil even when he receives the best advice, even though he understands what is right— as if some hidden force is pushing him?” “It is desire and anger—those attachments that cast a screen of smoke over the world. Desire is the root, giving rise to anger. These are the age-old enemies of wisdom.”
And finally Bhishma, the fallen patriarch of a dynasty is teaching Yudhishthira, the kind how to govern. First, a bit of a theory of evolvement of state as an authority and class based society.
“There was a time in the history of the earth when there were no kings, and no use of force or punishment; all people lived in peace with one another, honoring the law. But then greed arose, lust and anger, and people grabbed what did not belong to them, fought each other, and forgot morality. Their ritual obligations were neglected. All was chaos; the people were desperate, lacking any source of authority. “The gods hurried in distress to Brahma, lord of creatures. ‘Blessed one,’ they cried, ‘we are afraid. The natural reverence accorded us by humans has broken down. These days, they no longer honour us and we no longer shower them with favours. Our divine status, which derives from yours, is disappearing.’ Brahma thought long and hard and composed the Group of Three, the goals all men should follow to avert chaos: virtue, wealth and pleasure. And he specified a further, spiritual, goal: moksha— release from the ceaseless round of birth and death, merging the self with the absolute.
And even the comment on the nature of taxation. Note the idea of inequality “it is impossible to treat all alike”, but everyone should behave. The idea still seems to be ingrained even in democratic polities:
“As for paying tax, which no one likes, the king should make it clear that they are living under constant threat of aggression by invading hordes who will certainly lay waste to the land and rape the women if not beaten back by a strong army—for which tax is needed. Tax is the king’s wealth, but if the burden is felt to be oppressive and unjust, rich cattle owners may migrate elsewhere. A wise king encourages the wealthy since their wealth will benefit the kingdom. It is impossible to treat all alike. The king should cultivate the powerful and ensure the compliance of the rest. But the rich should not despise the poor, nor must the strong take advantage of the weak.”
I enjoyed every minute of reading this poem. I have to say i liked it more than the Odyssey for example. Even apart from all additional elements, the characters here seemed to be more like real people, more alive in their needs and passions, more uncertain in their actions. I hope to continue my journey into the Indian culture and its foundational texts.
July 15, 2015
I've wanted to read the Mahabharata for years. This is the first adaptation that makes the story friendly to the modern reader without losing its most important aspects, through a few techniques which Carole Satuamurti does extremely well; better than any other I've tried to read so far."
Unfortunately my Sanskrit is really poor and the only full edition translated into English is K.M. Ganguli's at this point. On the one hand it's great because it's so old (Late 19th century) that it's now public domain but on the other hand it's a direct translation of 13000 pages of Sanskrit written in the popular śloka meter. It's around 5000 pages long after translation divided into 18 volumes with lots of reoccurring story lines as well as other classics embedded such as a short form of the Ramayana. On the other hand, the English used is getting a bit dated, not a terrible thing if it wasn't so long and convoluted. But I think the worst thing is the śloka meter obviously can't translate into English since the words are naturally different lengths and the grammar different enough to lose the chanting-like vibe ślokas normally have. I've managed to read two of the 19 volumes but it's a difficult process.
I have looked into other English adaptations and while I found one or two that were condensed the tone still remained inaccessible in one case and in another I wasn't happy with the process of cutting the story down. Carole Satyamurti on the other hand has done a beautiful job of adapting Ganguli's faithful translation into a piece that captures all the important aspects of the Mahabharata in full based on my understanding of the epic in less than 1000 pages. The intensity of the Kaurava-Pandava rivalry is fully intact, she does a beautiful job in particular of painting the tragic character of Karna and most of the plot points that really matter to the socio-religious lessons the Mahabharata teaches are intact.
From what I can tell beyond removing duplicate storylines and modernizing the voice of the narrative she has just condensed sections which in the overall scheme of the book are pretty superfluous. That's not to say I won't continue to work my way through the Ganguli translation, but it will be nice to have her adaptation in mind as I do so.
The only thing I can think of that I wasn't all that happy with was her rendering of the Bhagavad Gita (which is a portion or the Mahabharata, but since there are so many excellent translations of that part by others I wasn't troubled.
Basically if you're someone who's also always wanted to read the worlds longest epic poem (makes the Iliad look tiny) but didn't have the time to get through Ganguli's translation and didn't like the other English abridged versions like myself I can tell you there's now a nice option in Carole Satyamurti's adaptation.
Unfortunately my Sanskrit is really poor and the only full edition translated into English is K.M. Ganguli's at this point. On the one hand it's great because it's so old (Late 19th century) that it's now public domain but on the other hand it's a direct translation of 13000 pages of Sanskrit written in the popular śloka meter. It's around 5000 pages long after translation divided into 18 volumes with lots of reoccurring story lines as well as other classics embedded such as a short form of the Ramayana. On the other hand, the English used is getting a bit dated, not a terrible thing if it wasn't so long and convoluted. But I think the worst thing is the śloka meter obviously can't translate into English since the words are naturally different lengths and the grammar different enough to lose the chanting-like vibe ślokas normally have. I've managed to read two of the 19 volumes but it's a difficult process.
I have looked into other English adaptations and while I found one or two that were condensed the tone still remained inaccessible in one case and in another I wasn't happy with the process of cutting the story down. Carole Satyamurti on the other hand has done a beautiful job of adapting Ganguli's faithful translation into a piece that captures all the important aspects of the Mahabharata in full based on my understanding of the epic in less than 1000 pages. The intensity of the Kaurava-Pandava rivalry is fully intact, she does a beautiful job in particular of painting the tragic character of Karna and most of the plot points that really matter to the socio-religious lessons the Mahabharata teaches are intact.
From what I can tell beyond removing duplicate storylines and modernizing the voice of the narrative she has just condensed sections which in the overall scheme of the book are pretty superfluous. That's not to say I won't continue to work my way through the Ganguli translation, but it will be nice to have her adaptation in mind as I do so.
The only thing I can think of that I wasn't all that happy with was her rendering of the Bhagavad Gita (which is a portion or the Mahabharata, but since there are so many excellent translations of that part by others I wasn't troubled.
Basically if you're someone who's also always wanted to read the worlds longest epic poem (makes the Iliad look tiny) but didn't have the time to get through Ganguli's translation and didn't like the other English abridged versions like myself I can tell you there's now a nice option in Carole Satyamurti's adaptation.
January 9, 2021
Mahabharata is the longest epic poem ever written. It primarily follows the events around the great battle fought between the two rival factions of the Bharata clan. But within this main narrative are interwoven multiple narratives each with its own purpose and lesson. The Mahabharata encapsulates within itself discussions on a multitude of dilemmas dealing with ethics and morality.
Carole Satyamurti's work is a brilliant modern retelling for contemporary readers. She has worked from K.M Ganguli's translation of the text. Written in blank verse for rather than in prose, makes it unique among other works available. Since this is my first reading of the Mahabharata, I cannot compare it to other versions.
Needless to say for something as ancient as this text, one can find many of the teachings to be outdated. But personally what I really admired was that the text generally refrains from taking a black and white approach and the discussions are mostly nuanced in their handling of the characters. The protagonists and the antagonists are given both admirable and unlikable qualities.
The story itself never really gets dull and is entertaining throughout, except a few monologues during post war scenes. Apart from the complex web of narratives and innumerable characters, the Mahabharata is also of tremendous religious and philosophic value. It's often called the fifth veda, it introduces the readers to many key ideas of Hinduism.
Given the multiplicity of discussions on ethics, morality and virtue, one theme that remains more or less constant throughout is the discussions around Fatalism and free will. It does lean more in favour of fatalism, where destiny, karma and time itself is used to justify the war. But here again the answer is not straight forward. As Bhishma says to Yudishtira, "dharma is subtle". Krishna says,
“I see you as much greater, a thousand times
greater, than you see yourself, Wolf-belly.
Your strength and courage are beyond question.
I assure you, I shall make every effort.
But human action, however well designed,
may be opposed by the gods. Conversely,
the gods’ intentions may be overridden
by the effort of a virtuous individual.
Therefore, we have to act. For even though
we may not succeed, or only partially,
we have to do our best, then accept calmly
whatever happens. That is true wisdom.”
Similarly Krishna tells the story of Kaushika to drive home the point that scriptures are well and good but sometimes one has to use one's power of reason.
Dharma is another concept dealt with in great detail. Here the emphasis is on doing the needful and what is beneficial for the larger good. Dhritarashtra the blind king's inability to take action is depicted as weakness as he constantly blames fate for the consequences of his inability to control his evil son. Yudishtira the sensitive, compassionate and the embodiment of dharma is hell bent on renunciation after being overwhelmed by the destruction of the war. A significant portion of the book are scenes where his kins and seers are explaining to him a king's dharma.
