The Mahabharata Paperback – Abridged, 28 May 2009

Complete (with all stories in short form), leaves the poetic excess to save space, sticks to the original and is based on the Critical Edition of Mahabharat by the BORI.I did a lot of research before starting to read the Great Indian Epic and came across many abridged and unabridged texts. In the complete/ full version, I found only Late Bibek Debroy's version to be the most authentic, and in the abridged versions, this one by John D Smith (In comparison to Ramesh Menon and Kamala Subramanian.. these two have added events/dialogues to make it more dramatic based on other sources) is the best. Raja ji's Mahabharata can be a good start if you want a further abridged version.This is a complete, no-nonsense book, and the language is lucid. The important events are covered in detail (exact translation from Sanskrit), while side stories are also in abridged form. So, this one completely stands out as research material for me. Some Sanskrit words are not properly translated, but those can be easily understood in the context in which they come.

Book good but sent in bad condition.

The book is indeed well translated, but some terms can be more accurate as those terms wouldn’t extract the exact expression sometimes.The price, when it comes between 600-700, is completely worthy, but otherwise the price (sometimes 799 and above) is too high and not well justified as a buyer.Neglecting the price point, the book is clearly a treasure of knowledge and Dhrma.

Nice book, I had a great read author have presented the book as it is…

I like this book . Good information about Mahabharatam

I feel like its an unbiased rendering of abridged version of mahabharatha. Really impressive translation and reproduction of the original.

Incisively written with new age perspectives. Author has great depth in the subject and this is brought to bear in the rendition.

It's abridged so it doesn't contain a lot of verses such as Mahabharata 13.44.13 but it's ok...