Indian Epics

Polo

I was planning to buy my reading material in India. And I was thinking of going trough of the mythologies/epics of India.

My brother has tried in the past (before I was planning to go to India)to get me to take his Maharabata version home with me. But I took his original version with translation of Beowulf instead

But apart from the maharabata I have no idea wich epics are worth a read,
so it would be mighty nice of you to help me out.

Leaving to India on MONDAY

Merchant

There are many good, short translations of the Bhagavad Gita, in prose and poetry.

Other epics? Rushdie, Naipaul, Mistry . . .

Chandra

I hope you're not planning to carry the Mahabaratha around, as the size of it is four times the bible... The Gita, which is an excerpt of Mahabaratha, is an option though. And good reading.

The other great Indian epic is the Ramayana.

omshanti

There is also the Ramayana....can't recommend a particular translation though...sorry! But I do know that this epic is also incredibly popular throughout much of the country and once a year in many places they hold the Ram Lila where they burn huge effigies of the evil demon Ravana celebrating Rama's victory over him (Ravana kidnapped his darling Sita and took her to Lanka, Hanuman helped Rama get her back and ultimately defeat the demon and his army!)....I haven't read it, just heard much about it.

IainC

R.K. Narayan's version of The Ramayana is a good read, about 220 pages and is one long adventure tale full of morals and ethics.

chalkdog

I really think it's almost a crime to visit India and not know the Ramayana, which is one of THE epics of the Hindu culture. It's an amazing story, and will certainly make more understandable any visual references that you see there in popular, as well as "high" art, of Ram and Sita, or the monkey hero, Hanuman. I would recommend the Ramayana as "retold" by William Buck, University of California Press. It's highly readable, and a managable size for travel. It's full of heroism, magic, demons, battles, faithful love, and sacrifice. I wouldn't wait until arriving in India to start reading it!

SHIMLA

I suggest you get hold of the "Amar Chitra Katha" magazines, which present the Indian epics in a nutshell and in the form of a comic book. There are plenty of titles which you'll find useful. Very informative, easy to carry and sufficient for a foreign visitor who wishes to know something about the Indian epics.

I'll never recommend your carrying the bulky and voluminous translations; after all your purpose is to broadly understand Indian culture and not to write a thesis on the Mahabharata or the Ramayana!

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Polo

I knew of the Ramayana, it just slipped my mind. Thx for the reminder.

I will definatly try the Gita. And maybe I can buy the original maharabata in different parts?(I generally enjoy reading the ancient epics even if they tend to go on and on..)
Or is it always published as a whole.

And can these books be found at any Indian bookstore? Or are they not thàt popular.

beach

Alternatively you can buy these in various visual media forms also.

The Ramayana for Children By Bulbul Sharma is a nice book to understand this epic in a very simple way. The book is published by the Penguin Books India. The hardbound edition cost Rs360 in India. Probably it is cheapest to buy books (any books) here at stores than ordering from abroad. It is slightly heavy (and wider in size too) to carry during travel.

Also there is an array of the BIG Ramayana (text) available for much lesser prices.

There is Ramayana (The Legend of Prince Rama) in the comic animation form. It is a very nice CD for children. Cost Rs199 for set of 2CDs.

A couple of weeks back I’ve seen the whole of the Mahabharatha TV serial in CD (I think 30 CDs!) at a store in Chennai (Landmark) for sale. The price was something like Rs4500 or so.

Also do a google search. Most of the epics in the text form are available with many sites for free download. Many people have retold/ translated these Indian epics and holy texts in English and other languages.

The gist of Ramayana…

There is this prince Rama of Ayodhya. He wins and marries Sita, by breaking the bow of lord Shiva. Uner some situation Rama’s father (the king) asks him to leave for forest. Sita and Laxman (his brother) accompanies him as they are so devoted to him. During the forest life Surpanaka, sister of the demon king Ravana of the Kingdom of Lanka, falls in love with Rama. She could not tolerate the denial by both the brothers and tries to attack Sita. Laxman cuts of her nose with an arrow. Ravana feels angry with this. And her explanations about the beauty of Sita make Ravana desire for Sita. He snatches away Sita from their home in the forest.

