The Complete Mahabharata in English (12 Volumes)

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The Complete Mahabharata in English (12 Volumes)
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The Mahabharata in its present form is equal to about eight times as much as the Illiad and Odyssey put together. The nucleus of the Mahabharata is the great war of eighteen days fought between the, Kauravas, the hundred sons of Dhritarashtra and Pandavas, the five sons of Pandu. The epic entails all the circumstances leading upto the war. In this great Kurukshetra battle were involved almost all the kings of India joining either of the two parties. The result of this war was the total annihilation of Kauravas and their party, and Yudhishthira, the head of the Pandavas, became the sovereign monarch of Hastinapura, symbolizing the victory of good over evil. But the progress of the years new matters and episodes relating to the various aspects of hanuman life, social, economic, political, moral and religious as also fragments of other heroic legends came to be added to the aforesaid nucleus and this phenomenon continued for centuries until it acquired the present shape.

This very fact that the Mahabharata represents a whole literature rather than one single and unified work, and contains so many and so multifarious things, makes it more suited than any other book of afford us an insight into the deepest depths of the soul of Indian people.

 

About the Book

In the world of classical literature the Mahabharata is unique in many respects. As an epic, it is the greatest-seven times as great as the Illiad and the Odyssey combined, and the grandest-animating the heart of India over two thousand years past and destined to lead humanity for thousands of years in future. It is the mightiest single endeavour of literary creation of any culture in human history. The effort to conceive the mind that conceived it is itself a liberal education and a walk through its table of contents is more than a Sabbath day's Journey.

The translation was completed and serially published in thirteen years from AD 1883 to 1896 in one hundred fasciculi. The original edition was out of print within the lifetime of Mr. Ganguli, and is made available once again.

 

About the Author

Kisari Mohan Ganguli completed the translation of Mahabharata and serially published in thirteen years from AD 1883 to 1896 in one hundred fasciculi.

Ganguli preferred public anonymity till compilation. But from the very beginning though anonymous to the general readers, the authorship of Ganguli was not secret to the numerous oriental scholars and patrons of the enterprise, Indian and foreign with whom he was constantly linked through direct contact or correspondence. The then Central Government also recognised the services of Ganguli as the translator of this great work by conferring the C.I.E. titles and awarding the first Honorary Literary Person for life to him.

 

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

The object of a translator should ever be to hold the mirror up to his author. That being so, his chief duty is to represent so far as practicable the manner in which his author's ideas have been expressed, retaining if possible at the sacrifice of idiom and taste all the peculiarities of his author's imagery and of language as well. In regard to translations from the Sanskrit, nothing is easier than to dish up Hindu ideas, so as to make them agreeable to English taste. But the endeavor of the present translator has been to give in the following pages as literal a rendering as possible of the great work of Vyasa, To the purely English reader there is much in the following pages that will strike as ridiculous. Those unacquainted with any language but their own are generally very exclusive in matters of taste. Having no knowledge of models other than what they meet with in their own tongue, the standard they have formed of purity and taste in composition must necessarily be a narrow one. The translator, however, would ill-discharge his duty, if for the sake of avoiding ridicule, he sacrificed fidelity to the original. He must represent his author as he is, not as he should be to please the narrow taste of those entirely unacquainted with him. Mr. Pickford, in the preface to his English translation of the Mahavira Charita, ably defends a close adherence to the original even at the sacrifice of idiom and taste against the claims of what has been called 'Free Translation,' which means dressing the author in an outlandish garb to please those to whom he is introduced.

In the preface to his classical translation of Bhartrihari's NitiSatakamand Vairagya Satakam, Mr. C.H. Tawney says, "I am sensible that in the present attempt I have retained much local coloring. For instance, the ideas of worshipping the feet of a god of great men, though it frequently occurs in Indian literature, will undoubtedly move the laughter of Englishmen unacquainted with Sanskrit, especially if they happen to belong to that class of readers who reveal their attention on the accidental and remain blind to the essential. But a certain measure of fidelity to the original even at the risk of making oneself ridiculous, is better than the studied dishonesty which characterizes so many translations of oriental poets."

We fully subscribe to the above although, it must be observed, the censure conveyed to the class of translators last indicated is rather undeserved, there being nothing like a 'studied dishonesty' in their efforts which proceed only from a mistaken view of their duties and as such betray only an error of the head but not of the heart.

 

PUBLISHER'S PREFACE

In the world of classical literature the Mahabharata is unique in many respects. As an epic, it is the greatest-seven times as great as the Iliad and the Odyssey combined, and the grandest-animating the heart of India over two thousand years past and destined to lead humanity for thousands of years in future. It is the mightiest single endeavour of literary creation of any culture in human history. The effort to conceive the mind that conceived it is itself a liberal education and a walk through its table of contents is more than a Sabbath day's journey.

