Mahabharata by William Buck
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Book Reviews of Mahabharata
Book Review: An Emphasis On Morality!
Summary: 4 Stars
In this adaptation of the classic, William Buck retells the >3400 year old Sanskrit epic verse, the "Mahabharata."
This text provides detailed interaction between the figures engaged in the Bharata war that took place between the Kurus people and the Pandus or Pandavas people. The actions of the warriors of both peoples are portrayed in both a heroic and moral context, and it should be understood that the Mahabharata is a reenactment (allegorical) of a cosmic moral confrontation (by the gods), and not simply an account of the cataclysmic battle.
Buck's version of the original is written in a smooth flowing and interesting way and is a good introduction to Dharma, Indian mythology, Hinduism, and the caste system. I rate Buck's version at four stars for an attempt at a flowing novel, but being a little "disjointed," and lacking somewhat in detail. All in all, well done.
Book Review: A good introduction
Summary: 4 Stars
Overall, I should say I am fairly impressed. I do not know the Mahabharata enough to say whether the translation preserves the spirit of it, but as a piece of writing it is highly satisfying. It made me want to learn more about Indian literature. Buck has written a tale accessible to us westerners who have never heard of Arjuna or the like, with characters that we can identify with. That said, the brevity of it sometimes makes some episodes impossible to understand, unless, I suppose, one has external knowledge about the epic. Some references within the text I understood only after reading a bit more about India, but on the whole it does not hamper the overall comprehension of the epic. A fine read. I would have appreciated a more detailed directory of characters and gods (especially the latter) so one could see what Buck is talking about.Book Review: A Well-Condensed Classic
Summary: 4 Stars
The Mahabharata is a classic Hindu tale of the struggle of the Pandavas and the Kauravas for the Kingdom of Hastinapura. Arjuna leads the Pandavas to champion the cause of Prince Yudhishthira against the corrupt Duryodhana. Krishna (an incarnation of Vishnu) and other gods make routine appearances, bestowing blessings or curses on the major heroes. The Mahabharata in full form contains the Bhagavad Gita, which is of course classic Hindu scripture. The Mahabharata as it is retold here is not a direct translation, but an abbreviated retelling and summary the immense Hindu epic. Those fascinated with the fantastic and wild tales of Hindu heroes and gods, or simply intrigued by Hindu religion and culture in general should read this book.Book Review: William Buck's Mahabharata
Summary: 3 Stars
The Great Bharata of Vyasa, comprising over 100,000 Sanskrit stanzas organized into eighteen volumes, contains within its vast length many stories - of gods and demigods, of kings and warriors, of legend, history, ethics, philosophy, law, politics, and religion. Within all its richness lies a core story of the great civil war between the Kurus and the Pandavas, two rival branches of the Bharata lunar clan, culminating in the terrible Battle of Kurukshetra, an Armageddon which wiped out both sides in the fighting and ushered in the degenerate Fourth Age of Mankind, in which we are all living today. It is this story, lying at the very heart of the Mahabharata, which most translators into English, including William Buck, choose to tell.Buck created his version in the 1960's, resolving to tell the story in his own way, which would be accessible to readers in English but remain faithful to the spirit, if not the letter, of the original. He condensed, rewrote, and reinterpreted in order to make a work which he hoped would please and delight his readers while preserving the essential story. The result is very controversial, and the controversy continues to this day (Buck died in 1970).
Many readers, including me, appreciate the artistry and skill of Buck's writing. I am puzzled, however, by the changes that he made in the story. For example, Buck has Krishna kill Dushsasana prior to the battle (in Vyasa, Dushsasana is killed by Bhima at Kurukshetra). For another example, in Buck's version, it is Virata's son Uttara who breaks into the Kuru's Lotus formation during the battle (and is subsequently killed). In Vyasa, the protagonist is Abhimanyu, son of Arjuna. For a third example, Buck has Draupadi volunteer, after having been won by Arjuna, to become the wife of the other four Pandava brothers as well; in Vyasa she has no choice, since her mother-in-law, Kunti, commanded Arjuna to share "whatever he had brought" with his brothers.
