Mahabharata by William Buck
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Book Reviews of Mahabharata
Book Review: I want this book on Kindle!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an amazing book! The stories have beautiful quotes filled with wisdom and meaning. This are summarized translations of religious scriptures of the Hindu, yet the characters have such surreal lives almost magical or scientifically inspiring. In many pages, I noticed a similarity to modern children's literature and Bible stories which fascinates me to the thought of the history between the influences, rather than the transcendental. This book is divine and the development is brilliant!Book Review: Buck's Mahabharata
Summary: 5 Stars
The Mahabharata is the world's longest epic, but this version is short and sweet. Like Buck's Ramayana, it conveys the essence and spiritual energy of the original, in this case without having to read all 18 volumes. Highly recommended.
I enjoyed C. Rajagopalachari's version but vastly prefer Buck's and have recommended these to many people over the years who have been delighted with it.
Book Review: A Mine of Jewels and Gems
Summary: 4 Stars
Vyasa's Mahabharata is a massive epic that has no equal in Western literature. The central story of the Mahabharata revolves around five brothers (the Pandavas) who were disinherited of their kingdom through the treachery of their cousins (the Kurus) and their struggle to regain what is rightfully theirs. The epic culminates in the apocalyptic Battle of Kurukshetra, engineered by the Gods to wipe out the warrior race. Tagged to this central plot is a veritable mine of jewels and gems - a whole library of ancient Hindu folktales, myths and legends that serve to illuminate the ancient Hindu concept of dharma and adharma (which can be translated very loosely as "right/truth" and "wrong/falsehood"). William Buck's retelling of the Mahabharata is the second version that I've read in two months - the other being C. Rajagopalachari's version. While I enjoyed Rajagopalachari's version immensely, I felt that something was missing. As with most other Indian writers who retell the great Indian epics for English speaking audiences, Rajagopalachari successfully evokes a deep sense of piety - these epics are, after all, sacred scriptures to the Hindus - but he fails to measure up in terms of evoking the sheer sense of awe and wonder that Vyasa clearly intended his epic to convey. This Buck manages to do in spades - his version is told simply but clearly, with very little of the sermonising that Indian authors are sometimes prone to overdo, thus successfully transporting the reader to a wondrous time when Gods still walked the earth with men. My sole complaint is that Buck sometimes randomly changes events/protagonists for no apparent reason - as others here have already noted, Buck has (i) Draupadi volunteering to become the shared wife of the Pandavas rather than this being the unintended result of their mother Kunti's edict to share the treasure that they brought home that day, (ii) Arjuna marrying Princess Uttarah instead of his son Abhimanyu, (iii) Krishna killing Duhsasana before the war instead of Bhima during the war, and (iv) Prince Uttara breaking the Kurus' battle formation instead of Abhimanyu. Even Yudhishtira's final trial before his entry into heaven is presented by Buck only as a dream. I can only give Buck four stars instead of five due to these unnecessary changes. Such faults aside, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. If you have never read the Mahabharata before, I would suggest starting with Buck's version. It will get you hooked onto this wonderful epic and make you hungry for more - then go on and pick up Krishna Dharma's unabridged version for a more accurate retelling. Buck very unfortunately died before he could finish his retelling of the Harivamsa, a companion piece to the Mahabharata that fleshes out the life story of Krishna, along with that of Vishnu's other avatars.Book Review: For Flavor and Sense, A Fine Introduction
Summary: 4 Stars
I am pleased to see so many reviews of this book. I have read it several times, most recently a week ago, and though I now like it less than I first did, the first encounter was delight, and I still enjoy the warmth and energy of Buck's version. He is validated by centuries of prior writers adapting the MAHABHARATA for their audiences.
I, too, am sorry that Buck decided to make some of the changes and omissions he did, but as others have pointed out this volume is a fine way to sample the taste and sensibilities of Sanskrit literature, including its humor.
Buck was pretty good at inserting translations of key phrases, suggesting the use of aphorism throughout the epic, and he provided plenty of clues to the complexity of original. Most important, he kept the story moving along. (His RAMAYANA is an even better example of his rendering of Sanskrit epic into English story.) Like others, I would recommend this MAHABHARATA in preference to the R. K. Narayan version from Penguin, which is much more drastically condensed.
The Clay Sanskrit Library is now issuing new translations, real translations, of the MAHABHARATA in parts. I'd recommend "The Forest" for anyone seeking to get a better sense of how extensive the subplots and interspersed stories are.
Book Review: The depth of the story varies
Summary: 4 Stars
The Mahabharata, in essence, is a good story, but the way Buck tells the story varies. At some points, Buck goes into amazing poetic phrases, but at other points, the story is crushed down to its bare core. Usually this would not be a big problem, but when you are condensing ten thousand pages into four-hundred, you can't afford to take too much space up with poetry. I like the poetic parts but what it causes is that the non-poetic parts are horribly condensed. A lot of the time Buck introduces new characters and never gives any information about them and then he expects you to know everything about them! I had to refer to the character list multiple times throughout this book. Of course, this may also be caused because I am not too aware of Hindu folklore. If you are new to reading Indian folklore, I would suggest the Ramayana by Krishna Dharma. It was excellent! However, I still liked this book, but I think someone who knows the religion better than I do (who would also think of the Mahabharata as more than just a story) would enjoy it a lot more.