The Illustrated Mahabharata: The Definitive Guide to India’s Greatest Epic

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I admit, it took me a while to get into the style, the way the story is broken into simple pieces, and the repetition from page to page.But by the end, I really appreciated this lesson-like approach. I had no prior knowledge of any of this material, so the simple explanatory style and the repetition really helped me. A more straight-forward narrative would have made it much harder to understand and retain the very complex relationships, personal histories and events, especially given the vast number of characters.I can see how someone could be disappointed with that approach, if they’re already familiar with the Mahabharata and wished for a deeper treatment, but surely there are other books for that.This one is a beautiful intro for someone who needs a starting point; it made me want to learn more.

I can only assume that this book was hugely overstocked as the price was perhaps one sixth of what I would have assumed. I suggest that anyone with an interest in Indian culture snap this up. My wife, whose precedents were Indian Hindus and who is a huge fan of the Mahabharata, is absolutely fascinated with this book. BTW, check out the 2014 Mahabharata TV series. It is not available in English but it was an enormous production.

I don't know what superlatives to use for this book but what a joy it is. The content is so accurate to what Indian history and mythology has been about that to imagine the amount of research that was done is just unbelievable. The epic is presented so vividly, respectfully, and coherently that it is hard to put the book down. The book also draws or presents any life lessons from particular events in the epic as well for what they are worth. An absolute must have book for the ones interested in Indian epics. My hearty congratulations to the team for an exceptional piece of work. I wish they did something similar for Ramayana too.

As it says its the most illustrative, lots of pictures and a very detailed explanation of the greatest and the longest epic to life.

My wife and I started watching recently the mahabaratha show on hotstar and decided it would be great to have a book to authenticate some of the over dramatized and overlooked events. This book is of great quality and has excellent content. Unfortunately for a book of this standard we also did notice spelling and grammatical errors which most certainly could and should be avoided.

I have always found the grand story of Hindu mythology difficult to get. Bahgadavita (a small piece) of this book of course is easy. Ramayana is just plain fun. But the big story with the characters with various symbols, very complex families, multigeneration fights, loves and so on is hard. This book is great.It has a clear text with an interesting recursive storytelling works very well.I read this right after I read Nair's Until the Lions, the voices of the women in this epic. They go well together.

Its such a beautiful book, with snippets of information. Despite watching two separate version of the Mahabharat on TV I gathered so much information from the first few pages of this book. It is a summary of key events of the epic and minute details of how this epic continues to impress the culture of India at present. I would recommend this book highly to anyone who is interested in the epic.

This incredible book is so wonderfully detailed I felt like I was watching the old black and white 50's, 60's, and 70's movies with my first generation immigrant parents all over again. I HIGHLY recommend this book.It also looks fantastic as a centerpiece book on a coffee table.