Tales Of Love And War From The Mahabharat

The Mahabharat--which means "the great tale of the descendants of the prince Bharata"-- is one of India's greatest religious epics and has had a profound and continuing influence upon the popular psyche of the nation. Consisting of over 100,000 couplets (about eight times the length of the Iliad and Odyssey combined), this vast epic forms the background to much of India's religious and cultural life. While there are many episodes included in the Mahabharat, the central story follows the struggles of two rival families--the Kauravas and the Pandavas--to secure control of Kurukshetra, an area northeast of modern Dehli (a conflict that has its basis in real events that probably took place before the tenth century, B.C.). In his beautiful and evocative retelling of fourteen of these classic tales, Gopal Das Khosla emphasizes the morality of love and war as presented in the epic, focusing especially on these themes as seen in the feud between the two families, a fight which culminates in the great battle of Kurukshetra. Based entirely on the ten-volume Hindi translation, Khosla underscores the narrative flow of these tales allowing unfamiliar readers to not only appreciate this fine work of literature, but to delve into the rich Indian culture that surrounds The Mahabharat.

Erotic in style and content, this collection unearths the forgotten and lesser known tales of love from the great epic. The narrative is sensuous and often sensual in detail, pulsating with the blood and throb of bodies that breath in unison, in a world particularized by its own mores. Parikshit and Sushobhana, Agni and Svaha, Agastya and Lopamudra, and many more lovelorn couples take the reader on a journey through the crosscurrents of physical desire and psychic union.

Nationalist and ethnic conflict can take many forms, from genocidal violence and civil war to protest movements and peaceful squabbles in democracies. Nationalist Passions poses a stark challenge to extreme rationalist understandings of political conflict. Stuart J. Kaufman elaborates a compelling theory of ethnic politics to explain why ethnic violence erupts in some contexts and how peace is maintained in others. At the core of Kaufman's theory is an assertion that conflicts are initiated due to popular "symbolic predispositions"—biases of all kinds—and perceptions of threat.Kaufman puts his theory to the test in a range of conflicts. He examines some highly violent episodes, among them the Muslim rebellion in the southern Philippines beginning in the 1970s; the civil war in southern Sudan that began in the 1980s; and the Rwanda genocide of 1994. Kaufman also analyzes other situations in which leaders attempted to tame the violence that nationalist passions can generate. In India, Mahatma Gandhi mobilized an overtly nonviolent movement but failed in his efforts to prevent the rise of Muslim-Hindu communal violence. In South Africa, Nelson Mandela and F. W. de Klerk ended apartheid, but not without terrible cost—more than fifteen thousand people died while the negotiations were under way. In Tanzania, however, Julius Nyerere led one of the few ethnically diverse countries in the world with almost no ethnic violence. Nationalist Passions is essential reading for policymakers, international aid workers, and all others who seek to find the best possible outcomes for future internal and interstate clashes.

“Narayan makes this treasury of Indian folklore and mythology readily accessible to the general reader . . . he captures the spirit of the narrative.”—Library Journal The Mahabharata tells a story of such violence and tragedy that many people in India refuse to keep the full text in their homes, fearing that doing so would invite a disastrous fate upon their house. Covering everything from creation to destruction, this ancient poem remains an indelible part of Hindu culture and a landmark in ancient literature. Centuries of listeners and readers have been drawn to The Mahabharata, which began as disparate oral ballads and grew into a sprawling epic. The modern version is famously long, and at more than 1.8 million words—seven times the combined lengths of the Iliad and Odyssey—it can be incredibly daunting. But contemporary readers have a much more accessible entry point to this important work, thanks to R. K. Narayan’s masterful, elegant translation and abridgement of the poem. Now with a new foreword by Wendy Doniger, as well as a concise character and place guide and a family tree, The Mahabharata is ready for a new generation of readers. Narayan ably distills a tale that is both traditional and constantly changing. He draws from both scholarly analysis and creative interpretation and vividly fuses the spiritual with the secular. Through this balance he has produced a translation that is not only clear, but graceful, one that stands as its own story as much as an adaptation of a larger work.

Which Kaurava was inspired by the birds to commit one of the most grotesque murders in the Mahabharata? Why did King Muchkund sleep for a million years and wake up in the Dwaparyug? Whose soul had entered the dice of Shakuni? Why was Gandhari married to a goat before she wed Dhritarashtra? What was the secret behind Arjun's chariot being burnt to ashes after the war? Who instigated Janmejay to burn every snake in the universe? Who was the only Kaurava to cross over to the Pandavas before the battle? An epic that never dies and still remains relevant even thousands of years later-Vyasa's Mahabharata has always captured our imagination. The saga of two feuding families, the Mahabharata, with its various twists and turns, has been a compelling read across generations, inspiring many to dig deeper into the great poem. This collection of twenty short stories brings out characters and incidents that are largely unheard of and are buried in the vastness of the epic. Capturing every emotion from valour, lust, loyalty and treachery to goodness and ethics so relevant to the world we live in, these stories help us understand the epic better by bringing out a different dimension altogether.

The epic of Mahabharat is not just a story but an integral part of Hinduism. The voluminous epic is said to contain almost every aspect that can be thought of. It has love, it has passion, it has war, it has treachery, it has life and it has death. It tells the story of dharma and depicts the victory of good over evil. It also has the gospel of Gita - the way of life. In our efforts to bring classic Indian literature to the Kindle and other modern platforms, we have attempted to retell this story in two parts. This first part contains the initial period before the actual war and starts with the story of King Shantanu and Ganga and ends with Draupadi Swayamwar. The stories are kept simple and illustrated with pictures for children to understand. Lord Krishna was an incarnation of Narayana. He always sided with dharma - the righteous way. It is said that whenever there is a dearth of righteousness in the world and there is a danger of lawlessness becoming prevalent in the world, he reincarnates himself. God always guides and leads the righteous and virtuous. The one whose life is guided and guarded by God himself has nothing to fear. As you read the Mahabharat, you will understand the subtle message of each incident in it. May the teachings of the Mahabharat be the guiding light in your life.