A study of the ritual reenactment of part of the Mahabharata epic as performed in the Tontaimantalam region of Tamil-speaking southern India. Frasca (religion, U. of California, Davis) explores the 2000-year history, the troupes, the literary corpus, performance techniques, and the significance to the place of performance. Includes a glossary without pronunciation, photographs, diagrams, and maps. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

“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.

334 B.C.Alexander the Great begins his conquest of the Persian Empire. But his plans for everlasting glory do not end there and the young kind marches towards the Ends of the Earth - the lands of the Indus - on a secret quest. It will lead him to an ancient secret. It will lead him to an ancient secret concealed in the myths of the Mahabharata; a secret that is powerful enough to transform him into a god.. PRESENT DAY In Greece, the ancient tomb of a queen is discovered, a tomb that has been an enigma for over 2000 years.

244 BC Asoka the Great discovers an ancient and terrible secret—a secret buried deep in the Mahabharata; a secret that could destroy the world; a secret hidden away for over 2300 years… Present Day A retired nuclear scientist is murdered. He leaves only e-mails with clues for his nephew. He and his friends follow a trail through ciphers and 2000-year-old ruins. Pursued by powerful dark forces, caught between the secrets of the past and the intrigues of the present, can they unravel the mystery before an unspeakable horror is unleashed on the world… CHRISTOPHER C DOYLE graduated from St. Stephens College, Delhi, with a degree in Economics and studied Business Management at IIM Calcutta. Since childhood, his literary mentors have been Jules Verne, HG Wells, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, JRR Tolkein, Robert Jordan and Terry Brooks. Christopher has written articles on management and business for several publications, and is regularly invited to speak at conferences. He worked with leading multinationals before setting up a strategic consultancy in India in partnership with a US-based firm. He is also a certified Executive Coach and works with senior executives to help them achieve better results in the workplace. Work aside, Christopher is a musician and lives his passion for music through his band called Mid Life Crisis which plays classic rock. He lives in Gurgaon with his wife, daughter and two dogs. The Mahabharata Secret is his debut novel. USP An IIM graduate-turned-author, Christopher C Doyle is in the same league as Chetan Bhagat and Amish Tripathi Mahabharata Secret blends mythology and history with modern science and cutting edge technology A page turner with hi-octane suspense and intrigue Readership All fiction lovers, thriller junkies, history buffs, corporate yuppies, educational institutes, libraries and general trade readers.

The Mahabharata, "What is found here, may be found elsewhere. What is not found here, will not be found elsewhere". The ancient story of the Mahabharata casts the readers mind across spiritual and terrestrial vistas and battlefields. Through the experiences of divine incarnations and manifest demons, a great royal dynasty is fractured along fraternal lines, resulting in the greatest war of good and evil ever fought in ancient lands. This most venerable of epics remains profoundly timeless in it teachings of truth, righteousness and liberation. This electronic edition of the Mahabharata is Kisari Mohan Ganguli's 1896 translation and is complete with all 18 parvas in a single ebook. Like other ebook conversions, the text has been sourced but this edition has had additional proofing and a significant number of corrections and rectification of missing or misorded text. The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India. It is an epic narrative of the Kurukshetra War and the fates of the Kauravas and the Pandava princes as well as containing philosophical and devotional material, such as a discussion of the four goals of life. Here we have Adi Parva, the first, discusses how the Mahabharata came to be narrated by Sauti to the assembled rishis at Naimisharanya after having been recited at the Sarpasatra of Janamejaya by Vaishampayana at Takṣaśilā. It tells the history of the Bharata race traces history of the Bhrigu race. Vyasa is a revered figure in Hindu traditions. He is a kala-Avatar or part-incarnation of God Vishnu. Vyasa is sometimes conflated by some Vaishnavas with Badarayana, the compiler of the Vedanta Sutras and considered to be one of the seven Chiranjivins. He is also the fourth member of the Rishi Parampara of the Advaita Guru Paramparā of which Adi Shankara is the chief proponent.