These are major characters, and it seems arbitrary for Buck to change their stories in this way; it is like Paris, instead of Hector, being killed by Achilles!
It is also important, I feel, for a translator to bring across the beauty, grandeur, religious ecstasy, and sorrow of Vyasa's conception; the Battle of Kurukshetra is a Ragnarok, an Armageddon, a monumental epic, the end of an age, the banishing of gods and demigods from earth; I do not find such elevated emotions in Buck's version, although it must be admitted that I have not found it in other translations either, and probably only the original Sanskrit can do it justice. In my view, the Mahabharata is a tragedy, perhaps the greatest tragedy ever written, and the tragic viewpoint is what I find most lacking in Buck's version, in spite of its many felicities of incident and style.
For readers who are unfamiliar with the Mahabharata, it is easy to get lost in the multitude of characters and their complicated relationships. Buck makes a sincere effort, but he lapses at a few important points. For example, when Bhima cries to Drona that "Aswatthaman is slain", the reader may not realize that Aswatthaman is Drona's son, since there is no entry for Aswatthaman in the glossary.
The glossary, as in the example above, omits many crucial relationships and names. An index and a geneaology chart of the major characters would have been very helpful, but are not included in the book. There are only seven footnotes. The edition that I am reviewing (University of California paperback, 1981) was apparently typeset from the original plates, since it contains all of the original typographical errors.
Buck's version omits the Bhagavad Gita, the "Song of God" that is uttered by Krishna just before the climactic battle. The Gita, although now considered to be a relatively late interpolation to the basic story, is absolutely essential; its importance is analogous to the story of Job in the Old Testament, and any version of the Mahabharata is fundamentally incomplete without it.
In summary, I recommend that readers who are not that familiar with the Mahabharata should read first a modern version such as R. K. Narayan, which tells the basic story clearly and accurately; first-time readers should also obtain a contemporary translation of the Gita, and read it when they reach the appropriate point in the Mahabharata narrative. I do like Buck's version; the writing is very fine, and I feel a certain nostalgic connection to it (Buck and I are both children of the 60's); but I have to admit that on the whole, it really does not meet contemporary standards of scholarship or accuracy.
Book Review: Enchanting, but at best a starting point
Summary: 3 Stars
William Buck's retelling of the world's greatest (and longest) epic is beautiful and moving to read, but it is not really the Mahabharata. He can be forgiven for leaving out a great deal, and he did well to take some of the independent stories from the very long first part of the original and telling them later on in the action. He is producing a retelling, as he wrote--not a translation. But the changes in detail are troubling, and eventually they betray the work as a whole.
Buck is commendably willing to find humanity in Duryodhana, so often painted as a devil; but he whitewashes the ethically questionable conduct of the Pandavas and of Krishna, too. Part of the greatness of the Mahabharata is its clear insight into the tragic split between what is necessary and what is right. It leaves us both wondering and disturbed. Buck's Pandavas are too good and, perhaps even worse, too much like ourselves. He said that he wanted to make readers love Arjuna, Yudishthira, and their brothers as much as he did. His book would have been better had he trusted that his readers would love the characters and the stories that he had found in the Sanskrit. By making them more pleasing to a modern Western audience Buck showed a lack of faith in both the Mahabharata itself and in his readers.
I enjoyed this book tremendously, but for a sense of what can be found in this great work and why it remains alive after 2000 years of more I would recommend Ramesh Menon's two-volume rendition. (Amazon's indexing isn't helpful; Volume One is best found by going to the page for Volume Two and clicking on "other editions -- paperback.") This has its own problems, but it conveys the intent of the original much more truly. And for anyone who becomes a Mahabharata junkie it has the added advantage of being four times as long. This is a book you don't want to finish. Longer is better.