Another significant section is devoted to the dialogue between Bhishma and Yudishtira, where his doubts are cleared by the noble grandfather lying on his deathbed made of arrows. They discuss everything from taxation, functioning of a republic, nature of truth, rod of punishment, three fundamentals of a good life i.e. virtue, wealth and pleasure, refugees, metaphysics, sex and nature of time. Ultimately laws of nature and time itself, has been said to be above everything else, even gods.
In our rebirths—hundreds of children, mothers, fathers, brothers.
Which are ours? To whom do we belong?
The foolish allow grief and fear to torture them dozens of times a day.
The wise do not.
A person in the grip of greed or pride is happy to tell others how to live,
but does not want to learn himself.
Time treats everyone alike:
the lowest outcast, the greatest king.
No one can negotiate with time.
Nothing, and no one, lasts;
our lives are inscribed on a flowing stream.
The wise do not grieve over this.
Heartache does not leave the man who dwells on it; it settles in and makes itself at home.
Knowledge is for this:
to fight disease with medicine and misery with wisdom.
We cannot escape the fruits of our deeds;
like burrs that we have brushed past thoughtlessly they cling to us everywhere we go.”
Carole Satyamurti's work is a brilliant modern retelling for contemporary readers. She has worked from K.M Ganguli's translation of the text. Written in blank verse for rather than in prose, makes it unique among other works available. Since this is my first reading of the Mahabharata, I cannot compare it to other versions.
Needless to say for something as ancient as this text, one can find many of the teachings to be outdated. But personally what I really admired was that the text generally refrains from taking a black and white approach and the discussions are mostly nuanced in their handling of the characters. The protagonists and the antagonists are given both admirable and unlikable qualities.
The story itself never really gets dull and is entertaining throughout, except a few monologues during post war scenes. Apart from the complex web of narratives and innumerable characters, the Mahabharata is also of tremendous religious and philosophic value. It's often called the fifth veda, it introduces the readers to many key ideas of Hinduism.
Given the multiplicity of discussions on ethics, morality and virtue, one theme that remains more or less constant throughout is the discussions around Fatalism and free will. It does lean more in favour of fatalism, where destiny, karma and time itself is used to justify the war. But here again the answer is not straight forward. As Bhishma says to Yudishtira, "dharma is subtle". Krishna says,
“I see you as much greater, a thousand times
greater, than you see yourself, Wolf-belly.
Your strength and courage are beyond question.
I assure you, I shall make every effort.
But human action, however well designed,
may be opposed by the gods. Conversely,
the gods’ intentions may be overridden
by the effort of a virtuous individual.
Therefore, we have to act. For even though
we may not succeed, or only partially,
we have to do our best, then accept calmly
whatever happens. That is true wisdom.”
Similarly Krishna tells the story of Kaushika to drive home the point that scriptures are well and good but sometimes one has to use one's power of reason.
Dharma is another concept dealt with in great detail. Here the emphasis is on doing the needful and what is beneficial for the larger good. Dhritarashtra the blind king's inability to take action is depicted as weakness as he constantly blames fate for the consequences of his inability to control his evil son. Yudishtira the sensitive, compassionate and the embodiment of dharma is hell bent on renunciation after being overwhelmed by the destruction of the war. A significant portion of the book are scenes where his kins and seers are explaining to him a king's dharma.
Another significant section is devoted to the dialogue between Bhishma and Yudishtira, where his doubts are cleared by the noble grandfather lying on his deathbed made of arrows. They discuss everything from taxation, functioning of a republic, nature of truth, rod of punishment, three fundamentals of a good life i.e. virtue, wealth and pleasure, refugees, metaphysics, sex and nature of time. Ultimately laws of nature and time itself, has been said to be above everything else, even gods.
In our rebirths—hundreds of children, mothers, fathers, brothers.
Which are ours? To whom do we belong?
The foolish allow grief and fear to torture them dozens of times a day.
The wise do not.
A person in the grip of greed or pride is happy to tell others how to live,
but does not want to learn himself.
Time treats everyone alike:
the lowest outcast, the greatest king.
No one can negotiate with time.
Nothing, and no one, lasts;
our lives are inscribed on a flowing stream.
The wise do not grieve over this.
Heartache does not leave the man who dwells on it; it settles in and makes itself at home.
Knowledge is for this:
to fight disease with medicine and misery with wisdom.
We cannot escape the fruits of our deeds;
like burrs that we have brushed past thoughtlessly they cling to us everywhere we go.”
February 27, 2017
This is the version of the Mahabharata that I would recommend to those not previously familiar with it, or for those who want a nice, poetic version of the epic. The Mahabharata itself is, in translation, thousands of pages long, and contains within it several entire treatises and other works including the Bhagavad Gita, elaborations on governance, and an abridged Ramayana. It is therefore necessary for an single volume version of the Mahabharata to be an abridgment, adaptation, or some sort of retelling. I am particularly fond of Devdutt Pattanaik's Jaya, but that book is more conducive to those who are already familiar with the epic, because it recounts several regional and folk versions of the story and works on the assumption that the reader is familiar with basic Hindu concepts.
Carole Satyamurti's version of the Mahabharata is especially notable because it preserves the structure of the original epic. It is closer to an abridgment than an adaptation, and for the most part keeps the most important parts of the original content without extrapolations or changes. The content itself is poetically worded in an aesthetically pleasing manner that seeks to capture the original intent without cleaving too close to an exact word for word equivalence of the original Sanskrit; Satyamurti is a poet and not a translator. She is a great poet, and this is a beautiful and lively poem.
I especially appreciate the effort she took to retain the structure of the original, keeping large parts of treatises on philosophical and political questions wedged between the main plot. The Mahabharata itself is so long because of this material. Most people familiar with the Mahabharata, Indian or non-Indian, are mostly familiar with the main story, the struggle between the Pandavas and Kauravas, and the workings of Krishna. This edition, however, includes all that along with dialogues about topics relevant to the human condition that could relevant to people in the present. A final note: yes, this is a secularized version of the epic, intended to be read mostly for its literary and philosophical merits rather than its religious content, in the same way most people today read the Iliad without faith in the deities therein. This could be problematic for some, but there are literally hundreds of versions of the Mahabharata that take a more pious note, and since this version is aimed mostly at Western audiences, this really isn't an issue. In many ways, by taking a more objective, philosophical, and less reverent stance (that need not be exclusive with belief), this version of the epic does it great justice by allowing it to be seen in a new, more universal and contemplative light, as a meditation on the themes of human existence.
Carole Satyamurti's version of the Mahabharata is especially notable because it preserves the structure of the original epic. It is closer to an abridgment than an adaptation, and for the most part keeps the most important parts of the original content without extrapolations or changes. The content itself is poetically worded in an aesthetically pleasing manner that seeks to capture the original intent without cleaving too close to an exact word for word equivalence of the original Sanskrit; Satyamurti is a poet and not a translator. She is a great poet, and this is a beautiful and lively poem.
I especially appreciate the effort she took to retain the structure of the original, keeping large parts of treatises on philosophical and political questions wedged between the main plot. The Mahabharata itself is so long because of this material. Most people familiar with the Mahabharata, Indian or non-Indian, are mostly familiar with the main story, the struggle between the Pandavas and Kauravas, and the workings of Krishna. This edition, however, includes all that along with dialogues about topics relevant to the human condition that could relevant to people in the present. A final note: yes, this is a secularized version of the epic, intended to be read mostly for its literary and philosophical merits rather than its religious content, in the same way most people today read the Iliad without faith in the deities therein. This could be problematic for some, but there are literally hundreds of versions of the Mahabharata that take a more pious note, and since this version is aimed mostly at Western audiences, this really isn't an issue. In many ways, by taking a more objective, philosophical, and less reverent stance (that need not be exclusive with belief), this version of the epic does it great justice by allowing it to be seen in a new, more universal and contemplative light, as a meditation on the themes of human existence.
July 10, 2016
Of the English versions of this epic that I've read, this is by far my favorite.
Carole Satyamurti is a poet, not a Sanskrit scholar. Her retelling uses blank verse and modern language to wonderful effect. I couldn't put it down. The wars of succession between the Pandavas and the Kauravas is enough of a tale to grasp without all the subplots, instructive stories, and dharma lectures that make up the Mahabharata. Satyamurti whittles the 100,000 lines of the whole thing into 841 fast-moving pages that include the best of the epic's many digressions.
Satyamurti's rendering captures the spiritual dimension of events and characters (it is not only a great adventure but a religious text) without the pious language that sometimes makes other versions seem two dimensional.