The Western world was long acquainted with the epic rather superficially through the transcribed fragments of Bopp, Fauche, Romesh Dutta, Monier- Williams, etc.: But the task of making it fully accessible for the first time to men of this age fell upon late Kisari Mohan Ganguli towards the end of the nineteenth century. Dr. Reynold Rost of India Office Library incidentally wrote about the crying need for an English version, complete and authentic, of the original Mahabharata to Mr. Pratap Chandra Roy, a leading bookseller and publisher of Calcutta in those days renowned for publishing ancient Indian classics. He was almost dissuaded from the mighty project for its fantastic difficulties. As Mrs. Sundari Bala Roy, the widow of Pratap Chandra Roy, wrote elsewhere, "Some said it was impossible, some said it was offensive to Hindu religion. When my husband approached Pandit Iswara Chandra Vidyasagar, he laughed outright and doubted my husband's sanity- Whence was the money to come? Where could a competent translator be had having such patience, if uniformity of style was to be secured?-was his remark. Now that the works have been completed. alas, where are both my husband and Vidyasagar today?"

The translation was completed and serially published in thirteen years, from AD 1883 to 1896, in one hundred fasciculi. Those covering first fourteen 'Parvas' were published by Pratap Chandra Roy and the last four 'Parvas' by his widow Mrs. Sundari Bala Roy after his death. Considering the unique nature of the undertaking, vast and difficult beyond conception and baffling all similar attempts' previously made by others both in India and abroad, Ganguli preferred public anonymity till completion. Accordingly the fasciculi were published initially withholding the translator's name and finally declaring the same in the last fascicule both by Mrs. Roy as its publisher and Ganguli as the sole translator. But from the very beginning though anonymous to the general readers, the authorship of Ganguli was not secret to the numerous Oriental scholars and patrons of the enterprise, Indian and foreign with whom he was constantly linked through direct contact or correspondence. The then Central Government also recognized the services of Roy as the publisher and of Ganguli as the translator of this great works by conferring the C.I.E. title and awarding the first Honorary Literary Person for Life to them respectively.

The original edition was out of print within the lifetime of Ganguli. First Mr. Roy and then Mrs. Roy had already died without any issue, and Ganguli did not live too long to arrange for the publication of another edition. It now transpires that during the second decade of last century, a publishing concern of Calcutta printed and published, in the most irresponsible manner, a new edition ignoring the authorship of Ganguli and describing P.C. Roy as the translator with many distortions and mutilations of the original edition. From them, it passed to another concern in the same form, from whom at last we took the responsibility of publishing it. But unfortunately we committed out of inadvertence the same blunders as our predecessors. Very recently our attention was drawn by the translator's heir to the incongruities in our publication; and after going through the original edition in the National Library, Calcutta, and having been convinced that gross injustice was being done to the honor of the noble soul of the departed author, we have promptly arranged to publish anew, with true authorship and necessary rectifications, this world-famous work in its original form.

 

CONTENTS

VOLUME - I

 

Preface v
SECTION I
Introductory
1
SECTION II
Parva Sangraha
15
SECTION III
Paushya Parva
32
SECTION IV-XII
Pauloma Parva
44
SECTION XIII-LVIII
Astika Parva
53
SECTION LIX-LXIV
Adivansavatarana Parva
116
SECTION LXV-CXLII
Sambhava Parva
132
SECTION CXLIII-CLIII
Jatugriha Parva
302
SECTION CLIV-CLVIII
Hidimva-vadha Parva
317
SECTION CLIX-CLXVI
Vaka-vadha Parva
326
SECTION CLXVII-CLXXXV
Chaitraratha Parva
337
SECTION CLXXXVI-CLXLIV
Swayamvara Parva
369
SECTION CLXLV-CCI
Vaivahika Parva
383
SECTION CCII-CCIX
Viduragamana Parva
396
SECTION CCX-CCXIV
Rajya-labha Parva
408
SECTION CCXV-CCXX
Arjuna-vanavasa Parva
416
SECTION CCXXI-CCXXII
Subhadra-harana Parva
425
SECTION CCXXIII
Haranaharana Parva
428
SECTION CCXXIV-CCXXXVI
Khandava-daha Parva
432

 

VOLUME - II

 

Publisher's Preface v
SABHA PARVA  
SECTION I-IV
Sabhakriya Parva
1
SECTION V-XIII
Lokapala Sabhakhyana Parva
8
SECTION XIV-XIX
Rajasuyarambha Parva
32
SECTION XX-XXIV
Jarasandha-badha Parva
44
SECTION XXV-XXXI
Digvijaya Parva
56
SECTION XXXII-XXXIV
Rajasuyika Parva
67
SECTION XXXV-XXXVII
Arghyaharana Parva
73
SECTION XXXIX-XLIV
Sisupala-badha Parva
80
SECTION XLV-LXXX
Dyuta Parva

