The Mahābhārata (Smith book)

The Mahābhārata is a noted abridged translation of the Mahabharata by John D. Smith, first published in 2009 by Penguin Classics.

Structure Smith's book mimics the structure of the actual epic by maintaining its division into 18 books. So, the book starts with Book 1: Beginning (Adi Parva) and ends with Book 18: The Ascent to Heaven (Svargarohana Parva). The Mahābhārata itself includes more than 100,000 verses; Smith's book includes a line-by-line translation of around 11% of that original text. To explain the rest of the epic, Smith includes prose summaries that provide insight about the main narrative in the original 18 books.

For unfamiliar readers, the book contains the following supplementary materials:

A linguistic guide for the pronunciation of Sanskrit words in the book. A map of ancient India providing geographical knowledge of the main settings of key events from the epic. Genealogical tables for the Pandava, Kuru, and Yadava lines of the Lunar Dynasty. A glossary. An essay introducing the epic.

Quotations

Reviews

References

Bibliography

Further reading Doniger, Wendy (8 October 2009). How to Escape the Curse. London Review of Books. Vol. 31. No. 19. pages 17–18. Retrieved 4 October 2017. Parihar, Parth (29 March 2016). No, Hinduism Is Not Behind India’s ‘Rape Crisis’. HuffPost. Retrieved 4 October 2017.

External links Book info at Penguin Group