The Pandavas believe they have completed the terms of their exile, though Duryodhana claims that they did not live unknown for the full thirteenth year, since Arjuna was recognized in the battle at the end of the preceding book, Virata. While the Pandavas and Kurus make their preparations for war they organize a series of embassies to negotiate peace. This volume constantly highlights the inevitability of conflict and the futility of negotiation. Most characters are concerned that war between family cannot fail to be sinful. Contained herein is the "Sanat*sujatiya," a philosophical passage to rival the "Bhagavad*gita." Like the "Bhagavad*gita," the "Sanat*sujatiya" tells that karma will not chain one in the cycle of rebirth, if one refrains from desire. Through understanding the truth of non-duality, that the world is mere illusion, one is subsumed into eternal existence with Brahman.
Co-published by New York University Press and the JJC Foundation
For more on this title and other titles in the Clay Sanskrit series, please visit http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org

About the Author
Kathleen Garbutt translates and edits Sanskrit literature full time for the JJC Foundation, co-publishers (with NYU Press) of the Clay Sanskrit Library.

Reviews
"No effort has been spared to make these little volumes as attractive as possible to readers: the paper is of high quality, the typesetting immaculate. The founders of the series are John and Jennifer Clay, and Sanskritists can only thank them for an initiative intended to make the classics of an ancient Indian language accessible to a modern international audience." * The Times Higher Education Supplement *
"Very few collections of Sanskrit deep enough for research are housed anywhere in North America. Now, twenty-five hundred years after the death of Shakyamuni Buddha, the ambitious Clay Sanskrit Library may remedy this state of affairs." * Tricycle *
"The Clay Sanskrit Library represents one of the most admirable publishing projects now afoot. . . . Anyone who loves the look and feel and heft of books will delight in these elegant little volumes." * New Criterion *
"The books line up on my shelf like bright Bodhisattvas ready to take tough questions or keep quiet company. They stake out a vast territory, with works from two millennia in multiple genres: aphorism, lyric, epic, theater, and romance." -- Willis G. Regier * The Chronicle Review *
"Published in the geek-chic format." * BookForum *



Book Information
ISBN 9780814731918
Author Kathleen Garbutt
Format Hardback
Page Count 717
Imprint New York University Press
Publisher New York University Press
Weight(grams) 499g