Sri Mahabharatha (An Old and Rare Book in Set of 4 Volumes)

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The M.P. Birla Foundation feels it a privilege to place this publication in the hands of readers in India and abroad.

The Foundation has endeavoured, since its birth in 1986, to participate, in however modest a measure, in making freedom meaningful. India is at once one of the oldest civilizations of the world and one of the youngest of modern nations. A rejuvenated India has to build on its radiant heritage and make life in the present and the future, rich in every sense of the term. The foundation has dedicated itself to service in the spheres of religion, health, education and culture. True religion is life-sustaining, health is a precious gift, culture is the full blossoming of the community and the individual, and education is the kindly light that leads us on. The Foundation has a five-faceted blue-print of service:

1. Our ancient temples are living links between the past and the present. The Foundation has undertaken renovation of these temples, taking every possible care to preserve their architecture and unique features.

2. The Foundation endeavours to make ancient culture, blended with a modern scientific spirit, a living power in contemporary life. This it seeks to achieve through the publication of classics, ancient like the Mahabharatha, and modern like the masterpieces of Tagore.

3. The Foundation has constructed and maintains well-equipped hospitals. Forty per cent of the in-patients, belonging to the less fortunate sections of society, receive treatment free of charge. Forty per cent of the patients belonging to the moderately placed sections pay moderate charges. Twenty per cent of the patients belonging to the affluent sections pay charges commensurate with the service provided.

4. In all ages education has been the Light of Life. Each age demands education suited to the character and needs of the times. The M.P. Birla Foundation runs educational institutions which answer the needs of modem India, like the M.P. Birla Institute of Management, Bangalore.

So far, the Foundation has, by and large, limited its projects to North India. It is happy that, in recent years, it has been able to extend its mission of service to South India. The present publication is one such contribution; the Institute of Management referred to earlier is another. It has sponsored the reprinting of Shri Devashikhamani Alasingaracharya's Kannada rendering of the Mahabharatha in 19 Volumes. It hopes to extend its services in association with the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's other centres like Mysore, Kodagu, Bagalkote, Belgaum, Bellary and other places. DROWSROT The Mahabharatha has been one of the perennial fountains of Indian culture and one of the greatest contributions of India to world literature. It has inspired writers in non-Sanskrit languages to compose fresh versions and offer new interpretations over centuries. The Karnata Bharatha Kathamanjari, popularly known as Kumaravyasa Bharatha, composed by the great Kannada genius, Gadugina Naranappa, is an instance in point. The Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan has taken this great work to every city, town and hamlet through its two hundred audio-cassettes, with recitation by Shri Hosahalli Keshava Murthy and commentary by Shri Mathoor Krishnamurti. It is said that every generation needs its own version of a great classic, for the work is an inexhaustible mine, and every generation discovers anew its delights and riches, in its own context. So, the M.P. Birla Foundation felt that there was a need for a contemporary retelling of the great Mahabharatha which would carry the mighty work not only to Indian readers but also to non-Indian lovers of wisdom literature. The M.P. Birla Foundation is happy that Prof. L.S. Seshagiri Rao, who has retired from the Post-graduate Department of English of Bangalore University, kindly accepted the invitation to prepare this version. It brings the reader both the story and the thought-content of the great epic. Prof. Rao has specialized in the study of the Indian epic and the Western epic. His Kannada Version of the first epic of the West, Homer's 'lliad', received a State Government Award. He has been associated, not only with the Kamataka Sahitya Academy but also with the Sahitya Academy, of India, the National Book Trust, the Kerala Sahitya Akademi and other literary bodies. He is known for his lucid, precise and pleasing style both in English and in Kannada. The M.P. Birla Foundation is confident that this publication will be welcomed both in India and abroad.

The motto of the M.P. Birla Foundation is 'त्वदियं वस्तु गोविन्द तुभ्यमेव समर्पये' (Twadiyam Vasthu Govinda, thubhyameva samarpaye) -'O Lord, that which is bestowed on us by You is offered to You'. After the sad demise of Shri Madhava Prasad Birla, Srimathi Priyamvadadevi Birla has dedicated herself to the realization of his lofty ideals, The Foundation takes this opportunity to renew its pledge to serve the people of India and the land's culture, for, as the motto affirms, we are but rendering to Govinda what He has been pleased to bestow on us.

Why Sri Mahabharatha?

Sri Mahabharatha is, by all counts, one of the oldest epics in world literature. It is at least twenty-five centuries old. So, the question arises, why turn to this work again? It is a work composed in a far distant age, in conditions totally different from those of our age; and the challenges of our times are very different from those of the age of the Mahabharatha. The work belongs to an era which knew nothing of petrol and electricity, computers and Aids, strikes, and bulls and bears of the Stock Exchange, of rented wombs and cloning and black holes. Why waste our time in reading and pondering over this epic?

This is a pertinent question.

I must say at the outset that I am trying to look at this work as an ordinary man of my times, as one who takes life seriously and seeks light from all sources. I look upon it, not as a religious text, but as one of the greatest works of literature and reflection.

What Kind of a Work?

Traditionally in India, the Ramayana and the Mahabharatha have been regarded as 'Upajeevya Kavyas' works to which later poets have gone again and again as to an inexhaustible mine. The Mahabharatha has been traditionally classified as 'ithihasa', for it is the history of the fortunes of the Kuru Dynasty as well as the terrible war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, and a veritable encyclopaedia of Indian values and ways of life in ancient India.

The Mahabharatha has also been classified as 'purana' (myth) and 'kavya' (poetry). All these terms apply to it but none of them is adequate. Ethics, statecraft, warfare, philosophy-all have been woven into it. There is not another work which can bear comparison with it.

In this Introduction, I beg leave to look at it primarily as an epic. An epic is an imaginative verbal embodiment of the highest thoughts and the most comprehensive vision of the community; in fact, an entire civilisation is behind an epic. When a civilisation has advanced far and shaped its own response to life, and is seeking to enshrine its shared values and the abstract forces of its cohesiveness, if it is so fortunate that a sublime poet arises from its ranks, an epic is born.

The Modern Man and the Man of the Future.

What is the relevance of the Mahabharatha to our age? As I said earlier, why go to a work which might once have been relevant; it was the product of an age which knew nothing of petrol and electricity, computers and Aids, strikes and bulls and bears, of cloning and rented wombs and black holes. But the world has changed vastly. The Mahabharatha belongs to a feudal age. We have done away with monarchy (have we, really? But, that is by the way) and we live in a global village, in a world in which, in total contrast to the feudal world, there is stress on the dignity of the individual and on human rights.

Let me make one point clear. I am not going back to the school which used to list the 'lessons' that a literary work taught or considered a work of literature as a sugar-coated pill which made moral lessons palatable. Later, I shall consider the avowed object of the work which was didactic. But, I am concerned with the experience of life to which the epic gives verbal embodiment and how it abides with one, not as a collection of detachable lessons but by permeating the mind.

The Renaissance in Europe threw up the affirmation 'Knowledge is Power'. It is a truism to say that the world has changed more within the last three centuries than in the preceding thirty centuries, and more within the last three decades than in the preceding three centuries. This is particularly applicable to India.

**Contents and Sample Pages**