I raced through this version, turned the last page, and started over again.
Carole Satyamurti is a poet, not a Sanskrit scholar. Her retelling uses blank verse and modern language to wonderful effect. I couldn't put it down. The wars of succession between the Pandavas and the Kauravas is enough of a tale to grasp without all the subplots, instructive stories, and dharma lectures that make up the Mahabharata. Satyamurti whittles the 100,000 lines of the whole thing into 841 fast-moving pages that include the best of the epic's many digressions.
Satyamurti's rendering captures the spiritual dimension of events and characters (it is not only a great adventure but a religious text) without the pious language that sometimes makes other versions seem two dimensional.
I raced through this version, turned the last page, and started over again.
March 9, 2018
"What is found in the poem I have recited--concerning dharma, riches and enjoyment, as well as the path to final liberation--may be found elsewhere. But anything it does not contain will be found nowhere."MIMESIS OF SUBTLETIES: Touching the Untouchable Dimension of Reality
Like the Sun that seems to gloriously move from the east to the west and seems to slowly set on its nest at nightfall bequeathing a grandeur sight of colors for all to see just minutes before completely evaporating in darkness, Ultimate Dimension of Reality is also functioning in the same context, ostentatious in its display of hypnotic beauty for effect, but surreptitious in keeping its oftentimes dark purpose and unbeknownst true nature--as in reality we know that the Sun does not actually move around us at all because the fact is inversely true. What we see is just a magnificent visual effect captured by our own limited capacity to perceive the phenomenal world. The Higher Truth and the ground of being per se, the so called Ultimate Dimension of Reality requires more than the capacity of our senses to be able to be perceived. Like small particles that can only be seen through a microscope, Truth can only be known to those who have willingly opened up their consciousness for expansion thereby retrieving the necessary extra sensory perception to see the infinitesimal through the lens of deep wisdom.
MAHABHARATA: The Quantum Physics of Spirituality
"I now understand that my every action is not entirely my own. My attitude is governed by my every experience as each experience is meticulously designed to fit my particular life, moulding me to become a channel for forces much more powerful than myself."There is always a clamor for goodness despite the wickedness that proliferates in this world. People celebrate virtuous men like saints, in spite of the animosity of the majority to follow their unimpeachable examples. Some elders can eloquently teach you about the precepts of morality, which they themselves cannot perform. The Church, which should be your springboard to liberation can oftentimes put you into shackles by adamantly adhering you to their own institution and dogma. The most powerful government in the world, influencing others with their wealth and culture, which should be the role model for all countries to follow, is disintegrating like a planet that slowly dying with all its virtues. How can we know what is good when the end result brings only the bad? How can we identify a blessing when it gradually turns into a curse?
Saurabh Raj Jain as Lord Krishna and Shaheer Sheikh as Arjun in Mahabharat (2013 Star Plus TV series)
Mahabharata is an epic that tackles this intricate layers of the human experience as it subtlety attempts to penetrate the inscrutable. It is an intense exposition that explores the intertwined lives and inevitable fates of people cutting like scalpel to peer beyond their mere motivations and direct actions. It is not just a battle between good and evil, or the righteous and the unrighteous, but more so, it is about the unobtrusive forces that govern both, molding each and everyone to become who they are meant to be individually, to effectively play their own role in the collective scheme of things. It is not the individual act itself that matters, but the contribution of each act to bring forth the mysterious plan of God.
To appreciate Mahabharata in this manner is to go through the experience of Arjuna when he personally witnessed the Vishwaroopa of Lord Krishna in The Bhagavad Gita --the demolition of all notions in the mind. To finally have found the link to ultimately connect anything to everything, realizing that everything is part of everything. That not a tiny speck is wasted in the Universe. Every bacteria, every particle, every soul has a duty to fulfill, a promise to keep. Whether to create, or to destroy is no longer its purpose beyond good and evil each becomes a hand of the Creator for the greater good.☾☯
"Victory is not ours to claim and defeat not ours to brood about."
January 11, 2025
Ten times longer than the Iliad and the Odyssey combined, the Mahabharata is a foundational epic of Indian culture, and includes the Bhagavad Gita, a key Hindu scripture. The epic tells the story (and backstory, and backstory) of a massive war between the five Pandava brothers and their 100 Kaurava cousins - but, as a sage within the epic says, 'what is here may be found elsewhere, but what is not here, is nowhere else.' Satyamurti is a trained poet, and her verse retelling (not a direct translation) is a real delight to read, while retaining the large cast of characters and the moral complexity of the original. This retelling is more compelling, accessible, and nuanced than any retelling or translation I've previously tried to read.
March 23, 2021
Best epic ever.
I've never read this text before, and found Satyamurti's version extremely accessible and often lovely. The work itself is amazing and unbelievable.
I completely accept its closing lines: "Whatever is here, is found elsewhere. But what is not here, is nowhere else."
6/5 stars.
I've never read this text before, and found Satyamurti's version extremely accessible and often lovely. The work itself is amazing and unbelievable.
I completely accept its closing lines: "Whatever is here, is found elsewhere. But what is not here, is nowhere else."
6/5 stars.
December 7, 2021
This is a really approachable interpretation of the Mahabharata. Definitely an excellent starting point for anyone who's interested. There is a wealth of information, translation, and background on the Mahabharata, so this beautifully written and simple version is a great place to get excited about this epic and the characters!
January 2, 2021
“Dharma is subtle; what is right and wrong is hard to speak about in general”
The Mahabharata (“the Epic”) deserves its places as one the great epics in literature, and indeed, one of the great works of literature of any genre. The Epic compares with Iliad with its focus on men at war, the consequences of their actions, and the nexus of fate and free will. And with the Bible with its mix of stories, ethics, religious instruction, and wisdom literature. Yet, the Epic differs from either of those two cannons, not only in style but in its worldview. It also shares with other great epics is the complex view of human nature and morals. There are heroes and villains but none of the characters is good or bad. The question of “what the right thing to do” is never answered easily. Here are some themes:
Following Darma, code, honor, vs. doing what feels right, pragmatic.
The characters frequently debate when they can depart from their assigned roles in life or the accepted path. Even when the accepted path or duty causes devastating consequences either personally or socially. Yudhishthira seems content to wander in the forest as opposed to take action to reclaim his Kingdom, and he struggles with the decision before, during and after the war. Even the characters more comfortable with action, Bishna and Arjun, are conflicted when they have to kill their former friends and teachers.
“Mother,” said Bhishma, “it is impossible. I understand your anguish, but my vow is more important to me than life itself. (p. 21).
“But is it never right,” asked Yudhishthira, “for a person to follow the life path of an order other than their own? - The answer is not clear. Bishna says “no” but the characters during the war use tricks to success.
I know that dharma for a kshatriya is to fight. That is our law. And yet where does killing stop? Killers are themselves killed in return. Thus a feud develops, vendetta never ends. No one rests easy. And does any man, even the worst, deserve to die? Should we conduct ourselves like dogs, wrangling over a piece of meat? Heroism’s a malady; the heart can never know serenity that way. “And yet, we must act. We are kshatriyas. We welcome neither war nor surrender— even capitulation would bring no end to hatred. (pp. 360-361).
While following the assigned role is almost always the advice given, particularly by Krishna, the story is replete with examples of transgressions to accomplish means. Thus, while a type of deontology is preached, a consequentialism is often practiced. While the results are fated, Krishna plays an active role in making sure of the results happen. The warrior/god counsel’s, cajoles, tricks, and cheats his way to victory. The most egregious instance is his refusal to tells the Pandvas that Korna , on the opposing side, is indeed related to them. This would have stopped the war, with its massive casualties. Is it worth? We don’t really know (cf. Job).
Determinism and who we and what is our role
In case there was any question about characters inability to influence events, Krishna puts the notion to rest.
“I AM TIME, DESTROYER OF WORLDS. Even before you act, all these warriors, rank upon rank in the opposing armies, are already dead. I have destroyed them. From the perspective of eternal time, the everlasting present, those men you see lined up, eager for battle, full of the vigor of their youth and strength, are dead already. The bodies which have known cold and heat, pleasure and suffering, already carry death and decomposition in their bones.(p. 418).
The outcome of the battle has long been decided. What does that mean for how we should act?
Here we see the differences between the Iliad, the Bible, and the Mahabharata. In the Ilia, fate is blind. The hero’s are heroic because they are acting within an uncertain world. The fact that they are often tricked into action by the immortals, only adds weight to nobility of the heroes’ actions. In the Bible fate is controlled by an almighty god with a noble ends in mind. While we might know the ultimate purpose and means, one must trust there is one. Thus, following the path set forth by god is the moral path.
