Mahabharata, Volume 2

For a very long time, Krishna Charitra was once now not to be had except in Bengali. It has now been translated into English, yet merits greater dissemination. a bit later, whilst in collage, I encountered Buddhadeb Bose’s Mahabharater Katha. That used to be one other marvelous selection of essays, first serialized in after which released as a booklet in 1974. This too was once initially in Bengali, yet is now on hand in English. in contrast to my sons, my first publicity to the Mahabharata tale got here now not via tv serials yet comedian books. Upendrakishore Raychowdhury’s Mahabharata (and Ramayana) for kids used to be staple vitamin, later supplanted via Rajshekhar Basu’s abridged types of either epics, written for adults. either have been in Bengali. In English, there has been Chakravarti Rajagopalachari’s abridged translation, nonetheless a perennial favorite. Later, Chakravarthi Narasimhan’s selective unabridged translation gave a flavour of what the Mahabharata really contained. In Bengal, the Kashiram Das model of the Mahabharata, written within the 17th century, was once particularly well known. I by no means came across this beautiful. yet within the overdue Nineteen Seventies, I stumbled upon a treasure. Kolkata’s well-known collage highway used to be a storehouse of previous and second-hand books in these days. You by no means knew what you'll become aware of while searching. within the 19th century, an unabridged translation of the Mahabharata have been performed in Bengali lower than the editorship of Kaliprasanna Singha (1840–70). I picked this up for the princely sum of Rs five. The 12 months could have been 1979, yet Rs five used to be nonetheless awesome. This was once my first entire studying of the unabridged model of the Mahabharata. this actual replica most likely had antiquarian worth. The pages might collapse in my fingers and that i quickly changed my precious ownership with a republished reprint. now not longer after, I obtained the Aryashastra model of the Mahabharata, with either the Sanskrit and the Bengali jointly. within the early Eighties, i used to be additionally uncovered to 3 Marathi writers writing at the Mahabharata. there has been Iravati Karve’s Yuganta. This was once to be had in either English and in Marathi. I learn the English one first, through the Marathi. The English model isn’t an actual translation of the Marathi and the Marathi model is much stronger. Then there has been Durga Bhagwat’s Vyas Parva. This used to be in Marathi and i'm now not conscious of an English translation. eventually, there has been Shivaji Sawant’s Mritunjaya, a type of autobiography for Karna. This used to be on hand either in English and in Marathi. within the early Eighties, particularly by accident, I encountered shlokas, one from Valmiki’s Ramayana, the opposite from Kalidasa’s Meghadutam. those have been poets separated via something among 500 to 1,000 years, the precise interval being an doubtful one. The shloka in Meghadutam is true in the direction of the start, the second one shloka to be exact. it's the first day within the month of Ashada. The yaksha has been cursed and has been separated from his cherished. The mountains are coated with clouds. those clouds are like elephants, bent down as though in play.