The Mahabharata is one of the greatest stories ever told. Though the basic plot is widely known, there is much more to the epic than the dispute between Kouravas and Pandavas that led to the battle in Kurukshetra. It has innumerable sub-plots that accommodate fascinating meanderings and digressions, and it has rarely been translated in full, given its formidable length of 80,000 shlokas or couplets. This magnificent 10-volume unabridged translation of the epic is based on the Critical Edition compiled at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. * The final volume ends the instructions of the Anushasana Parva. The horse sacrifice is held, and Dhritarashtra, Gandhari, Kunti, Vidura and Sanjaya leave for the forest. Krishna and Balarama die as the Yadavas fight among themselves. The Pandavas leave on the great journey with the famous companion—Dharma disguised as a dog. Refusing to abandon the dog, Yudhishthira goes to heaven in his physical body and sees all the Kurus and the Pandavas are already there. * Every conceivable human emotion figures in the Mahabharata, the reason why the epic continues to hold sway over our imagination. In this lucid, nuanced and confident translation, Bibek Debroy makes the Mahabharata marvellously accessible to contemporary readers.

The Greatest Story Ever Told Dispute over land and kingdom may lie at the heart of this story of war between cousins—the Pandavas and the Kouravas—but the Mahabharata is about conflicts of dharma. These conflicts are immense and various, singular and commonplace. Throughout the epic, characters face them with no clear indications of what is right and what is wrong; there are no absolute answers. Thus every possible human emotion features in the Mahabharata, the reason the epic continues to hold sway over our imagination. In this superb and widely acclaimed translation of the complete Mahabharata, Bibek Debroy takes us on a great journey with incredible ease.

"Over the centuries India has been ruled by men and women who as great conquerors and able administrators have shaped the history of this land. This Pancharatna features five such rulers. Chandragupta Maurya defeated his rivals to found the Mauryan dynasty which reached unprecedented power under his grandson, Ashoka, who later saw the futility of war and renounced violence. Samudragupta of the Gupta dynasty, was a military genius. Harsha ascended the throne at age 16. His story has been taken from the Harshacharita and from the accounts of the Chinese traveller, Hiuen Tsang. Krishnadeva Raya of the Vijayanagara dynasty was described by the Portuguese traveller, Domingo Paes, as the 'perfect king'"--Page 4 of cover

"This Amar Chitra Katha collection brings together a sample of the Indian literary tradition down the years. It starts with the works of Kalidasa, moving to Sanskrit romances of the Gupta Age, and ancient Tamil Sangam literature which was influenced by Jain and Buddhist thought. As language and literature evolved, each region in the country began to develop its own special modes of writing and story-telling. By the nineteenth century, India was home to not one but a multitude of literatures, each borrowing from, referring to, and overlapping with the others.