My Take - The Mahabharata by Shiv K. Kumar

Mahabharata, one of the most ancient epic in the world continues to hold its relevance even today. It is a cultural heritage of the Indians and has intrigued billions of Indians spanning generations. One of the most unique aspects of this epic is that each person reads it differently. There have been countless interpretations of it which have been quite often contradictory to each other. Mahabharata is an inexhaustible source of inspiration and thus even in the modern 21^st century it compels authors to tell their own versions of the story. Mythology is the current favourite genre of Indian authors and thus the market is inundated with various re-tellings of the ancient epics and myths. There are several imaginative re-tellings of Mahabharata however The Mahabharata by Shiv K. Kumar is not exactly an imaginative re-telling, it is at best a condensed re-telling of the epic with the inevitable authorial interventions.

This book gives a general idea of the plot of the original Mahabharata by Vyasa. However, it skims many incidents which sometimes makes the reader feel that they are being rushed through the narrative. Consequently, the narrative does not focus on any particular character as the actions take precedence over characterization. The women characters are rarely given any voice, though it’s a common characteristic of almost all the ancient epics.

The author attempts not to deviate much from the original version yet there are some instances where the authorial intervention seeps into the narrative. First is the author’s omission of the incident in which Ambika and Ambalika are impregnated by Vyasa. It’s an important incident and also explains why Dhritarashtra was blind and Pandu frail, which becomes an important component of the story. Hence the author’s omission of such an important incident confounds me given that the author meticulously describes even the small and seemingly unimportant events such as the army formations of Kauravas and Pandavas during each day of the war. Second instance of authorial intervention is the case of Brihannala. Brihannala is the eunuch dance teacher of Uttara and is the disguise adopted by Arjuna in the thirteenth year of their exile. In most of the versions it is said that Arjuna actually transforms into a eunuch as a result of Urvasi’s curse. However Shiv K. Kumar does not mention the curse rather this book describes Brihannala as an identity which Arjuna assumed of his own volition.

It is a good book for a beginner to learn about Mahabharata as the author meticulously describes almost every event, though without any depth. I felt the author dragging in his description of the war, he seemed to be elongating the book with unnecessary details which could have been conveniently omitted. The text has a polyphonic narrative with numerous discourses at work, however the dominant discourse is that of Varnashrama Dharma and uninterested action with a resignation to God’s will as propagated by Krishna. Though I didn’t agree with the dominant discourse that the text presented yet it provided me with an opportunity to introspect my own beliefs and world-view.

Neither did I find this book to be interesting and was at times exasperated by the bombastic use of language by the author. Nor can I say that I am enlightened after reading it. The author tries to weave intricate webs of words throughout the text, perhaps to lend it literary excellence but ends up rendering it artificial. And also the editing has been very bad with lots of grammatical errors which exacerbated the reading experience.

I will end the review with one of my favourite lines from the book (though I don’t have many as it is replete with artificiality instead of literary excellence):

“In this maze of life, O King, nobody can guide another. One has to be one’s own pathfinder.”

My rating – 2.5 stars