Mahabharata: A Modern Retelling (94 page)

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 the
Mahabharata.

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.

Glossary

T
HE FOLLOWING ALPHABETICAL
list identifies the principal characters in the narrative, and provides basic explanations of the Sanskrit terms that appear in the text. Among the headwords, characters’ names are given in bold roman type, whereas other terms are in bold italics.

Each headword is followed by a brief annotation in square brackets. For most headwords, this information consists of the syllabification of the term, its scansion in English, and its scansion in Sanskrit, in that order. The syllables in a word are separated by dots; thus, “Abhimanyu” is broken up into four syllables as A·bhi·man·yu. The English scansion is specified using
S
for a stressed syllable and
U
for an unstressed syllable; the metrical pattern of A·bhi·man·yu is thus displayed as
SUSU
. The sound pattern of Sanskrit words is measured in “duration” rather than stress;
L
represents a short or “light” syllable, and
H
represents a long or “heavy” syllable. The scansion of A·bhi·man·yu in the original language is
LLHL
, which is different from the
SUSU
pattern in English.

In some instances, the annotations identify the grammatical gender or number of a term. Whenever the syllabification of a headword involves significant differences between the English spelling and the original Sanskrit spelling, both spellings are provided. For example, for the word
“danda,”
the entry in square brackets gives us “dan·da,
SU
;
da
n
·
d
a
,
HL
”; the (latter) Sanskrit spelling indicates that both
n
and
d
are retroflex sounds in this instance, as in English
d
e
n
t. Readers will find the annotations in square brackets useful for the pronunciation of unfamiliar terms.

In many cases, the English spelling provided here reflects the Sanskrit pronunciation quite accurately. Sometimes, however, diacritical marks have to be added to it in order to capture the original spelling or pronunciation. The transcriptions in square brackets use a simplified system of essential diacritical marks.

BASIC PRONUNCIATION OF SANSKRIT TERMS

The common vowels in Sanskrit are consistently transcribed and pronounced as follows:
a
as in “
a
bout”;
ā
as in “f
a
ther”;
i
as in “b
i
t”;
ī
as in “b
ee
t”;
u
as in “p
u
t”;
ū
as in “b
oo
t”;
e
as in “th
ey
”; and
o
as in “g
o.
” Three other vowels can be approximated thus:
r
as in “
ri
g”;
ai
like the
i
in “h
i
gh”; and
au
like the
ou
in “h
ou
se.” When no ambiguity is involved, the long
ā
is represented in the English spelling of a word as
aa
.

The majority of Sanskrit consonants can be pronounced as they appear in English. The unusual consonants are represented or simplified as follows:
ch
as in “
ch
ew”;
t
as in “bu
t
”;
d
as in “
d
o”;
n
as in “ti
n
t”;
t
as in French “
t
u” or in Italian “pas
t
a”; and
d
like the
th
in “
th
ou” or “
th
ough.”

Sanskrit distinguishes between two sibilants, both of which are simplified here to
sh
, as in “
sh
ip.” Hence, the main text uses “Shiva” and “Vishnu” as the Anglicized names of these gods, and the Glossary adds “Vish
n
u” as the more precise transcription of the latter (with the
n
as in “ti
n
t”).

Whenever
a
appears at the end of a Sanskrit word, it should be pronounced as a short vowel (as in “
a
bout”), and not as a long
ā
. Sanskrit distinguishes clearly, for example, between “Krish
n
a”/“Krishna” (short
a
at the end) and “Krish
n
ā
”/“Krishnaa” (long at the end). Likewise, the language distinguishes between “Chitr
ā
ngada”/“Chitraangada” and “Chitr
ā
ngad
ā
”/“Chitraangadaa.”

Whenever an
h
appears after a consonant, the sound of the latter is aspirated (pronounced with an accompanying expulsion of air from the mouth). Thus,
t
is pronounced as at the end of “goa
t
,” whereas
t
h
is pronounced as the conjoined
t
h
in “goa
th
erd.” Hence, “Dhrish
t
adyumna” and “Yudhish
t
h
ira.”

Abhimanyu
[A·bhi·man·yu,
SUSU; LLHL
]: son of Arjuna by Subhadra, Krishna’s sister

Adhiratha
[A·dhi·ra·tha,
SUSU; LLLL
]: adoptive father of Karna

Agastya
[A·gast·ya,
USU; LHL
]: a great seer

Agni
[Ag·ni,
SU; HL
]: god of fire

ahimsa
[a·him·saa,
USS; LHH
]: non-harmfulness

Ajatashatru
[A·jaa·ta·shat·ru,
USUSU; LHLHL
]: “unrivaled,” a name of Yudhishthira

Alambusha
[A·lam·bu·sha,
USUU; LHLL
]: rakshasa killed by Ghatotkacha

Alayudha
[A·la·yu·dha,
UUUU; LLLL
]: rakshasa killed by Ghatotkacha

Amba, Ambika, Ambalika
[Am·baa,
SS; HH
. Am·bi·kaa,
SUS; HLH
. Am·baa·li·kaa,
USUS; HHLH
]: daughters of the king of Kashi, abducted by Bhishma as brides for Vichitravirya

Anga
[An·ga,
SU; HL
]: kingdom given to Karna

Apantaratamas
[A·paan·ta·ra·ta·mas,
USUUSU ; LHLLLL
]: seer; previous incarnation of Vyasa

apsarases
[English plural; singular: ap·sa·ras,
SUU; HLL
]: beautiful celestial nymphs

Arjuna
[Ar·ju·na,
SUU; HLL
]: third son of Pandu and Kunti; fathered by the god Indra

ashrama
[aa·shra·ma,
SUU; HLL
]: one of the four approved life paths

Ashvapati
[A·shva·pa·ti,
SUSU; HLLL
]: king of the Madras, father of Savitri

Ashvasena
[Ash·va·se·na,
SUSU; HLHL
]: son of Takshaka, the snake king

Ashvatthaman
[Ash·vat·thaa·man,
SUSU; HHHL
]: son of Drona

Ashvins
[English plural; singular: Ash·vin,
SU; HL
]: twin deities, fathers of Nakula and Sahadeva

Astika
[Aas·ti·ka,
SUU; HLL
]: snake-brahmin, savior of the snakes at Janamejaya’s sacrifice

astra
[as·tra,
SU; HL
]: supernatural weapon

asura
[a·su·ra,
SUU; LLL
]: demon

atman
[aat·man,
SU; HL
]: human self or soul; an aspect of Brahman

Babhru
[Ba·bhru,
SU; HL
]: a Vrishni warrior

Babhruvahana
[Ba·bhru·vaa·ha·na,
SUSUU; HLHLL
]: Arjuna’s son by Chitrangadaa

Baka
[Ba·ka,
SU; LL
]: rakshasa killed by Bhima

Balarama
[Ba·la·raa·ma,
UUSU; LLHL
]: Krishna Vasudeva’s older brother

Ballava
[Bal·la·va,
SUU; HLL
]: Bhima’s alias at Virata’s court

Bhagadatta
[Bha·ga·dat·ta,
SUSU; LLHL
]: an ally of the Kauravas

Bhangashvana
[Bhan·gaash·va·na,
USUU; HHLL
]: king who becomes a woman

Bharadvaja
[Bha·rad·vaa·ja,
UUSU; LHHL
]: seer; father of Drona

Bharata: (1)
[Bhaa·ra·ta,
SUU; HLL
] lineage of both the Pandavas and the Kauravas; (2) [Bha·ra·ta,
SUU; LLL
] king, founder of the royal lineage