 

91
VANA PARVA  
SECTION I-X
Aranyaka Parva
1
SECTION XI-XII
Kirmirabadha Parva
23
SECTION XII-XXXVII
Arjunabhigamana Parva
27
SECTION XXXVIII-XLI
Kairata Parva
84
SECTION XLII-LI
Indralokagamana Parva
94
SECTION LII-LXXIX
Nalopakhyana Parva
111
SECTION LXXX-CXIII
Tirtha-yatra Parva
164

 

VOLUME - III

 

Publisher's Preface v
VANA PARVA (Part II)  
SECTION CXIV-CLXXX
Tirtha-yatra Parva (Continued)
245
SECTION CLXXXI-CCXXX
Markandeya-Samsya Parva
364
SECTION CCXXXI-CCXXXIII
Draupadi-Satyabhama Samvada
472
SECTION CCXXXIV-CCLX
Ghosha-yatra Parva
477
SECTION CCLXI-CCLXL
Draupadi-harana Parva
515
SECTION CCLXLI-CCCVIII
Pativrata-mahatmya Parva
570
SECTION CCCIX-CCCXIII
Aranya Parva
600

 

VOLUME IV

 

Preface v
VIRATA PARVA  
SECTION I-XII
Pandava-Pravesa Parva
1
SECTION XIII
Samayapalana Parva
20
SECTION XIV-XXV
Kichaka-Vadha Parva
23
SECTION XXVI-LXXII
Go-harana Parva
49
UDYOGA PARVA  
SECTION I-XL
Sainyodyoga Parva
1
SECTION XLI-LXXI
Sanat-Sujata Parva
91
SECTION LXXII-CLX
Bhagawat Yana Parva
153
SECTION CLXI-CXCIX
Uluka Dutagamana Parva
306

 

VOLUME - V

 

Publisher's Preface v
SECTION I-X
Jamvu-Khanda Nirman Parva
1
SECTION XI-XII
Bhumi Parva
24
SECTION XIII-XLII
Bhagavat-Gita Parva
29
SECTION XLIII-CXXIV 98

 

VOLUME - VI

 

Preface v
SECTIONS I-XXX
Dronabhisheka Parva
1
SECTIONS XXXI-LXXXIV
Abhimanyu-vandha Parva
76
SECTIONS LXXXV-CLI
Jayadratha-vadha Parva
165
SECTIONS CLII-CLXXXIV
Ghatotkacha-vadha Parva
340
SECTIONS CLXXXV-CCIII
Drona-vadha Parva
427

 

VOLUME - VII

 

Publisher's Preface  
KARNA PARVA  
SECTION I-XCVI 1-268
SALYA PARVA  
SECTION I-LXV 1-179
SAUPTIKA PARVA  
SECTION I-XVIII 1-41
STREE PARVA  
SECTION I-XV
Jalapradanika Parva
1
SECTION XVI-XXVII
Stree - vilapa Parva
23

 

VOLUME - VIII

 

Publisher's Preface v
SANTI PARVA (Part I)  
SECTION I-CXXX
Rajadharmanusasana Parva
1
SECTION CXXXI-CLXXIII
Apadharmanusasana Parva
283

 

VOLUME - IX

 

SANTI PARVA
Part II
 
Preface v
SECTION CLXXIV-CCCI
Mokshadharma Parva
1-377

 

VOLUME - X

 

Publisher's Preface v
SANTI PARVA (Part III)  
SECTION CCCII-CCCLXV 1-217
ANUSASANA PARVA (Part I)  
SECTION I-XXXV
Anusasanika Parva
1-162

 

VOLUME - XI

 

Publisher's Preface v
ANUSASANA PARVA (Part II)  
SECTION XXXVI-CLXVIII
Anusasanika Parva
1-397

 

VOLUME - XII

 

Publisher's Preface v
ASWAMEDHA PARVA  
SECTION I-XV
Aswamedhika Parva
1
SECTION XVI-XCII
Anugita Parva
23
ASRMAVASIKA PARVA  
SECTION I-XXVIII
Asramavasa Parva
1
SECTION XXIX-XXXVI
Putradarsana Parva
44
SECTION XXXVII-XXXIX
Naradagamana Parva
58
MAUSALA PARVA  
SECTION I-VIII 1
MAHAPRASTHANIKA PARVA  
SECTION I-V 1-7
SWARGAROHANIKA PARVA  
SECTION I-VI 1-18

 

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