In the Mahabharata the characters earn merit by doing their duty but we are not sure to what end. In some ways this does relieve them of guilt or moral responsability.
“How can you still suppose the slaughter was your fault? You were the channel for forces much more powerful than yourself. If you search for the causes of events you should look beyond your blinkered mind. (p. 746).
Given this, it shouldn’t be surprising that both sides are portrayed as both “terrible and beautiful”:
Both forces were terrible, both beautiful. In both, men’s hearts were filled with joy and pride at being part of it—this grand display, this glorious event, this sacrifice, this, the well-trained warrior’s highest calling. Fear, suffering and grief would follow later. (p. 400).
Yet, the character’s actions do have consequences. “All a person does throughout their life sticks to them as their shadow does, including actions they would wish to be forgotten. Each act is pregnant with its consequences. Just as a plant develops flowers and fruit.”(pp. 728-729).
“All a person does throughout their life sticks to them as their shadow does, including actions they would wish to be forgotten. Each act is pregnant with its consequences. Just as a plant develops flowers and fruit entity, comes into existence and then ceases to exist in accordance with its own nature. No personal effort is required to bring this about; it is simply what happens. (pp. 728-729).
How to deal with the conflicting fact that “we are already dead” and that our actions “stick to us like a bur” presents the core the Epic’s (and Hinduism’s) philosophy. The Mahabharata is the ultimate “anti consequentialist.” The goal is to act, but act without attachment.
Those attached to the outcome of their action, then that action’s consequences, like a burr, will stick to them through this life and beyond, determining the nature of their rebirth. That is the unshakable law of karma. But those who do not grasp after results, who treat success and failure as the same, are always satisfied. Although they act, they are really doing nothing—like a boatman rowing with the current, at his ease. (p. 408).
Even the attachment to our own identity is an illusion that dooms us to eternal life.
Being made of ever-shifting particles, the human being changes constantly, as the liberated person knows. By asking me who I am, and whose, you show that you are still mired in the illusion of distinct identity, seeing the world in terms of dualities. If you were truly liberated, you would see that there is no difference between me and others, or between me and you. The self is neither male nor female. If you were truly liberated, I could not have wronged you.(pp. 740-741).
Complimenting the life not attached to consequences is advice on how to live in this uncertainty. At times the advice sounds like the moderation “wisdom literature.” Indeed, this could be snuck into Ecclesiastic by changing “gods” to God.
“All you can do is live as best you can— do your duty as you understand it, enjoy your pleasures, but in moderation, worship the gods.”(pp. 699-700).
While this is enough to live a happy life, only absolute freedom allows permeant release from the cycle of suffering. This freedom is not the western sense.
Action vs thinking. The philosopher king, Yudhisththira, constantly wants to give up power to live in the woods. When banished, he throws himself into it. His brothers, push to get back to the fight. Hinduism is not a religious of acoustics, unless as a Brahmin you are assigned that role
“My friend, there are two paths through this world: the path of knowledge and the path of action. You will not attain enlightenment by renouncing action—and indeed you would find that is impossible. To live out this material existence we have to act, just to keep ourselves alive.(pp. 405-406).
What is truth? What is real can we know it?
There is a base level of reality from which we can judge our actions.
“We know it in meditation, when we see there is no ‘me’ or ‘mine’ specifically— that ‘I’ am part of everything that is. When we hear the chanting of the Vedas the Real is given expression in those sounds. “The Real is that which every living person, from the most accomplished sage right down to the lowest sweeper, has in common. It is impersonal. And it is changeless. It manifests itself in human virtue.” (p. 721).
“The virtuous life has many entrances. To carry out your worldly obligations at every stage of life will bring you merit and is never wasted. But ultimate freedom is of a different order. To approach it a person must learn to release their grasp on all that’s dear to them, whether objects, parents, children—or a cherished idea. Of course, when these are lost one feels great sorrow, but then, with the aid of meditation, one should seek to let that sorrow go, let it float free, like a passing cloud, learning detachment, equanimity” “My heart does not break,’ said the brahmin, ‘because I regard nothing as specially mine, not even my own self. I see the whole world as mine, everything as equally precious. By clinging to one son in a world of sons, you bring yourself nothing but suffering, lurching between joy and sorrow. (pp. 725-726). “
Leadership:
The last 1/4 of the book deals with Y’s questions to his grandfather about the nature of being a leader. He asked one question after another that is as relevant today as they were then.
Does the age produce the king, or the reverse?
How is it that one man, whose body is the same as other men’s, who is no more noble or accomplished than many others, who is born and dies as they do—how is it that this one man is called ‘king,’ and must protect the earth, is respected above other men and treated like a god?”
How republics can hold together without a leader (answer: only when collectively is on top of mind as is fairness and justice so corruption and greed don’t sneak).
When to use harsh means on your people and opponents. “But if the rod of force did not exist, social cooperation, and all it means, would not be possible. Without the fear of punishment, the strong would terrorize and kill the weak, and slaughter each other.” (p. 705).
Are there different rules when times are desperate, when enemies don’t follow the rules, etc. Can the dharma be abrogated.
“Dharma is subtle; what is right and wrong is hard to speak about in general. In such a case, a king who has been virtuous will find within himself the moral judgment to make the best decisions.” (p. 709). Indeed, during the war the characters, even (and especially?) Krishna, engage in deciept to win. Nearly everything is conditions. Trust is a virtue. Or to put it another way, you can only trust who you can trust.
Discussed - hidden or we don’t see
“The world is caught up by appearances, dazzled by their infinite variety, snared by illusion, endlessly distracted, and does not recognize me, the eternal principle that connects the humblest flower with the grandeur of the constellations. It is hard to penetrate appearance; only those who seek me pass beyond it. (pp. 410-411).
Star Wars?
I kept thinking of Star Wars knowing that Lucas was a follower of ancient myths and hinduism in particular. Much like that universe, the battle is not between armies but between each individuals’ inclinations. Each of the major characters on each side of the battle have a crisises of action throughout. Further, Yoda sounds a lot like Krishna.
The Mahabharata (“the Epic”) deserves its places as one the great epics in literature, and indeed, one of the great works of literature of any genre. The Epic compares with Iliad with its focus on men at war, the consequences of their actions, and the nexus of fate and free will. And with the Bible with its mix of stories, ethics, religious instruction, and wisdom literature. Yet, the Epic differs from either of those two cannons, not only in style but in its worldview. It also shares with other great epics is the complex view of human nature and morals. There are heroes and villains but none of the characters is good or bad. The question of “what the right thing to do” is never answered easily. Here are some themes:
Following Darma, code, honor, vs. doing what feels right, pragmatic.
The characters frequently debate when they can depart from their assigned roles in life or the accepted path. Even when the accepted path or duty causes devastating consequences either personally or socially. Yudhishthira seems content to wander in the forest as opposed to take action to reclaim his Kingdom, and he struggles with the decision before, during and after the war. Even the characters more comfortable with action, Bishna and Arjun, are conflicted when they have to kill their former friends and teachers.
“Mother,” said Bhishma, “it is impossible. I understand your anguish, but my vow is more important to me than life itself. (p. 21).
“But is it never right,” asked Yudhishthira, “for a person to follow the life path of an order other than their own? - The answer is not clear. Bishna says “no” but the characters during the war use tricks to success.
I know that dharma for a kshatriya is to fight. That is our law. And yet where does killing stop? Killers are themselves killed in return. Thus a feud develops, vendetta never ends. No one rests easy. And does any man, even the worst, deserve to die? Should we conduct ourselves like dogs, wrangling over a piece of meat? Heroism’s a malady; the heart can never know serenity that way. “And yet, we must act. We are kshatriyas. We welcome neither war nor surrender— even capitulation would bring no end to hatred. (pp. 360-361).
While following the assigned role is almost always the advice given, particularly by Krishna, the story is replete with examples of transgressions to accomplish means. Thus, while a type of deontology is preached, a consequentialism is often practiced. While the results are fated, Krishna plays an active role in making sure of the results happen. The warrior/god counsel’s, cajoles, tricks, and cheats his way to victory. The most egregious instance is his refusal to tells the Pandvas that Korna , on the opposing side, is indeed related to them. This would have stopped the war, with its massive casualties. Is it worth? We don’t really know (cf. Job).
Determinism and who we and what is our role
In case there was any question about characters inability to influence events, Krishna puts the notion to rest.
“I AM TIME, DESTROYER OF WORLDS. Even before you act, all these warriors, rank upon rank in the opposing armies, are already dead. I have destroyed them. From the perspective of eternal time, the everlasting present, those men you see lined up, eager for battle, full of the vigor of their youth and strength, are dead already. The bodies which have known cold and heat, pleasure and suffering, already carry death and decomposition in their bones.(p. 418).
