Have started reading Kamala Subramaniam's abridged English translation of Mahabharata, an easy and interesting read so far
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Above pic: Front cover of Mahabharata by Kamala Subramaniam
Amazon link for 2009 edition of the book (I have a later 2017 edition): https://www.amazon.in/Mahabharata-K-S-1-Kamala-Subramaniam/dp/8172764057 .
I recall reading C.Rajagopalachari's abridged version of Mahabharata in English, many years ago. It is available on amazon - https://www.amazon.in/Mahabharata-C-Rajagopalachari/dp/8172764766 . I think a PDF version of it is available here: https://sanjeev.sabhlokcity.com/Misc/Rajaji-Mahabharata.pdf .
If I recall correctly, Kamala Subramaniam's book is much larger than Rajagopalachari's book. The page size is larger and the book is thicker.
I started reading Subramaniam's book yesterday night and was able to read around 25 pages with a lot of interest. The writing style is engaging and I found the book to be an easy read, so far.
One detail that I think I had not known prior to yesterday night's reading, was about the very unusual and odd circumstances associated with birth of Dhritarashtra, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhritarashtra , Pandu, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandu , and Vidura, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidura . Very interestingly, the wiki pages have those details! Note that Mahabharata is an ancient epic and so some of the incidents narrated in it, comes across as very unusual to us in our times.
The inner jacket (flap) of front side of the book shown below, has some interesting details about the author Kamala Subramaniam.
I was struck by the following words in it: "In the late 60s Smt. Kamala underwent (an) operation for cancer, which gave her a ten-year lease of life. Lesser mortals would have been un-nerved by this but for Smt. Kamala it came as a challenge and this period turned out to be the most productive literary period of her life. Her first labour of love was the retelling of the Mahabharata." The inner jacket also mentions that she was born in 1916 in Bangalore and was well versed with English literature, especially Shakespeare's works, and that she "knew her Bible as well as she knew the Gita". Of course, she seems to have been well versed in Sanskrit too, which is the language of the original Mahabharata which she read to produce this abridged English translation.
In her preface to the book, Subramaniam writes, 'I have always wanted to share the MAHABHARATA with everyone, specially youngsters. There are a number of difficulties attending this. The most conspicuous of them is, of course, the length of the book. It is made up of eighteen volumes, "Parvas" as they are called; and each is made up of roughly three to four hundred pages of poetry. Unless one is devoted to the epic it is not possible to read it through easily. The language is the next hurdle. Nowadays (first edition of book was in 1965) there are very few youngsters who are familiar enough with Sanskrit to read through the book in the original. The only alternative is to read translations.'
About her 'translation' and writing style, she says in the same preface, "Considering all these things, I have rendered the epic into English. It is not quite a translation : not in the usual sense of the word. One might call it a 'free translation''. I have tried to narrate the story as dramatically as possible. I have narrated it in simple straightforward English. In this task, if one has to retain the spirit of the epic and the atmosphere, one has to fall back upon the quaint, old-fashioned English. This seems to suit the epic perfectly. At times, crisp clear English does not work. I find the blending of the old and the new to be the perfect medium for the narration. So I have deliberately adopted the style, which to my thinking, is perfect.'
As a social media writer who does little bit of 'free translation' usually of Hindi to English, I found the above explanation of her 'translation' style to be quite fascinating.
She concludes the preface by writing, "If, after reading the book, a few at least will read the epic in the original, my desire will be fulfilled. May I say that my book is just a guide into vast ocean called the MAHABHARATA?"
The popularity of the book can be understood from it being the 20th edition in 2017, with the first edition coming out in 1965! See below pic.
I take this opportunity to thank the author, Late Smt. Kamala Subramaniam, for having written this Mahabharata book in English, and the publisher, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, for having made it available to English language readers, which includes many Indians like me whose knowledge of Sanskrit is not good enough to read and understand the original Mahabharata.
The original Sanskrit version(s) of MAHABHARATA seem to be available here (free ebook or web pages): https://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/mahabharata/ .
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Given below are some of my comments from associated FB post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/3352428491640371 :
In response to a comment, I wrote (slightly edited): Interesting that you have already read this book and your views about it are interesting too. Thanks for sharing.
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In response to a comment, I wrote: Wow! Surprised that you recall so much detail. The Abhimanyu Chakravyuhu is a very famous incident of Mahabharata, and I recall one Hindi film song referencing it!
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Here's a famous Kishore Kumar sung song from a 1984 Hindi film whose title references Abhimanyu. The song has English subtitles. I had heard the song many times but had not seen the video till I looked it up on youtube a few minutes ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlpkVdxZxg0 , 5 min. 49 secs.
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I think almost all adults of India know about Abhimanyu Chakravyuhu! It is such a famous and tragic incident where a heroic warrior is isolated, trapped and killed by many other warriors together, making it a despicable act by the latter. When Indian people feel they are getting trapped by many others, at least some of them recall Abhimanyu Chakravyuhu!
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