Book for Mahabharata (English version)

Question

Can anyone tell a good book of Mahabharata in English version?

The one I know is The Mahabharata: Complete and Unabridged (10 volumes) by Bibek Debroy (www.exoticindiaart.com)

Are there any other versions available?

I know this is a meta question but don't have enough reputation to ask in meta.

Why don't you try this sacred-texts.com/hin/maha/index.htm, author is kisari mohan ganguly — Yogi, Commented May 22, 2016 at 11:55

Tezz · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-22 13:05:09Z

7

A good English version translation is by Kisari Mohan Ganguli. It is complete scannable and full translation.

You can download it here.

answered May 22, 2016 at 10:17

Tezz

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1

I wouldn't necessarily call the Ganguli translation the best; the Debroy translation is often better. But the Debroy translation is under copyright.
– Keshav Srinivasan ♦
Commented May 22, 2016 at 12:44
1

@KeshavSrinivasan oh! you are right... there cannot be best translation...english language can't match beauty of Sanskrit verses.... the best is just to understand directly from Sanskrit... so I edited answer and write 'A good translation"
– Tezz
Commented May 22, 2016 at 13:07
Haha I'm not saying anything that profound. Obviously some translations of a Sanskrit work will be better than other translations, so there will be a best translation. I'm just saying that arguably the Debroy translation is the best.
– Keshav Srinivasan ♦
Commented May 22, 2016 at 13:09

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Say No To Censorship · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-01 21:25:20Z

3

Here are some book recommendations by Shatavadhani Dr. R Ganesh from his YouTube video How do I get into the world of Mahabharata? Where do I start?

A couple of free online translations:

Kisari Mohan Ganguli's translation at sacred-texts.com
- Unabridged, but this is from 1896 so uses archaic English ('thou art', 'thou hast' etc.)
hinduscriptures.com
- Unabridged, verse by verse translation. Not sure who the author or publisher is - the website ingeniously removed all those details!

answered May 30, 2016 at 5:23

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the links are not working
– Biju jose
Commented Apr 1, 2020 at 14:13
SE replaces amazon.com links with special referral links but this appears to be broken now. Fixed the links now. @Bijujose
– Say No To Censorship
Commented Apr 1, 2020 at 21:21

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