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 | EDITOR S NOTE: The Vedic histories tell us that the civilization of India—or Bharatavarsa, as it was called—once extended throughout the world. Mahabharata is the great history of that greater India. It is an epic poem of more than 100,000 verses, composed in Sanskrit by the sage Vyasa.
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| | The Mahabharata is full of dramatic and instructive incidents, which reach their philosophical high point in the Bhagavad-gita. Through the pages of the Mahabharata we can gain a deeper understanding of the knowledge, the values, and the culture of the Vedic way of life.
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| | Thus far, the editions of the Mahabharata available in English have been either drastically abridged or difficult to penetrate. Often, the translator regards the Mahabharata as a fascinating literary work, an object about which to speculate, but not as what the followers of the Vedic culture accept it to be: a work of truth, a doorway to ultimate understanding.
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| | But now a new translation has been undertaken by Hridayananda Dasa Goswami, a leading disciple of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. This new translation brings to us an English text that is scholarly, devotional, and eminently readable.
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| | The translation of the Adi Parva—the first "book" of the Mahabharata—is now complete and being readied for press, as Hridayananda Dasa Goswami proceeds with the next book.
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| | In India, for generations people in towns and villages have gathered in the evening to hear readings from Vedic histories like the Mahabharata. Now, in each issue of BTG, we ll be able to relish and learn from this valuable wellspring of Vedic culture and wisdom.
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| | As this selection begins, we find the sage Vaisampayana speaking the Mahabharata in the court of King Janamejaya, the emperor of the world. Here, Vaisampayana tells of the boon granted to Kunti Devi, who will become the mother of the Pandavas, the heroes of the Mahabharata.
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