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The Mahabharata

The Great Epic of India

The Mahabharata (pronounced approximately as Ma-haa-BHAAR-a-ta) is an ancient religious epic of India. It has existed in many forms, the fundamental one being a text in ancient Sanskrit which may well be the world's second largest book (after the Gesar Epic of Tibet).  I, James L. Fitzgerald (Ph.D. in Sanskrit, Chicago, 1980) of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, am currently translating about one fourth of the Mahabharata for a complete translation of the Sanskrit text being published by the University of Chicago Press, and I am also editing the remainder of the translation of the text by other Sanskrit scholars. This work follows and completes the translation of the Mahabharata begun by the late Professor J. A. B. van Buitenen of the University of Chicago.

The purpose of this web page is to introduce those unfamiliar with the Mahabharata to this literary and spiritual marvel and to provide initial and basic assistance in becoming familiar with the text to anyone who wants such help.  Those who are interested can now find here a basic guide to begin reading about the Mahabharata, and to reading the text in translation, or in abridged form, or even in Sanskrit.

Note: Due to the limitations of the technology currently available to me, and also in order to make this site more easily accessible, the system I use for transliterating Sanskrit is not standard and tries to approximate loosely the common pronunciation of Sanskrit by European and American scholars.

A Brief Description of the Mahabharata

The Story of the Mahabharata

Reading Suggestions for Getting Started

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All material on this site is copyrighted by James L. Fitzgerald. Copyright © 1999-2009 James L. Fitzgerald
1.20  May 20, 2009