The outcome of the battle has long been decided. What does that mean for how we should act?
Here we see the differences between the Iliad, the Bible, and the Mahabharata. In the Ilia, fate is blind. The hero’s are heroic because they are acting within an uncertain world. The fact that they are often tricked into action by the immortals, only adds weight to nobility of the heroes’ actions. In the Bible fate is controlled by an almighty god with a noble ends in mind. While we might know the ultimate purpose and means, one must trust there is one. Thus, following the path set forth by god is the moral path.
In the Mahabharata the characters earn merit by doing their duty but we are not sure to what end. In some ways this does relieve them of guilt or moral responsability.
“How can you still suppose the slaughter was your fault? You were the channel for forces much more powerful than yourself. If you search for the causes of events you should look beyond your blinkered mind. (p. 746).
Given this, it shouldn’t be surprising that both sides are portrayed as both “terrible and beautiful”:
Both forces were terrible, both beautiful. In both, men’s hearts were filled with joy and pride at being part of it—this grand display, this glorious event, this sacrifice, this, the well-trained warrior’s highest calling. Fear, suffering and grief would follow later. (p. 400).
Yet, the character’s actions do have consequences. “All a person does throughout their life sticks to them as their shadow does, including actions they would wish to be forgotten. Each act is pregnant with its consequences. Just as a plant develops flowers and fruit.”(pp. 728-729).
“All a person does throughout their life sticks to them as their shadow does, including actions they would wish to be forgotten. Each act is pregnant with its consequences. Just as a plant develops flowers and fruit entity, comes into existence and then ceases to exist in accordance with its own nature. No personal effort is required to bring this about; it is simply what happens. (pp. 728-729).
How to deal with the conflicting fact that “we are already dead” and that our actions “stick to us like a bur” presents the core the Epic’s (and Hinduism’s) philosophy. The Mahabharata is the ultimate “anti consequentialist.” The goal is to act, but act without attachment.
Those attached to the outcome of their action, then that action’s consequences, like a burr, will stick to them through this life and beyond, determining the nature of their rebirth. That is the unshakable law of karma. But those who do not grasp after results, who treat success and failure as the same, are always satisfied. Although they act, they are really doing nothing—like a boatman rowing with the current, at his ease. (p. 408).
Even the attachment to our own identity is an illusion that dooms us to eternal life.
Being made of ever-shifting particles, the human being changes constantly, as the liberated person knows. By asking me who I am, and whose, you show that you are still mired in the illusion of distinct identity, seeing the world in terms of dualities. If you were truly liberated, you would see that there is no difference between me and others, or between me and you. The self is neither male nor female. If you were truly liberated, I could not have wronged you.(pp. 740-741).
Complimenting the life not attached to consequences is advice on how to live in this uncertainty. At times the advice sounds like the moderation “wisdom literature.” Indeed, this could be snuck into Ecclesiastic by changing “gods” to God.
“All you can do is live as best you can— do your duty as you understand it, enjoy your pleasures, but in moderation, worship the gods.”(pp. 699-700).
While this is enough to live a happy life, only absolute freedom allows permeant release from the cycle of suffering. This freedom is not the western sense.
Action vs thinking. The philosopher king, Yudhisththira, constantly wants to give up power to live in the woods. When banished, he throws himself into it. His brothers, push to get back to the fight. Hinduism is not a religious of acoustics, unless as a Brahmin you are assigned that role
“My friend, there are two paths through this world: the path of knowledge and the path of action. You will not attain enlightenment by renouncing action—and indeed you would find that is impossible. To live out this material existence we have to act, just to keep ourselves alive.(pp. 405-406).
What is truth? What is real can we know it?
There is a base level of reality from which we can judge our actions.
“We know it in meditation, when we see there is no ‘me’ or ‘mine’ specifically— that ‘I’ am part of everything that is. When we hear the chanting of the Vedas the Real is given expression in those sounds. “The Real is that which every living person, from the most accomplished sage right down to the lowest sweeper, has in common. It is impersonal. And it is changeless. It manifests itself in human virtue.” (p. 721).
“The virtuous life has many entrances. To carry out your worldly obligations at every stage of life will bring you merit and is never wasted. But ultimate freedom is of a different order. To approach it a person must learn to release their grasp on all that’s dear to them, whether objects, parents, children—or a cherished idea. Of course, when these are lost one feels great sorrow, but then, with the aid of meditation, one should seek to let that sorrow go, let it float free, like a passing cloud, learning detachment, equanimity” “My heart does not break,’ said the brahmin, ‘because I regard nothing as specially mine, not even my own self. I see the whole world as mine, everything as equally precious. By clinging to one son in a world of sons, you bring yourself nothing but suffering, lurching between joy and sorrow. (pp. 725-726). “
Leadership:
The last 1/4 of the book deals with Y’s questions to his grandfather about the nature of being a leader. He asked one question after another that is as relevant today as they were then.
Does the age produce the king, or the reverse?
How is it that one man, whose body is the same as other men’s, who is no more noble or accomplished than many others, who is born and dies as they do—how is it that this one man is called ‘king,’ and must protect the earth, is respected above other men and treated like a god?”
How republics can hold together without a leader (answer: only when collectively is on top of mind as is fairness and justice so corruption and greed don’t sneak).
When to use harsh means on your people and opponents. “But if the rod of force did not exist, social cooperation, and all it means, would not be possible. Without the fear of punishment, the strong would terrorize and kill the weak, and slaughter each other.” (p. 705).
Are there different rules when times are desperate, when enemies don’t follow the rules, etc. Can the dharma be abrogated.
“Dharma is subtle; what is right and wrong is hard to speak about in general. In such a case, a king who has been virtuous will find within himself the moral judgment to make the best decisions.” (p. 709). Indeed, during the war the characters, even (and especially?) Krishna, engage in deciept to win. Nearly everything is conditions. Trust is a virtue. Or to put it another way, you can only trust who you can trust.
Discussed - hidden or we don’t see
“The world is caught up by appearances, dazzled by their infinite variety, snared by illusion, endlessly distracted, and does not recognize me, the eternal principle that connects the humblest flower with the grandeur of the constellations. It is hard to penetrate appearance; only those who seek me pass beyond it. (pp. 410-411).
Star Wars?
I kept thinking of Star Wars knowing that Lucas was a follower of ancient myths and hinduism in particular. Much like that universe, the battle is not between armies but between each individuals’ inclinations. Each of the major characters on each side of the battle have a crisises of action throughout. Further, Yoda sounds a lot like Krishna.
May 17, 2024
Great read!
As good an epic as anyone could hope for. It's clear that much has been simplified in terms of narrative technique, but it is pleasant to read, and quite a page-turner. The book is also a fascinating window on the history and culture of ancient India.
As good an epic as anyone could hope for. It's clear that much has been simplified in terms of narrative technique, but it is pleasant to read, and quite a page-turner. The book is also a fascinating window on the history and culture of ancient India.
December 2, 2025
honestly a really, really well written book i absolutely loved it and it was very enjoyable but however it’s not the best book to read if you aren’t aware already of the mahabharata tale and its full context and meanings because it does get vague. i was lucky to be able to read the original texts in hindi (bcs idk sanskrit 💔) but having that context is very important before reading this because you would need to be able to already know to fill in some blanks definitely
but aside from that it’s definitely a wonderful rendition and is told beautifully through poetry bro this book is FULL poetry that’s so impressive!! and despite being poetry it’s like a full story rather than the original story of the mahabharata which is told in bhagavad gita which is very hard to interpret at times with it being in the shloka pattern and stuff like it reads like a story which is so much easier to grasp. but yea i love this book so so much 10/10
but aside from that it’s definitely a wonderful rendition and is told beautifully through poetry bro this book is FULL poetry that’s so impressive!! and despite being poetry it’s like a full story rather than the original story of the mahabharata which is told in bhagavad gita which is very hard to interpret at times with it being in the shloka pattern and stuff like it reads like a story which is so much easier to grasp. but yea i love this book so so much 10/10
June 12, 2018
The translation was excellent, poetic, and elegant. The actual story and the messages it reaffirms is three stars at best. The worst, most toxic parts of Hinduism - rampant casteism, misogyny, male chauvinism, glorified violence, deception - are all on display in this epic war story. Redeeming factors include the contradictions in message, the different points-of-view (even if they are shouted down), and the unglorified depiction of war, even if it is thought of as necessary and right. The nuanced, consistent characterization was surprising and welcome - usually these epics are in service to plot more than people, but the main characters and even some supporting ones in the Mahabharata seemed real to me. The story itself, despite its flawed morals, is gripping, and the asides are fascinating.
