The Sauptikaparvan of the Mahabharata: The Massacre at Night

by William J. Johnson (Translator)

In this, the tenth book of the great Indian epic, The Mahabharata, the war has finally ended in victory for the Pandavas. One of the vanquished, Asvatthaman, carries out his threat to massacre the victorious army as it sleeps, and then unleashes a weapon of total destruction. But now the great god, Krsna, makes an extraordinary intervention, and a new hope for the social and cosmic order emerges in the form of an unborn child.

Genres: Poetry, Religion, Hinduism

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Rebekah Sturgill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm unsure how one would read this without having read other volumes of the Mahabharata in order to get the context. Even reading the summary provided in the back seems insufficient. Seeing this as the culmination of the war was both fitting and horribly disappointing. Were the Pandavas unlawful in their actions, even though they were following Krishna? Is morality here absolute or purely reactionary? I'm unsatisfied but I think that has more to do with the fact that some questions in this text are going to feel inaccessible to me, no matter how much I read it and spend time with it.

[Justin Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the easiest thing in the world to review, you might think, since it's kind of like reviewing one book from the Odyssey. It could have been disastrous, but Johnson does a great job in all sorts of ways: he translates this as poetry! The translation is readable! The annotation is deep and helpful without being overwhelming! The story itself is fascinating and fun, and deserves five stars. There are only two problems: Johnson, for whatever reason, is obsessed with structuralist interpretation, which sullies the introduction and the notes. More importantly, I now want the rest of the Mahabharata in bite sized chunks. Please, Oxford University Press, make it happen!

[Srikanth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book (the eleventh?) of the Mahabharata, in a fine translation. The inspiration for the massacre -- an owl among crows, I think -- is supercool.