The Illustrated Mahabharata: The Definitive Guide to India's Greatest Epic

This DK edition of the Mahabharata is a stunning achievement. It manages to take one of the most complex and dense narratives in human history and turn it into something accessible, beautiful, and deeply engaging. Visual Brilliance: True to DK’s "Definitive Visual Guide" style, the book is packed with incredible illustrations, historical art, and clear maps. The genealogical charts alone are worth the price of admission, they make following the vast Kuru lineage effortless. Engaging Literature: The writing is top-tier. It captures the philosophical depth and moral dilemmas of the characters (like Krishna, Karna, and Bhishma) while keeping the prose clear enough for children to follow the main story. A True Coffee Table Book: This is a substantial, high quality volume. Its oversized format and vibrant print make it a natural conversation starter for any living room. It’s the rare book that guests will actually pick up and spend time with. Whether you are intimately familiar with the Itihasa or a complete newcomer, this book is a treasure. It’s a bridge between generations, perfect for a family read or as a sophisticated addition to a personal library. Highly recommended.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I admit, it took me a while to get into the style, the way the story is broken into simple pieces, and the repetition from page to page. But by the end, I really appreciated this lesson-like approach. I had no prior knowledge of any of this material, so the simple explanatory style and the repetition really helped me. A more straight-forward narrative would have made it much harder to understand and retain the very complex relationships, personal histories and events, especially given the vast number of characters. I can see how someone could be disappointed with that approach, if they’re already familiar with the Mahabharata and wished for a deeper treatment, but surely there are other books for that. This one is a beautiful intro for someone who needs a starting point; it made me want to learn more.

In India's most sacred scriptiure, the Indian scholars of India have contributed to telling the acient stories of India. The Mahabharta given meaning to the search for inner spiritual meaning. The publisher Dk is well know for its beautiful, well illustrated book. The Bhagava Gita is the spritiual part of the Mahabharata which is home to the scared teachings of Krishna's with its inner spirtual journey towards Self Realization and a "how to approach" merging back with God or Atman. Regardless of what your background this book contains some of the most profound acient texts of our time.

Greenpine_books is an excellent seller. Book arrived before time in tip-top condition. Book is basically a gorgeous hardcover copy of Pattanaik's Jaya book on glossy paper with lots of beautiful color photos.

My wife and I started watching recently the mahabaratha show on hotstar and decided it would be great to have a book to authenticate some of the over dramatized and overlooked events. This book is of great quality and has excellent content. Unfortunately for a book of this standard we also did notice spelling and grammatical errors which most certainly could and should be avoided.

Love this book. Great graphics and easy to read.

I have always found the grand story of Hindu mythology difficult to get. Bahgadavita (a small piece) of this book of course is easy. Ramayana is just plain fun. But the big story with the characters with various symbols, very complex families, multigeneration fights, loves and so on is hard. This book is great. It has a clear text with an interesting recursive storytelling works very well. I read this right after I read Nair's Until the Lions, the voices of the women in this epic. They go well together.

As it says its the most illustrative, lots of pictures and a very detailed explanation of the greatest and the longest epic to life.

「ビジュアル図説マハーバーラタ」という感じの本です。値段の割にサイズも大きく、お得感があります。 マハーバーラタの本筋に沿い、ストーリーの解説と一緒に、絵画や演劇、舞台、伝統芸能の写真などが沢山載っています。 コラムのように小枠でマイナーな異説、近代現代の創作の紹介もちょこちょことあります。読み応えがありますが、眺めるだけでも楽しいと思います。

I am familiar with a few versions of Mahabharata, so the content was not my goal. What I was looking for is a collection of illustrations that are relative to the epos. I would say that I am delighted with this fantastic book except for one part - Bhagavad Gita. I think these pages could be designed better with less free space on a page, more verses and some illustrations. Otherwise, it is a fantastic book and an excellent pair for Ramayana from the same publisher. And it is a good book to spend an evening with, flipping pages and diving into the magic of this great epos.

Fidelidade ao original, ilustrações lindas e encadernação primorosa. Parabéns!!

Si lees el mahabharata en una versión resumida, que son seguro un par de volúmenes, o en su edición completa, entre 10 y 12 tomos, es terriblemente útil una guía de lectura. Esta está muy bien organizada e ilustrada en sus más de 500 páginas. Es más completa que la de Penguin “A companion to the mahabharata” que es de bolsillo.

Although there are many editions of the epic over many centuries, this publication stands out in its treatment of each instance of the Mahabharata. Even after having read 2 books of the great poem & watching 1 really long television show based on the same, I still ordered this volume as it provided a brief narrative of EACH & EVERY instance preceding & constituting the saga. There are numerous images, quotes, extracts to aid the reader grasp concept/ moral of the chapter. Good for educating children & adults like-wise in Hindu mythology/ culture. Paper & print quality is extremely nice. The negative is that it restricts most chapters to 2 pages on an average & packs these pages with more visual aids than textual subject matter. Henceforth, leaves you with unanswered questions if you are someone who wants to immerse yourself into every tiny portion of the saga. This is understandable as breaking the book down further would require publication of multiple volumes. It achieves its purpose most efficiently & animatedly.