August 14, 2023
"Give money to the priests" ~ the priests
Sommige delen zijn 5/5 (Bhagavad ghita voor de Oppenheimer fans), sommige niet. Interessant om Indië beter te begrijpen.
Sommige delen zijn 5/5 (Bhagavad ghita voor de Oppenheimer fans), sommige niet. Interessant om Indië beter te begrijpen.
April 3, 2025
And to know this was the abridged version. Amazing story if you love epics
September 17, 2020
I find mythology fascinating, but also tedious and hard to keep track of. That's true of this as any other mythology I've read, though I thought the retelling would make this more readable than it ended up being for me (though I've no doubt it's more readable than other versions). This and Stephen Fry's book on Mythology were similar in terms of my reading experience, in which I really want to understand the successions and the drama and the intrigue, but have a hard time following all the narratives through.
July 23, 2020
Wonderful
Seeing Peter Brook’s stage production inspired wanting to learn more and this is an excellent read. A mythology of epic impact.
Seeing Peter Brook’s stage production inspired wanting to learn more and this is an excellent read. A mythology of epic impact.
August 7, 2020
I had a hard time in the beginning trying to choose the appropriate version of Mahabharata for me. A Greek girl who had absolutely no idea about Hinduism and their myths other than what we have been taught at school. Therefore I found it a little compeling in the beginning to get the start out of it. Meaning the book might refer to "Dharma" as a commonly known philosophy but I wouldn't know exactly what Dharma really represented for the Hindus. Or what the ksatriyas are. Or who Vyasa is. So I had to do some complementary reading in the beginning to get things in context, that took some time.
I have to mention here that one of my favourite books is the "Odyssea" by Omiros. Some other readers had mentioned that Mahabharata is much greater than the Odyssea which I found it not to be so true. Odyssea feels to have a rythm that never gets you tired. While with the Mahabharata I found it to be stalling for pages after pages on the same subject(e.g. the war scenes, where it goes on an on about how each great hero died in the battle. At the end, each chapter of those felt like a repeatitive narration of a war scene, just with a different hero each time). I also found a bit shalow the simplification of life lessons it wants to evoke through the different story tellings.
Altogether I enjoyed much more the first half of the book which gives a nice insight into Hinduism, spirituality and their traditions. For a first time reader it felt somehow a long read so maybe I would recommend starting with a shorter version.
Be prepared to deal also with a huge number of names and characters.
I have to mention here that one of my favourite books is the "Odyssea" by Omiros. Some other readers had mentioned that Mahabharata is much greater than the Odyssea which I found it not to be so true. Odyssea feels to have a rythm that never gets you tired. While with the Mahabharata I found it to be stalling for pages after pages on the same subject(e.g. the war scenes, where it goes on an on about how each great hero died in the battle. At the end, each chapter of those felt like a repeatitive narration of a war scene, just with a different hero each time). I also found a bit shalow the simplification of life lessons it wants to evoke through the different story tellings.
Altogether I enjoyed much more the first half of the book which gives a nice insight into Hinduism, spirituality and their traditions. For a first time reader it felt somehow a long read so maybe I would recommend starting with a shorter version.
Be prepared to deal also with a huge number of names and characters.
April 12, 2016
I was looking forward to reading a verse rendition of the Mahabharata, since I'd only read it in prose before, but I didn't end up being terribly thrilled by the poetry. It was mostly extremely loose iambic pentameter—too loose to really feel much of a rhythm, in my opinion, so it might just as well have been prose. And perhaps it was the "modern retelling" subtitle at work, but the language didn't seem quite heroic enough, and was occasionally even distractingly anachronistic. So that was too bad. Also, the 200 pages of the battle of Kurukshetra could really have been condensed—every warrior was so superlative that it actually got kind of monotonous. (I realize, of course, that we're working with a pretty huge original epic here, but if she is in fact trying to retell this for a modern audience, that could have used some work.)
All that said, though, it's a fantastic story, and the spiritual power still shines through.
All that said, though, it's a fantastic story, and the spiritual power still shines through.
July 13, 2017
Very fun and readable version of the ancient Indian epic. The glossary at the back is extremely useful in keeping the many many characters straight.
There is one point when the author of this version doesn't quite hit the mark and that is in depicting the action of the Kurukshetra war itself. It got repetitive at times. (Fortunately the war itself isn't the entirety of the book of the Bharatas)
This is my first reading of any form of the Mahabharata so I can't comment on whether it is "the best version" but it is pretty accessible compared to some unabridged attempts which go into laborious detail and lose the reader in the process.
There is one point when the author of this version doesn't quite hit the mark and that is in depicting the action of the Kurukshetra war itself. It got repetitive at times. (Fortunately the war itself isn't the entirety of the book of the Bharatas)
This is my first reading of any form of the Mahabharata so I can't comment on whether it is "the best version" but it is pretty accessible compared to some unabridged attempts which go into laborious detail and lose the reader in the process.
January 15, 2024
No-one reads the Mahabharata for the first time. Especially Indian readers, of course. The stories are so widespread.. It is my favourite epic poem on Indian mythology!!.. I used to read mahabharat stories in school days in library.. which had very deep effect on my thought process
The battle between dharm and adharma (Good vs evil) amoung brothers!! Which shapes indian cultural and political landscape for generations.. Rereading this again brings all those school days memories and resurfaced those life values which this epic poem gives!!
Everyone should read this atleast once in their life time!!
The battle between dharm and adharma (Good vs evil) amoung brothers!! Which shapes indian cultural and political landscape for generations.. Rereading this again brings all those school days memories and resurfaced those life values which this epic poem gives!!
Everyone should read this atleast once in their life time!!
June 3, 2022
I have heard stories from the Mahabharata many times, have read excerpts from it, and own several copies of the jewel of the compilation, the Bhagavad Gita, which is the basis for my core spiritual values, so when I heard there was a new translation, I decided to give it a go. Strange, it has taken me so long to read this massive epic given that so many of the traditions and beliefs I hold dear come from it. I have attempted other translations before and found them rather...dry.
Carole Satyamurti's retelling was incredibly fast-paced for a 928 page book. It took me 3 weeks to finish it. The characters just fly off the page! I found myself dreaming about them in my sleep. They're all there: Yudhishthira, Bheema, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva, Bhishma, Karna, Dronacharya, Shakuni, Dhritrashtra, Gandhari and Kunti. Draupadi, whom I found utterly fascinating, and of course, Sri Krishna.
It was good, don't get me wrong, (obviously, I couldn't stop reading it!), but it's important to keep in mind that it is an abridged/ abbreviated version translated from other translations. I couldn't help but wonder if this was a bit like enjoying the orange juice version of the Mahabharata versus the actual orange; super sweet, less nutritional content. Having read the Bhagavad Gita many times and many different versions, I was very disappointed in the painfully reduced version in this adaption. And it was from this point on that I began to wonder how much of this translation was being faithful to the original text. Granted, the Mahabharata in it's entirety is 8,000 pages long, 200,000 verse lines, 1.8 million words long, so ANY shortened version is going to lose a lot.
I also have heard the story of Draupadi in the throne room, after her husband lost not only himself and his four brothers to his archenemy in a rigged game of dice, but also her! many, many times. It's such a pivotal moment that really sets the events of the Kurukshetra War into motion. And in this version....sigh, it just was too quick, too little content, and reduced for a secular audience. And, in that scene, I realized the hand of the author's own personal agenda, is all over this translation.
I honestly don't know if shortening the Mahabharata and still retaining it's true value is even possible. Clearly, Carole Satyamurti has a love for the material to even attempt such an undertaking, but mostly it served as a gateway book for me. After finishing this adaption, I decided to purchase the 10 volume set of the Mahabharata by Bibek Debroy, which many say is the best and most faithful English translation. And I kept thinking that maybe the very best way to truly understand it, is to learn Sanskrit. SO many friends who speak the original language of a works I love like The Poems of Pablo Neruda, The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, and Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, tell me that you are losing A LOT when you read a text in a different language. Which I suppose is the real struggle of trusting adaptions, they are subject to the person translating it's bias and agendas, something I've always struggle with in reading the Old and New Testaments.
I suppose if one is reading this purely for entertainment, the way one might read The Odyssey or The Illiad, it's good, but for me, it just made me want to delve deeper, which is a very positive thing in and of itself, so in that regard I owe Satyamurti and great big thank you!
Essentially, it is a good shortened version of an epic that would probably take most people a lifetime to read, so if one doesn't have the commitment to read the original, this seems like a fantastic place to start.
