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Suggestions for Further Reading

TRANSLATIONS

I HAVE DRAWN on a number of translations of the Mahabharata. The only complete one, to date, is that by K. M. Ganguli, published at the end of the nineteenth century, (The Mahabharata of Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa, republished by Munshi Manoharlal Publishers Pvt Ltd, 4th edition, New Delhi, 2008). This translation is also available online (in the “Internet Sacred Text Archive”). Ganguli’s work predates the Sanskrit Critical Edition (1933–66), and is based on sources which differ from that work in some respects. But it is regarded by contemporary scholars as broadly accurate, and although the language is rather archaic, as one would expect, his often waspish footnotes about interpretations other than his own are a delight.

The University of Chicago Press has, since 1973, been bringing out a new translation, based on the Pune Critical Edition. The translators are, first, J. A. B. van Buitenen (Books 1–5) and, more recently, James Fitzgerald (Book 11 and part of Book 12). More volumes are to come. Apart from the texts themselves, the Notes and Introductions are very useful.

The Clay Sanskrit Library (published by New York University Press) has produced a number of volumes in parallel text, covering the war books in particular. Vaughan Pilikian’s translation of part of the Book of Drona is especially vivid.

John Smith’s abridged translation, The Mahabharata (Penguin Books, 2009), is an invaluable resource. It alternates passages of full translation with abridged passages. Apart from its intrinsic merits, it will enable any reader embarking on the vast ocean of Ganguli’s cumbersome prose to navigate far more easily.

W. J. Johnson has translated the Bhagavad Gita and The Sauptikaparvan of the Mahabharata: The Massacre at Night as separate volumes, both published by Oxford World’s Classics, and both containing useful Introductions.

SECONDARY SOURCES

For an account of the history of ancient India, see Romila Thapar, Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003).

There is a wealth of scholarly books and articles on the Mahabharata. Below is a short selection of books which I, as a non-specialist, have found interesting, and which will begin to open up, for the general reader, some of the main issues raised by theMahabharata.

Brockington, John. The Sanskrit Epics. Leiden: Brill, 1998.

Brodbeck, Simon. The Mahabharata Patriline: Gender, Culture and the Royal Hereditary. Farnham, U.K.: Ashgate, 2009.

Brodbeck, Simon, and Brian Black, eds. Gender and Narrative in the Mahabharata. London: Routledge, 2007.

Das, Gurcharan. The Difficulty of Being Good: on the Subtle Art of Dharma. Delhi: Penguin Books, Allen Lane, 2009.

Dhand, Arti. Woman as Fire, Woman as Sage: Sexual Ideology in the Mahabharata. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2008.

Fitzgerald, James L. “Mahabharata.” In The Hindu World, edited by Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby. New York: Routledge, 2004.

Hill, Peter. Fate, Predestination and Human Action in the Mahabharata. Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 2001.

Hiltebeitel, Alf. The Ritual of Battle: Krishna in the Mahabharata. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1976.

———. Rethinking the Mahabharata: A Reader’s Guide to the Education of the Dharma King. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.

Hopkins, E. Washburn. The Great Epic of India: Its Character and Origin. New York: Scribner, 1901.

Karve, Irawati. Yuganta: The End of an Epoch. Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan, 1969.

Katz, Ruth C. Arjuna in the Mahabharata: Where Krishna Is There Is Victory. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1989.

Lipner, Julius, ed. The Fruits of Our Desiring: An Enquiry into the Ethics of the Bhagavadgita for Our Times. Calgary: Bayeux Arts, 1997.

Matilal, B. K., ed. Moral Dilemmas in the Mahabharata. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1989.

McGrath, Kevin. The Sanskrit Hero: Karna in the Epic Mahabharata. Leiden: Brill, 2004.

Sen, K. M. Hinduism. London: Penguin Books, 2005.

Sharma, Arvind, ed. Essays on the Mahabharata. Leiden: Brill, 1991.

Sullivan, Bruce. Seer of the Fifth Veda: Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa in the Mahabharata. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1999.

Sutton, Nicholas. Religious Doctrines in the Mahabharata. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2000.

Woods, Julian F. Destiny and Human Initiative in the Mahabharata. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001.

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