A slim book, it takes on a vast Indian epic that has been read and reread multiple times and strives to find new meaning and hints of dark reality hidden behind mythical events.

It mostly succeeds. The narrative is conveniently split into character studies and so jumps back and forth multiple times, giving us views of the same events from many angles. The core idea it argues for is that Mahabharat is a study of human weaknesses and a deep reflection of what it means to exist in the world. There are no Gods and monsters here, just deeply flawed men and women burning with jealousy or closely guarding their stations in life. People do good and evil things to follow a "code", and then also ditch that same code if it suits them.

Some of the stories are conjectures and don't really add a whole lot (Gandhari and Draupadi's stories near the end of their lives are weirdly placed). Others - esp. the ones about Bhishma, Karna and Krishna are logical and do not invent new legends but manage to show the events that are already well known in a whole new light.

I would highly recommend this to anyone who is even superficially interested in mythology. ( )

The version of story/tales I was made aware during my growing years were critically challenged after reading this book. While most of my curious questions were answered many more questions are born post reading this book. I would say its One of the finest books on Mahabharata. ( )

Book gives fresh and hitherto unknown perspective of Mahabharat characters and was instrumental in sowing seed of doubt about greatness of Karna, who before this, I had believed to the undisputable best man in whole of epic. Book is organized as collection of articles about various characters in Mahabharat and takes angle of presenting mythological details under contemporary viewpoints and feminist perspective. ( )

I read the Kannada translation of this book and I really loved it. I was surprised that not a lot of people know about this work of Ms. Karve.

Pick up this book if you want to know:
- what happened to Dhritharashtra and Gandhari after the left Hastinapur
- how Yadava dynasty (almost) came to an end
- why Bheeshma's entire life ends up as a futile sacrifice
- why Karna is not so much of an ideal man
- how Sita and Draupadi have comparable lives

This book talks about prevailing cultures and how it impacted the life style of 'Mahabharatians'. The chapter on Karna is extremely well-written. ( )

This book analyses the different characters in the epic Mahabharata, the author also tries to separate the original version which was a great epic devoid of gods and miraculous things which she believes happen to be later interpolations to turn the book from a historical account to a religious one. The book is quite fascinating to read ONLY IF you are aware of the general storyline of the epic. It is an easy read since it doesn't deal with too many characters, one of the drawbacks being the author is a bit feminist and turns off some of the male readers.

3.5/5 ( )