Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, 12 volumes Hardcover – January 1, 1991

I bought this translation of the Mahabharata after years of wanting to read the entire work. Having read several abridged translations and being highly unsatisfied, I was very happy to find this complete Mahabharata. All other translations, being abridged, tell the basic story, of course leaving out a lot, but leave out the various teachings entire or so abridged that the whole point of the Mahabharata is lost.

It is avesome to be an owner of a Ganguli translation to such a work that old and important to human culure evulotion and that mirrors the story and way of humankind. Although, it will take some effort to read through all 12 volumes.

The english needs upgrading badly.

Advertised as 12 volumes, only received one book with 2 volumes.

Excellent book. Great shipping. Not a bad price. A MUST read. What is NOT in the Mahabharata is nowhere else.

many thanks.

I ordered and payed for a twelve volume set and only received one book from the set!

This translation, first published (1883-1896) by the Bharata Press in Calcutta has been much maligned by 20th-century scholarship, but it will always remain a classic. Anyone who has used it extensively will realize its enormous value. Even J.A.B van Buitenen took back the harsh criticism made in his introduction of Volume I (p.36-37) of the Critical Edition translation in Volume II-III (p.10-11) after evidently examining the Ganguli (the correct spelling of his name) translation more carefully.First of all, it is still the only complete translation of the Mahabharata. (The one by M.N. Dutt published a few years later, and currently unavailable, seems to copy Ganguli.) Nonetheless, the stilted Victorian English prose may be difficult to get used to at first. For example, words such as "welkin" instead of sky, or "kine" instead of cows, or "celerity" instead of speed are used, and the sentences are sometimes quite convoluted. Once the reader is used to Ganguli's style it is relatively easy to read this translation. I have compared this translation to other partial transaltions, and it holds its own. The Bhagavad Gita is rendered better than some recent translations.It is also a classic because of the superhuman effort made by the Publisher P.C. Roy and the translator K.M. Ganguli to finish this work. Ganguli was, except for short interruptions due to illness, the only translator of the 85,622 verses (3,500+ pages in the present translation), which took twelve years to complete. Considering the gargantuan task, the translation is remarkably even. In some of the philosophical portions, in particular the difficult Mokshadharmaparva, of Book XII the Shantiparva, Ganguli has some problems. If you are seriously interested in the Mokshadharmaparva, seek out Deussen here instead, which is the only other (German) translation.The main drawbacks are, that apart from a rudimentary table of contents, this 12 volume set has no index, and no Critical Apparatus whatsoever, making a daunting task to read in this form. Yet the first edition, has verse numbers and short explanations for each chapter. This makes finding specific verses a difficult task. Why these are not present in subsequent Editions is difficult to understand. Why not just reprint the First edition, which is incidentally better type-set than the present. Without Books such as Sörensen's "Index to the Names in the Mahabharata", Jacobi's "Inhaltsangabe", and others, this edition is quite difficult to use. Another complaint I have, and for other Books published in India is that the binding and the quality of the paper are inferior. This problem seems to be getting worse.Still, this edition is a must have for all enthusiasts of the Mahabharata, students of Sanskrit literature, and Sanskrit scholars. Buy it before it goes out of print permanently. Email me if you have questions.