Mahabharata

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.8

Word count: 307K words
Chapters: 31

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Maha-bharata by Romesh Chunder Dutt. Author: , Language: English, Class: PK: Language and Literatures: Indo-Iranian literatures, Release Date: Oct 25, 2006

Editor's review

This book is Romesh Chunder Dutt's verse retelling in English of the Maha-bharata, released by Project Gutenberg as a free eBook. Dutt condenses the vast narrative of this Indian epic into English verse, retaining its main characters, core episodes, and ethical themes so that readers unfamiliar with Sanskrit can still grasp the epic's outline. Compared with the full text, this retelling is concise and clearly structured, making it a suitable introduction to the Indian epic tradition and a useful window into how a nineteenth-century Indian intellectual presented his own classics to the English-speaking world. As you read, pay attention to what is kept and what is cut: which episodes and philosophical passages are preserved and which are compressed reveals the translator's own cultural stance. As a public-domain electronic text, it is easy to obtain and well suited to classroom excerpts and self-study.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who want a first look at the main story of the Maha-bharata but are daunted by the length of the full text
Students interested in Indian epic and religious culture who wish to begin in English
Scholars studying colonial-era Indian writing in English and the translation of classics
Teachers of literature, drama, or comparative culture who need epic story material

Not a good fit for

Researchers seeking the complete Sanskrit original or a sentence-by-sentence faithful translation
Specialist readers looking for in-depth philosophical annotation and scholarly textual criticism
Casual readers who find verse narrative uncongenial and prefer prose storytelling

Reading tips

Read the introduction or preface first to understand Dutt's aims in retelling, which helps you grasp his criteria for selection.
Keep a simple character chart at hand to follow the central conflict between the Kauravas and the Pandavas.
After each section, retell the main events in a few sentences to check your grasp of the epic's structure.
Read alongside introductory material on Indian epic to fill in background omitted from this condensed version.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this a complete translation of the Maha-bharata?

No. This is Romesh Chunder Dutt's condensed retelling in English verse, concentrating on the epic's main characters and plot; it is not a sentence-by-sentence translation of the Sanskrit original. It is well suited to getting an overview of the story, but studying the details of the original still requires a complete translation or the Sanskrit text.

Can I understand this book without knowing Indian culture?

You can follow the main storyline. Dutt's retelling was written for English readers and its narrative is relatively clear. The epic does involve Indian religious, caste, and ethical concepts, so it helps to read alongside basic background material; you need not look up every deity's name and allusion—first grasp the main characters and conflicts.

Why choose Dutt's English retelling?

Dutt was a nineteenth-century Indian intellectual whose English verse retelling brought the epic into the English-reading world; it is concise and tightly focused, suitable for beginners and classroom teaching. At the same time, the text reflects how Indians in the colonial period presented their own classics to the West, giving it value in both literary and cultural history.

Comments

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Project Gutenberg is not a single author but a nonprofit digital library founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and one of the world's earliest free ebook platforms. It relies on volunteers to digitize, proofread, and freely distribute public-domain works and is now operated by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Its collection contains 2,692 works, mainly religious texts, epics, and story collections, including the King James Bible and the Douay-Rheims volumes, the epic Mahabharata, a literal translation of the Arabian Nights, and Danish editions of the Old and New Testaments. Public information is limited, and its nature is closer to a public-interest compiling and dissemination body; these texts are open to the public, easy to consult and circulate, and have had a profound influence on the spread of ebooks and the preservation of public-domain resources.