These Two Volumes Of The Book Eminent Women In The Mahabharata By Dr. Mrs. Vanamala Bhawalkar Presents A Complete Picture Of Woman As Depicted In The Mahabharata, Dealing With Her Status, Education, Family Life As Daughter, Wife And Mother, Social And Poloitical Life, Field Of Her Activities And Achievements, Moral Code, House, Dress, Ornaments, Food Etc., And Also The Life Of Woman Of Lower Class. The Present Two Volumes Offer A Complete Study Of Eighteen Eminent Women As Depicted In The Mahabharata. The Noble And Dignified Personality Of Draupadi, Kunti`S Virtues, Patience And Suffering, Gandhari`S Wisdom And Adherence To Moral Code. Damayanti`S Superb Qualities, And Virtues Of Other Characters Like Sudhadra, Satyavati, Devayani, Sarmistha, Sikanya Etc. Will Remain As A Source Of Inspiration To Generations To Come. These Books Can Be Reference Books For Scholars And Students Of Ancient Indian Culture, And Will Also Be Interesting To Ordinary Readers.

In This Book, The Author Presents A Complete Picture Of Woman`S Life In The Mahabharata, Dealing With Her Status, Education, Aims, Fields Of Activity, Marriage, Achievement, Family Life, Social Life, Moral Codes, Economic Condition, Political Life, Style Of Living, Including House, Dress, Food, Etiquettes Etc. The Characters Women In The Epic Reflect The Vision Of The Society About Women. While Draupadi Reveals A Most Sarene And Touching Profile Of Indian Woman, Gandhari And Kunti As Well As Devayani, Savitri And Damayanti Are The Most Inspiring Characters Since They Visualise An Underred Spirit Of Struggle And Preservance. The Book Is Immensely Useful For The Research Scholars, Teachers And Students Of Sanskrit Literature And Ancient Indian Culture. It Will Work As An Encyclopeadia For The Readers Of Woman Studies.

The Mahabharata preserves powerful journeys of women recognized as the feminine divine and the feminine heroic in the larger culture of India. Each journey upholds the unique aspects of women's life. This book analytically examines the narratives of eleven women from the Mahabharata in the historical context as well as in association with religious and cultural practices. Lavanya Vemsani brings together history, myth, religion, and practice to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of the history of Hindu women, as well as their significance within religious Indian culture. Additionally, Vemsani provides important perspective for understanding the enduring legacy of these women in popular culture and modern society.

In the stories where the Mahabharata speaks of life, women occupy a central place. In living what life brings to them, the women of the Mahabharata show, that the truth in which one must live, is however, not a simple thing; nor can there be any one absolute statement about it. Each one of them, in her own way, is a teacher to mankind as to what truth and goodness in their many dimensions are. The twelve women of the Mahabharata whose life stories make up this book, range from Shakuntala, Savitri and Damayanti who are known only in sketches; from Sulabha, Suvarchala, Uttara Disha, Madhavi and Kapoti who are hardly known, and finally to Draupadi, known widely but frozen in popular culture and writing in two or three standard clichéd images. The women of the Mahabharata are incarnate in the women of today. To read the stories of their relation-ships is to read the stories of our relationships. They demand from the men of today the same reflection on their perceptions, attitudes, and pretensions too, as they did from the men in their lives, and equally often from other men full of pretensions, even if they were kings and sages. Badrinath s ability to combine respect and love and to write with impressive scholarship and grace will unforgettably transform our experience of reading the Mahabharata.

“Narayan makes this treasury of Indian folklore and mythology readily accessible to the general reader . . . he captures the spirit of the narrative.”—Library Journal The Mahabharata tells a story of such violence and tragedy that many people in India refuse to keep the full text in their homes, fearing that doing so would invite a disastrous fate upon their house. Covering everything from creation to destruction, this ancient poem remains an indelible part of Hindu culture and a landmark in ancient literature. Centuries of listeners and readers have been drawn to The Mahabharata, which began as disparate oral ballads and grew into a sprawling epic. The modern version is famously long, and at more than 1.8 million words—seven times the combined lengths of the Iliad and Odyssey—it can be incredibly daunting. But contemporary readers have a much more accessible entry point to this important work, thanks to R. K. Narayan’s masterful, elegant translation and abridgement of the poem. Now with a new foreword by Wendy Doniger, as well as a concise character and place guide and a family tree, The Mahabharata is ready for a new generation of readers. Narayan ably distills a tale that is both traditional and constantly changing. He draws from both scholarly analysis and creative interpretation and vividly fuses the spiritual with the secular. Through this balance he has produced a translation that is not only clear, but graceful, one that stands as its own story as much as an adaptation of a larger work.