Carole Satyamurti's retelling was incredibly fast-paced for a 928 page book. It took me 3 weeks to finish it. The characters just fly off the page! I found myself dreaming about them in my sleep. They're all there: Yudhishthira, Bheema, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva, Bhishma, Karna, Dronacharya, Shakuni, Dhritrashtra, Gandhari and Kunti. Draupadi, whom I found utterly fascinating, and of course, Sri Krishna.
It was good, don't get me wrong, (obviously, I couldn't stop reading it!), but it's important to keep in mind that it is an abridged/ abbreviated version translated from other translations. I couldn't help but wonder if this was a bit like enjoying the orange juice version of the Mahabharata versus the actual orange; super sweet, less nutritional content. Having read the Bhagavad Gita many times and many different versions, I was very disappointed in the painfully reduced version in this adaption. And it was from this point on that I began to wonder how much of this translation was being faithful to the original text. Granted, the Mahabharata in it's entirety is 8,000 pages long, 200,000 verse lines, 1.8 million words long, so ANY shortened version is going to lose a lot.
I also have heard the story of Draupadi in the throne room, after her husband lost not only himself and his four brothers to his archenemy in a rigged game of dice, but also her! many, many times. It's such a pivotal moment that really sets the events of the Kurukshetra War into motion. And in this version....sigh, it just was too quick, too little content, and reduced for a secular audience. And, in that scene, I realized the hand of the author's own personal agenda, is all over this translation.
I honestly don't know if shortening the Mahabharata and still retaining it's true value is even possible. Clearly, Carole Satyamurti has a love for the material to even attempt such an undertaking, but mostly it served as a gateway book for me. After finishing this adaption, I decided to purchase the 10 volume set of the Mahabharata by Bibek Debroy, which many say is the best and most faithful English translation. And I kept thinking that maybe the very best way to truly understand it, is to learn Sanskrit. SO many friends who speak the original language of a works I love like The Poems of Pablo Neruda, The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, and Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, tell me that you are losing A LOT when you read a text in a different language. Which I suppose is the real struggle of trusting adaptions, they are subject to the person translating it's bias and agendas, something I've always struggle with in reading the Old and New Testaments.
I suppose if one is reading this purely for entertainment, the way one might read The Odyssey or The Illiad, it's good, but for me, it just made me want to delve deeper, which is a very positive thing in and of itself, so in that regard I owe Satyamurti and great big thank you!
Essentially, it is a good shortened version of an epic that would probably take most people a lifetime to read, so if one doesn't have the commitment to read the original, this seems like a fantastic place to start.
June 24, 2019
Easy to read. I am not sure if the blank verse made it any easier. I haven't read any other versions of Mahabharata so I am not sure how this compares.
The Mahabharata itself is such a complex piece with narratives inside narratives inside narratives that I am still undecided what I make of it. Although I was aware of the overall story before I read it, I was unaware of the complexities of the characters involved. It is refreshing to see that a tale of such religious importance does not have black and white characters but the text does list out very clearly what it believes is right and wrong even if characters transgress those boundaries with "ends justify the means" arguments.
Of course the Mahabharata is reflective of the times it was written (200BC-200AD) and reading it in this age also provides perspective about how Indian culture has been shaped by it.
Parts that I want to remember-
"In this life, nothing is permanent, nothing can be held, or truly owned. The individual 'I' that a person clings to- the ego with a sense of past and future, furnished with memories and intentions-is illusory. Time is the present, an infinite parade of present moments to be experience, to be endured, misery and pleasure equally. Beings have mysterious origins. They emerge into the light, then disappear into shadow. Why should this cause grief?"
"If a person is bound up, attached to the outcome of their action, then that action's consequences, like a burr, will stick to them through this life and beyond, determining the nature of their rebirth. That is the unshaable law of karma. But those who do not grasp after results, who treat success and failure as the same, are always satisfied. Although they act, they are really doing nothing-like a boatman rowing with the current, at this ease. Their actions do not stick to them, because they are free of yearning for results. In acting in this way, they are engaged in one variety of sacrifice, offering up their actions with simplicity, relinquishing all doubt and ignorance."
"Time treats everyone alike: the lowest outcast, the greatest kind. No one can negotiate with time. Nothing, and no one, lasts; our lives are inscribed on a flowing stream. The wise do not grieve over this."
"The body of a person is a chariot, the mind the charioteer, and the senses are the horses. The unskillful mind lets the horses career around in circles, plunging after this or that attraction in the cycle of rebirth. When the senses are schooled in renunciation of desire, the person is undistracted, free from fear of death. That way salvation lies"
The Mahabharata itself is such a complex piece with narratives inside narratives inside narratives that I am still undecided what I make of it. Although I was aware of the overall story before I read it, I was unaware of the complexities of the characters involved. It is refreshing to see that a tale of such religious importance does not have black and white characters but the text does list out very clearly what it believes is right and wrong even if characters transgress those boundaries with "ends justify the means" arguments.
Of course the Mahabharata is reflective of the times it was written (200BC-200AD) and reading it in this age also provides perspective about how Indian culture has been shaped by it.
Parts that I want to remember-
"In this life, nothing is permanent, nothing can be held, or truly owned. The individual 'I' that a person clings to- the ego with a sense of past and future, furnished with memories and intentions-is illusory. Time is the present, an infinite parade of present moments to be experience, to be endured, misery and pleasure equally. Beings have mysterious origins. They emerge into the light, then disappear into shadow. Why should this cause grief?"
"If a person is bound up, attached to the outcome of their action, then that action's consequences, like a burr, will stick to them through this life and beyond, determining the nature of their rebirth. That is the unshaable law of karma. But those who do not grasp after results, who treat success and failure as the same, are always satisfied. Although they act, they are really doing nothing-like a boatman rowing with the current, at this ease. Their actions do not stick to them, because they are free of yearning for results. In acting in this way, they are engaged in one variety of sacrifice, offering up their actions with simplicity, relinquishing all doubt and ignorance."
"Time treats everyone alike: the lowest outcast, the greatest kind. No one can negotiate with time. Nothing, and no one, lasts; our lives are inscribed on a flowing stream. The wise do not grieve over this."
"The body of a person is a chariot, the mind the charioteer, and the senses are the horses. The unskillful mind lets the horses career around in circles, plunging after this or that attraction in the cycle of rebirth. When the senses are schooled in renunciation of desire, the person is undistracted, free from fear of death. That way salvation lies"
March 19, 2021
I've read different versions of the Mahabharata many times, and watched some too. I picked this one up because it was recommended by the lecturer, Dr. Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, of a series on epics (from Mycenae to Mysore) who mentioned too that it was in blank verse which really intrigued me.
Was this version my favorite telling of the Mahabharata? Maybe not but nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved the blank verse rendition, because it seemed to be true to the story without any obvious layers of interpretation or over-interpretation. I was impressed at how quickly I read it--without skimming I promise. I found it genuinely easy to read, though that might be because I knew (and remembered) most of the tales and tangents that made it up. It has been said of this epic that it encompasses the breadth of human experience; quoting from this version: What is found in this poem...may be found elsewhere. But anything it does not contain will be found nowhere. A friend once told me that the same has been said of other great works of literature including the classical epics and the Bible. Be that as it may, just the sheer bulk of the Mahabharata compared to other books, gives is that much more room to have what others have in some form, as well as what others may not. It really is the master epic in that sense.
What fell a little short for me perhaps was the lack of emotional punch that some of my favorite scenes from other versions and tellings have yielded. For example the scene/episode where Arjuna chooses Krishna as charioteer, over Krishna's entire army, which goes to the Kauravas. Somehow this one always appealed but it felt short-shrifted here. But its a minor quibble about an otherwise wonderful translation.
Was this version my favorite telling of the Mahabharata? Maybe not but nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved the blank verse rendition, because it seemed to be true to the story without any obvious layers of interpretation or over-interpretation. I was impressed at how quickly I read it--without skimming I promise. I found it genuinely easy to read, though that might be because I knew (and remembered) most of the tales and tangents that made it up. It has been said of this epic that it encompasses the breadth of human experience; quoting from this version: What is found in this poem...may be found elsewhere. But anything it does not contain will be found nowhere. A friend once told me that the same has been said of other great works of literature including the classical epics and the Bible. Be that as it may, just the sheer bulk of the Mahabharata compared to other books, gives is that much more room to have what others have in some form, as well as what others may not. It really is the master epic in that sense.
What fell a little short for me perhaps was the lack of emotional punch that some of my favorite scenes from other versions and tellings have yielded. For example the scene/episode where Arjuna chooses Krishna as charioteer, over Krishna's entire army, which goes to the Kauravas. Somehow this one always appealed but it felt short-shrifted here. But its a minor quibble about an otherwise wonderful translation.
