Book of a lifetime: the Mahabharata

From The Independent archive: Alice Albinia on the ancient Indian epic of women wielding great power, which contains so much of the world within its pages that it takes a lifetime to read

A manuscript illustration, believed to be 18th century, of the Battle of Kurukshetra, as recorded in the ‘Mahabharata’ (Bavarian State Library)

One of the longest books in the world, the Mahabharata tells the story of a country, a culture and a family tearing itself apart.

In ancient India, it was said that nothing exists which is not within its pages. This hubristic claim hints at the fatigue which sets in if you try to absorb it in one go. The epic is best read piecemeal, over several years, even a lifetime. The Kolkata publisher, P Lal, spent his entire career “transcreating” the epic. The University of Chicago translator, JAB van Buitenen, died on the job. RK Narayan took a more relaxed approach, abridging it into one volume, as did the Cambridge Sanskritist, John D Smith.

These short English versions are recommended for anyone who wishes to read the Mahabharata without succumbing to exhaustion. Part of the richness of the epic lies in its retellings. At first, some three millennia ago, the text was memorised and recited by schools of Sanskrit-speaking priests. Then, in the late centuries BC, somebody wrote it down, and after that the text went wild: translating itself out of the elite Brahminical language and into India’s demotic tongues. It was also distilled into dance and drama, which is how most Indians first come across its stories.