The Mahābhārata (Smith book)

The Mahābhārata is a noted abridged translation of the Mahabharata by John D. Smith, first published in 2009 by Penguin Classics.

The Mahābhārata
AuthorJohn D. Smith
LanguageEnglish
GenreMythology
PublisherPenguin Classics
Publication date
2009
Media typePrint
ISBN978-0-670-08415-9
OCLC615860861

Quotations

Viewed through human eyes, the war at Kurukṣetra is fought to settle the dispute between two sets of royal cousins; from the point of view of Kṛṣṇa and the other gods, the entire world of men is merely the theatre in which their latest battle with their old rivals has to be played out. The gods are not engaging in that battle for our benefit, but for their own, and the niceties of particular human dharmas are not high among their priorities.

— John D. Smith, The Mahābhārata: Introduction[1]

A portion of Śrī was born on earth for men to love: she was the blameless girl Draupadī

— John D. Smith, tr., The Mahābhārata

And a portion of Sri herself became incarnate on earth, for the gratification of Narayana, in the line of Bhishmaka. And she was by name the chaste Rukmini. And the faultless Draupadi, slender-waisted like the wasp, was born of a portion of Sachi (the queen of the celestials)

— K. M. Ganguli, tr., The Mahabharata: Book 1:Adi Parva

Reviews

The last English translation of the Mahabharata, John D Smith’s 2009 Penguin Classics edition, was a happy midway mark between a proper scholarly or academic translated edition and a text for the general reader.

— Neel Mukherjee, New Statesman[2]

I approached Dr. Smith’s book with some doubts—how could the world’s longest poem be squeezed into less than 800 pages? The attempts by Narsimhan, R.K. Narayan and others deprive the reader of the thematic richness and the brilliance of Vyasa’s narrative art. But the felicity with which Smith negotiates Vyasa’s labyrinthine forest is astonishing: pruning outgrowths, mowing down undergrowths, skirting deceptive byways! His strategy is to abridge without leaving out anything by providing précis of less important sections and translating fully the parts most significant in terms of narrative and style (about 11% of the original).

— Dr. Pradip Bhattacharya, The Sunday Statesman[3]

In almost 800 pages this rendition of the critical text of Pune consists of direct and complete translation of about 11% of the Sanskrit text (p. lxviii) and straightforward summation of the text between the translated passages.

— Sanskrit in Classics at Brown[4]

The Kolkata publisher, P Lal, spent his entire career "transcreating" the epic. The University of Chicago translator, JAB van Buitenen, died on the job. RK Narayan took a more relaxed approach, abridging it into one volume, as did the Cambridge Sanskritist, John D Smith. These short English versions are recommended for anyone who wishes to read the 'Mahabharata' without succumbing to exhaustion.

— Alice Albinia, The Independent[5]
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References
  1. Smith, John D. (2009). The Mahābhārata: an abridged translation. Penguin Classics. (ISBN 978-0-670-08415-9). Introduction, p. xli
  2. Mukherjee, Neel (15 May 2015). Mahabharata unbound: rewriting the world's longest poem. New Statesman. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  3. Bhattacharya, Dr. Pradip (31 October 2010). Mahabharata by Smith, DebRoy. The Sunday Statesman. Available at: Boloji.com. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  4. A New One-Volume Retelling of the Epic: Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  5. Albinia, Alice (9 June 2011). Book Of A Lifetime: The Mahabharata. The Independent. Retrieved 4 October 2017.

Further reading


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