June 28, 2021
The most delightful book I'll never finish.
Maybe.
Way back in the before times, I checked this out of the library and started to read. My education in the Eastern classics is woefully slim, and I thought starting with "a modern retelling" of the great epic would be a nice toe-dip into strange waters.
Well. I fell into the story wholeheartedly.....and so did the cup of coffee close at hand. Yikes. I was, of course, charged for the book; I felt especially bad because it had come from a tiny library that didn't really have a lot of wiggle room for replacements. So I dutifully sent an apology and a check.
What I didn't expect was that the library would contact me and ask me if I wanted the book, since I'd technically paid for it. It was MY coffee, so I had no qualms on germy grounds, and if you know how to restore books properly (or can take a good stab at it), the coffee only becomes an issue if you must have everything in your life be perfect.
So, now I own this lovely tale, which I'm about 80% through, but I haven't been able to pick it up since I got it back because the momentum is lost: at this point I'd have to start again to appreciate the ending, and I'm not in the mood for that. It's a summer project, sure, but not THIS summer.
But hell yes mythology. A bit spendy, but if you can pick this up for your library, please do so. It's the gateway drug to more faithful translations, and, quite possibly, an appreciation for Souith Asian literature.
Maybe.
Way back in the before times, I checked this out of the library and started to read. My education in the Eastern classics is woefully slim, and I thought starting with "a modern retelling" of the great epic would be a nice toe-dip into strange waters.
Well. I fell into the story wholeheartedly.....and so did the cup of coffee close at hand. Yikes. I was, of course, charged for the book; I felt especially bad because it had come from a tiny library that didn't really have a lot of wiggle room for replacements. So I dutifully sent an apology and a check.
What I didn't expect was that the library would contact me and ask me if I wanted the book, since I'd technically paid for it. It was MY coffee, so I had no qualms on germy grounds, and if you know how to restore books properly (or can take a good stab at it), the coffee only becomes an issue if you must have everything in your life be perfect.
So, now I own this lovely tale, which I'm about 80% through, but I haven't been able to pick it up since I got it back because the momentum is lost: at this point I'd have to start again to appreciate the ending, and I'm not in the mood for that. It's a summer project, sure, but not THIS summer.
But hell yes mythology. A bit spendy, but if you can pick this up for your library, please do so. It's the gateway drug to more faithful translations, and, quite possibly, an appreciation for Souith Asian literature.
June 26, 2024
This is an incredible telling of the story. I encourage everyone who grew up listening or watching this to actually read the story. Easily meets its claim to be one of the greatest stories humans have told. I actually read this twice back to back.
Like all ancient texts the contradictions of society are laid bare: the cruelty and other human weaknesses of all factions, even the supposed heroes; the decadence of a corrupt society that is being annihilated but still being praised; etc. The text grapples with the foundational questions all human societies ask themselves and fail to fully answer: how to live a good life, the tension between free will and fate, how to act virtuously in difficult times, when is a king or state righteous, who gets to claim revenge and at what cost, etc.
The divine revelations in this book (Time in the Gita; Shiva in the Massacre in the Night) are awesome (in the original sense of the word - terrifying). Kurukshetra is a maelstrom that consumes you.
I find it interesting that people engage more with the Ramayana, which is a less good and morally simpler story, than engaging with this story, which is way better. We should tell this instead of the Ramayana every year. For one, it’s much harder to use this text to support any national project; indeed one of its messages is that all states get obliterated as they fall into decadence.
Like all ancient texts the contradictions of society are laid bare: the cruelty and other human weaknesses of all factions, even the supposed heroes; the decadence of a corrupt society that is being annihilated but still being praised; etc. The text grapples with the foundational questions all human societies ask themselves and fail to fully answer: how to live a good life, the tension between free will and fate, how to act virtuously in difficult times, when is a king or state righteous, who gets to claim revenge and at what cost, etc.
The divine revelations in this book (Time in the Gita; Shiva in the Massacre in the Night) are awesome (in the original sense of the word - terrifying). Kurukshetra is a maelstrom that consumes you.
I find it interesting that people engage more with the Ramayana, which is a less good and morally simpler story, than engaging with this story, which is way better. We should tell this instead of the Ramayana every year. For one, it’s much harder to use this text to support any national project; indeed one of its messages is that all states get obliterated as they fall into decadence.
October 11, 2018
Beautiful. The Mahabharata tells the story of a war in Bronze-Age India set in motion by the gods, a war within a royal family of demigods and impossibly skilled warriors. The plot sounds like the Iliad's, and superficially it is, but the story as a whole feels much different from the Homeric epics: the characters are kinder; the magic is more prevalent, more real; the violence is still present, but even though the story is about the lead-up to and result of the war, it isn't the focus of the story. It is much more about morality and how to do the right thing in difficult situations. As such, parts of the story are preachy, which may bore some readers; but to others, it will give a fascinating insight on how people in Ancient India behaved.
The edition I read, Carole Satyamurti's A Modern Retelling, includes a glossary of terms and characters and a genealogy for the main families. This is useful, especially earlier on in the story when it's setting up how the characters are related. The Mahabharata was originally written for a Hindu audience, so before reading the book, quickly look through the major Hindu gods and basic Hindu philosophy and you'll find reading it more enjoyable.
The edition I read, Carole Satyamurti's A Modern Retelling, includes a glossary of terms and characters and a genealogy for the main families. This is useful, especially earlier on in the story when it's setting up how the characters are related. The Mahabharata was originally written for a Hindu audience, so before reading the book, quickly look through the major Hindu gods and basic Hindu philosophy and you'll find reading it more enjoyable.
January 6, 2021
Everyone should read this version of this book. It's a long journey, but it's one that will stick with you upon closing the pages.
An epic tragedy of earth needing to be purged of evil, with the only solution being a godly preordination of a great war. Loyalties are tested, sons and fathers are lost, all ethics are questioned, and categorizations of "right" and "wrong" are thrown out the window.
At its base, this is a Hindu story about the righteous Pandavas defending dharma and their kingdom, while fulfilling the gods' will, by fighting against their cousins: the Kauravas. While one side is destined to win on a cosmic scale, the tactics used by both sides are deceitful and cruel, and the very essence of dharma is brought into question multiple times.
You will hate some characters. You will love some characters. But at the end of The Mahabharata, you will mourn and appreciate them all.
Favorite group of characters: Arjuna, Krishna (love and hate), Abhimanyu, Karna, and Bhishma.
Bonus points: longest epic poem in history.
An epic tragedy of earth needing to be purged of evil, with the only solution being a godly preordination of a great war. Loyalties are tested, sons and fathers are lost, all ethics are questioned, and categorizations of "right" and "wrong" are thrown out the window.
At its base, this is a Hindu story about the righteous Pandavas defending dharma and their kingdom, while fulfilling the gods' will, by fighting against their cousins: the Kauravas. While one side is destined to win on a cosmic scale, the tactics used by both sides are deceitful and cruel, and the very essence of dharma is brought into question multiple times.
You will hate some characters. You will love some characters. But at the end of The Mahabharata, you will mourn and appreciate them all.
Favorite group of characters: Arjuna, Krishna (love and hate), Abhimanyu, Karna, and Bhishma.
Bonus points: longest epic poem in history.
December 31, 2018
I imagine it's hard cramming 20 odd volumes of a religious -- text(?) -- into 800 or so pages. I believe Ms. Satuyamurti did what she could to pick and choose the highlights of this translated text and did so in a loose poetic form. Admittedly, it's the longest bit of poetry I've read and from that aspect, I enjoyed it.
Even though this is "a modern retelling", I found it rather dull. The first 2-300 pages were interesting and the last 150 pages or so was enlightening. The epic 500 pages between of the war was incredibly dull. Yes, there was espionage, intrigue, and epic battles between heroes; but, in the end, it was a bunch of heroes fighting for pages upon pages. NOT interested. (I'm also slightly amused that in a modern retelling that tons of battling and war is actually interesting when the gods and demigods are nearly invincible, even when fighting each other.)
I'm probably oversimplifying and ignoring lots of great details, but this just didn't do much for me.
Even though this is "a modern retelling", I found it rather dull. The first 2-300 pages were interesting and the last 150 pages or so was enlightening. The epic 500 pages between of the war was incredibly dull. Yes, there was espionage, intrigue, and epic battles between heroes; but, in the end, it was a bunch of heroes fighting for pages upon pages. NOT interested. (I'm also slightly amused that in a modern retelling that tons of battling and war is actually interesting when the gods and demigods are nearly invincible, even when fighting each other.)
I'm probably oversimplifying and ignoring lots of great details, but this just didn't do much for me.
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