Published: April 02, 2012
Words: 104,840 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781476090009

Short description

The Story behind the Bhagavad Gita: a baby abandoned. A queen dishonoured. And a cataclysmic war that would end the Third Age of Mankind.

Extended description

When novelist Aruna Sharan took an unofficial poll among her Western friends, she discovered that not one of them had read the great Indian epic Mahabharata. It was then that she decided: the time was right to self-publish Sons of Gods—the “secret baby” she had been nourishing for almost years—as an e-book.

Not that there is any dearth of "Mahabharatas" out there, written by a variety of authors both Western and Indian. It’s just that to date, not one of these versions has yet managed to capture the public imagination. The Mahabharata is still a book that many people think they should read, but never do.

For most Hindus, of course, the Mahabharata is unarguably the greatest story ever told (with the Ramayana a close second), a marvellous blend of page-turning entertainment and deep wisdom, peopled with larger-than-life characters who live forever in their hearts. It is at the very core of Indian culture, the story behind their central scripture, the Bhagavad Gita. As the .. (Read more) When novelist Aruna Sharan took an unofficial poll among her Western friends, she discovered that not one of them had read the great Indian epic Mahabharata. It was then that she decided: the time was right to self-publish Sons of Gods—the “secret baby” she had been nourishing for almost years—as an e-book.

Not that there is any dearth of "Mahabharatas" out there, written by a variety of authors both Western and Indian. It’s just that to date, not one of these versions has yet managed to capture the public imagination. The Mahabharata is still a book that many people think they should read, but never do.

For most Hindus, of course, the Mahabharata is unarguably the greatest story ever told (with the Ramayana a close second), a marvellous blend of page-turning entertainment and deep wisdom, peopled with larger-than-life characters who live forever in their hearts. It is at the very core of Indian culture, the story behind their central scripture, the Bhagavad Gita. As the last Governor-General of India, C. Rajagopalachari—himself a Mahabharata author—says: “It belongs to the world and not only to India.

"To the people of India, indeed, this epic has been an unfailing and perennial source of spiritual strength; learnt at the mother’s knee with reverence and love, it has inspired great men to heroic deeds as well as enabled the humble to face their trials with fortitude and faith.”

The highest literature transcends regionalism, and through it, when we are properly attuned, we realise the essential oneness of the human family.

The Mahabharata is of this calibre.

This new version strives to capture the vital essence of the vast original in a single volume: a continuous story dramatised so as to captivate the reader with living, breathing characters, spiritually alive and retaining the powerful spirit of the original, yet restructured into the familiar form of the modern novel.

The story in a nutshell, as told in Sons of Gods:
Karna, sired by the Sungod Surya, is born to the unmarried princess Kunti. She abandons him to the river; he is found and raised by a low-caste couple.

Spurned by all, Karna finds a friend and ally in the avaricious prince Duryodhana. But Duryodhana's worst enemies just happen to be the five brothers, the Pandavas, the noblest warriors in the world. And their mother is Kunti, that princess who still grieves for the child she gave away as a young girl.

Karna and Arjuna -- the middle and mightiest Pandava -- each vow to kill each other without knowing they are brothers. As tensions mount, so does their hatred for each other; until, in the cataclysmic war that will wipe out the entire warrior caste, they meet in the inevitable facedown. This is war in which no-one can be the winner.

Aruna Sharan is the pen name of Sharon Maas, author of the best-selling HarperCollins novel Of Marriageable Age and two other novels. Of Marriageable Age is soon to be made available as an e-book.
(Less)

Tags

mythology, bhagavad gita, hinduism, mahabharata, epic drama, epic battle, mythology and folklore, indian epic

Available ebook reading formats

Single purchase gains access to all formats. How to download ebooks to e-reading devices and apps.

Format	Full Book	Sample First 20%
Online Reading (HTML, good for sampling in web browser)	Buy	View sample
Kindle (.mobi for Kindle devices and Kindle apps)	Buy	Download sample
Epub (Apple iPad/iBooks, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, and most e-reading apps including Stanza, Aldiko, Adobe Digital Editions, others)	Buy	Download sample
PDF (good for reading on PC, or for home printing)	Buy	No sample available
RTF (readable on most word processors)	Buy	No sample available
LRF (Use only for older model Sony Readers that don't support .epub)	Buy	Download sample
Palm Doc (PDB) (for Palm reading devices)	Buy	Download sample
Plain Text (download) (flexible, but lacks much formatting)	Buy	No sample available
Plain Text (view) (viewable as web page)	Buy	No sample available

Reviews

Log-in to write a Review   Log-in to add a Video Review

Review by: swaya x on July 02, 2012 :
I really wanted to like this book, because I love the Mahabharata, the author professed to have a soft spot for Karna, and well, so do I! However, there are some mistakes that actually jarred me out of the story, and some major issues with characterizations, and well, some timing issues...

Some of the obvious mistakes are things such as the mixing up of the curses between Parasurama and the Brahman (c'mon, that's just lazy research), and some willful changes made by the author, such as not mentioning the armour that Karna was born with... which, to me, is extremely important in Karna's characterization. Especially when you consider the way he had to cut himself out of them, and also Karna's previous life! There is a *reason* that he had both the armour and the earrings, after all... I mean, if it was just the earrings, surely Indra wouldn't have needed to trick him out of it - Arjuna would've been able to kill him easily, so this author kind of created a plothole there which was totally not needed!

I was also kind of side-eyeing the Duryodhana characterization. He is a lot of things, but "whiny" isn't one of them. C'mon, he's the sort of guy who courageously went right ahead and did all sorts of evil things, so when I keep seeing that particular word in association with Duryodhana, it's a little... yeah. XD Also the Dritharashtra characterization was jarring. He wasn't just a helpless Duryodhana pawn. The blind king himself had more of a role in the evildoings against the Pandavas than is shown in this book. And if Duryodhana is shown as the only main villain - characterization is an authorial right, after all - perhaps he could have been shown as a stronger guy. Because here what's ended up happening is that the Pandavas are shown to be overwhelmingly on the positive side, and on the other side,well, a whiny villain surrounded by yes-men. O_O A trifle unbalanced.

Also, the dialogue was so very dramatic at times that I couldn't totally get into the story as I have done other versions. Less exclamation marks would've helped. :( A shade more understatement could've worked to draw the reader in a lot better. I mean, the events in the story are dramatic enough without the dialogue adding to it. >>

All in all, the Mahabharata is definitely one of the greatest stories ever told. The storytelling here though, leaves a bit to be desired.
(reviewed within a month of purchase)

Reason for report:
— Select a reason — Book is or contains spam Book infringes copyright Same content is published elsewhere with different author (for ex., by private-label rights) Duplicate Incomplete work (such as sample or serial) Should be marked adults-only Category is inappropriate Poorly formatted Nudity or other inappropriate content on cover Nudity or other inappropriate visual content in book Inappropriate erotica content Cover image is improper Content is inappropriate Other violation of Terms of Service Other reason not shown above.

Additional details: