A major contribution to the study of South Asian literature, offering a landmark view of Mahabharata studies.

Many Mahabharatas is an introduction to the spectacular and long-lived diversity of Mahabharata literature in South Asia. This diversity begins with the Sanskrit Mahabharata, an early epic poem that narrates the events of a catastrophic fratricidal war. Along the way, it draws in nearly everything else in Hindu mythology, philosophy, and story literature. The magnitude of its scope and the relentless complexity of its worldview primed the Mahabharata for uncountable tellings in South Asia and beyond. For two thousand years, the instinctive approach to the Mahabharata has been not to consume it but to create it anew.

The many Mahabharatas of this book come from the first century to the twenty-first. They are composed in nine different languages-Apabhramsha, Bengali, English, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Sanskrit, Tamil, and Telugu. Early chapters illuminate themes of retelling within the Sanskrit Mahabharata itself, demonstrating that the story's propensity for regeneration emerges from within. The majority of the book, however, reaches far beyond the Sanskrit epic. Readers dive into classical dramas, premodern vernacular poems, regional performance traditions, commentaries, graphic novels, political essays, novels, and contemporary theater productions-all of them Mahabharatas.

Because of its historical and linguistic breadth, its commitment to primary sources, and its exploration of multiplicity and diversity as essential features of the Mahabharata's long life in South Asia, Many Mahabharatas constitutes a major contribution to the study of South Asian literature and offers a landmark view of the field of Mahabharata studies.

A major contribution to the study of South Asian literature, offering a landmark view of Mahabharata studies.

About the Author

Nell Shapiro Hawley is Preceptor in Sanskrit at Harvard University. Sohini Sarah Pillai is a PhD candidate in South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

Reviews

"Many Mahabharatas is aimed at specialists in the epic, who will appreciate this volume's inclusion of new voices alongside established ones, its expansion of disciplinary perspectives, and the satisfying continuities that unite the essays, making the whole greater than the sum of its parts." - Reading Religion

"Overall, the anthology is an excellent read. It thoroughly enriches and updates the field of Mahabharata Studies. This is a groundbreaking volume assembling a range of eminent scholarship." - Religious Studies Review

Book Information
ISBN 9781438482415
Author Nell Shapiro Hawley
Format Hardback
Page Count 462
Imprint State University of New York Press
Publisher State University of New York Press
Weight(grams) 762g