The search for Sita leads Rama & Laxnmana to many friends. Jatayu, the great eagle was the first to intersect Ravana at his flying chariot. The wounded Jatayu informs Rama that it is Ravana who snatched his wife. Jatayu recognizes Sita’s cry for help when Ravana fly away with her. Ravana uses a powerful weapon and cuts Jatayu’s wing.

Rama and Laxmana then get the help of Hanuman, the monkey god and his army. The Trouble was to reach the island kingdom. Hanuman flies to Lanka and meets Sita in her garden. Ravana’s soldiers catch him and presents at the court. As a punishment they set fire on his tail. Hanuman extends his tail continuously (and Lanka run out of linen). And finally he jumps around and set the king’s palace on fire before returning with the message.

War is declared. Everyone including the animals and birds helps Rama to build the bridge to Lanka for the army to march. (Rama loves the effort of a squirrel and pats its back. That is how squirrels have the lines on their back!)

The Lanka war is fought with dramatic situations. Rama’s army runs out of the medicine stock to treat the injured solders. Hamuman flies to the Himalayas to collect the rare herbs to heal the battle wounds. He could not recognize the herbs and decides to bring the whole of the hill to the battlefield.

Rama kills Ravana and frees Sita. And that ends the episode.

(Rama is one of the ten avatars of Loard Vishnu. Sita is the daughter of Goddess Earth. They have two boys –Luv & Kush who rules their father’s kingdom for many years)

Ramayana is actually a story with hundreds of small stories and sub stories. For every character or event there is a story.

Hanuman comes back from Lanka after meeting Sita for the first time. The worried crowd was so anxious to know the news from Hanunan. In the Kamba Ramayana this is depicted interestingly. Hanuman says “Met me Sita”. It is a big grammatical mistake. But Hanuman says the most important word people are looking for first! People were not able to bear the even the time taken by him to convey in the message with correct grammar. In the local dialect the word ‘Met’ comes at the end of the correct sentence!

In many of our communication sessions this example is told as a good case. Tell the last thing (the message!) first

“After listening to whole of Ramayana you are asking if Sita is Rama’s sister!” is a very popular quote to make fun of someone’s ignorance

Mahabharata is a much bigger story than Ramayana. And there are thousands of small stories within Mahabaratha. In our childhood days the elders have told us different stories each time, everyday. They neither had to repeat a story nor ran out of new stories

www.valmikiramayan.net (read the prose without the verses, it is more easy for a beginner)

AvidTrekker

The story of Krishna is lovingly narrated in the Shreemat Bhaagavatam, also called the Bhaagavata Mahaapurana. There is a reason stated why it needed to be written, in spite of the contemporary Mahaabhaarata giving many stories about Krishna.

The sage Krishna Dvaipaayana was honoured with the title of "Veda Vyaasa" after his massive effort at arranging the undivided Veda into 1180 branches grouped into four chapters. He then wrote another massive work of 100,000 couplets which was called "Bhaarata"... later became "Mahaabhaarata" (Mahaa means 'the great'). He also wrote the Bramha Sootras which are very terse and subtle.

After all this, he was feeling dejected that he had not done enough. Also he felt a sort of 'dryness' in his heart. His dejection was noticed by the celestial minstrel Naarada who advised Veda Vyaasa to write a separate book on the mischief carried out by the little child Krishna. (Lord Krishna, the eighth Avataar of Vishnu)(even the sage was named Krishna) Naarada said that everyone will LOVE this narration SO MUCH that people will become full of "bhakti" or devotion for the Lord. In turn, it will ignite the 'bhakti' latent in the author's own heart and he will overcome his dejection. Veda Vyaasa did as told and the book 'Shreemat Bhaagavatam' was born which narrated the entire life of Krishna. Veda Vyaasa thus became the 'official' biographer of Krishna. Later he wrote many such descriptive narrations which were called the 'puraanas' ... total eighteen in all. Then there were 18 sub-puraanas and a further 18 sub-sub-puraanas. Some accounts place the Shreemat Bhaagavatam as the LAST WORK written by the Sage.. after which he found the so-called peace within his own heart.

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beach

The Ramayana for Children by Bulbul Sharma
Penguin Books
ISBN 0-67-004964-6
Rs360

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