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Mahabharata

A Modern Retelling
4.43 goodreads logo

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( 425 ratings, 70 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Originally composed around two thousand years ago, the Mahabharata is an epic tale of a royal dynasty descended from gods, whose bitter feud over their kingdom culminates in a devastating war. Beyond conflict, it explores profound themes of duty, love, and spiritual freedom, encompassing the celebrated Bhagavad Gita and reflecting a world of myth, passion, and philosophy. This timeless Hindu text is a work of immense scope and significance in world literature.

Carole Satyamurti's retelling is composed in blank verse, masterfully capturing the beauty and depth of the original Sanskrit poem across all eighteen books.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$4799
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

An essential read for those interested in Religion & Spirituality, world classics, Indian mythology, epic poetry, and cultural history.

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"Astonishing…[Satyamurti's Mahabharata] brings [the] past alive…as though it were a novel in finely crafted verse." Vinay Dharwadker

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Originally composed approximately two thousand years ago, the Mahabharata tells the story of a royal dynasty, descended from gods, whose feud over their kingdom results in a devastating war. But it contains much more than conflict. An epic masterpiece of huge sweep and magisterial power, a hundred times more interesting than the Iliad and the Odyssey, writes Wendy Doniger in the introduction, the Mahabharata is a timeless work that evokes a world of myth, passion, and warfare while exploring eternal questions of duty, love, and spiritual freedom. A seminal Hindu text, which includes the Bhagavad Gita, it is also one of the most important and influential works in the history of world civilization.

Innovatively composed in blank verse rather than prose, Carole Satyamurti's English retelling covers all eighteen books of the Mahabharata. This new version masterfully captures the beauty, excitement, and profundity of the original Sanskrit poem as well as its magnificent architecture and extraordinary scope.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

New Statesman praises Satyamurti's version as a readable and gripping narrative that uses earlier English versions as a foundation to create a bold modern retelling. The Tablet highlights it as a bold new English translation that captures the excitement and scope of the original epic poem.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780393352498

Publisher: WW Norton & Co

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 22 February 2016

Country: United States

Imprint: WW Norton & Co

Illustration: Map

Contributors:

  • Afterword by Vinay Dharwadker
  • Foreword by Wendy Doniger

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 41.0mm

Width: 140.0mm

Height: 211.0mm

Weight: 670g

Pages: 928

About the Author

Carol Satyamurti is a poet, sociologist, and translator. The author of many books of poetry, she has taught regularly for the Arvon Foundation and for the Poetry Society (UK). She lives in London. Wendy Doniger (Ph.D. Harvard University) is Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago. She first trained as a dancer under George Balanchine and Martha Graham and then went on to complete two doctorates in Sanskrit and Indian Studies (from Harvard and Oxford). She has taught at Harvard, Oxford, the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, and the University of California at Berkeley. In 1984 she was elected president of the American Academy of Religion, in 1989 a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in 1996 a member of the American Philosophical Society, and in 1997 president of the Association for Asian Studies. She has been awarded seven honorary degrees, and her book The Hindus: An Alternative History was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Vinay Dharwadker (University of Wisconsin-Madison) is the author of Cosmopolitan Geographies: New Locations in Literature and Culture (2001) and a book of poetry, Sunday at the Lodi Gardens: Poems (1994). He is the editor of The Oxford Anthology of Modern Indian Poetry (1994) and The Collected Essays of A. K. Ramanujan (1999), and the translator of a collection of Kabir's work called Kabir: The Weaver's Songs (2003).

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