Language: English
Kamala Subramaniam. 870 pages. Edition 2015.
The author has captured with dramatic intensity the movement of the story of the epic Mahabharata. The narrative is vivid, and is a priceless legacy for the young and the old. The story of the Pandavas and the Kauravas and the Mahabharata war has been retold in a superb manner. Though the book is an abridged version of the great epic, all the important aspects have been covered in it. The style is lucid, the dialogues crisp and the characters come alive in front of the readers because of the descriptions by the author. The story is more than just an epic, it tells the story of heroic men and women, code of life, philosophy of social and ethical relations. More details: This book on the Mahabharata starts with the meeting of Ganga and Santanu, and their subsequent marriage, and the birth of their children. When Santanu asks Ganga the reason for drowning the children born to her, she takes the eighth child and disappears from his life. The story continues with Satyavati, Pandu, Dhritarashtra, Pandavas and Kauravas, and ends with the entry of the Pandavas into heaven. The Mahabharata is not a mere epic:it is a romance,telling the tale of heroic men and women and of some who are divine:it is a whole literature in itself,containing a code of life,a philosophy of social and ethical relations,and speculative thought on human problems that is hard to rival,but above all,it has for it's core with Gita,which it,as the world is beginning to find out,the noblest of scriptures and the grandest of sagas the climax of which is reached in the wondrous Acolypse in the eleventh canto.Through such books alone,the harmonies underlying true culture, will one day reconcile the disorders of modern life. The popularity of the book is such that it has run into fourteen editions since it was first published in the year 1965.