A Mahabharata Primer

I have read a lot of books by a friend Sharath Komarraju, who writes both fiction and non-fiction primarily around the Mahabharata. He has read and written all kinds of things on the Mahabharata.

Many years back, I think it was when he launched his first book on Hastinapur, as a simple promotional tool, he wrote a small book called ’51 Lesser Known Tales from the Mahabharata’. It still is one of the best books for newbies to the epic and to his style of writing. Subsequently, he ended up expanding these 51 tales into some kind of Omnibus of over 2000 tales over three volumes, and also some specific collections around characters (both male and female) in the Mahabharata. Plus there are some FAQs or analytical collections in a question and answer type – again on the Mahabharata. Basically, he is a veritable treasure of knowledge on the epic.

But as a primer or an introduction, two of his books, 51 Lesser Known Tales and Interrogating the Epic are good starting points. Remember that he writes about the Mahabharata mainly from the perspective of it being a story or literature, rather than it being history. So it is fairly dispassionate about characters and events as they unfold, sometimes making fun of the fantastical happenings in the epic that some readers attached to the historical or reverential aspects of the epic might find offensive.

Here are my reviews of these two of his books: (51 Lesser Known Tales, and Interrogating the Epic).

Nice collection.

Found some nice stories well written for today’s times with the author’s voice intact. Nice reading for those interested in Indian mythology.

Analytical.

Analytical questioning of the epic, which has many fantastic events anyway. Sometimes it makes for funny reading, sometimes serious, often times it gets convoluted. But overall a refreshing read if you have an open mind.