Update and structure of the Maha-bharata

Dear Vaisnava and friends,

Yesterday I finished the first draft of the Adi Parva, the first of the eighteen books that make up the Maha-bharata of Sri Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa.

 

The first draft is the most difficult part because the translation must be organized, the structure built and the whole system arranged.

 

The second draft will be composed of historical and philosophical explanations at the bottom of the page as footnotes. This is what makes this Maha-bharata unique, because although some (dubious) editions can be found in bookstores, there is no edition in which you find historical and philosophical “purports” seen from the perspective of the Bhaktivedanta school. These purports (or explanations) will be in the footnotes. Already 993 notes have been written even while I was working on the structure. At the end they will be many more.
I am also correcting the too many historical and philosophical mistakes that are characteristic of professional translators. At least the loyal followers of the Vedas will have a Maha-bharata without personal interpretations.

 

Then there will be a first editing, correcting errors and trying to make words and sentences clearer. I’ll try my best. Even if my English may be decent, it can never be like the language with which I was born. To make things worse I live in a Spanish speaking country and the lack of practice rusts my English. 

At last the book will be to entrusted to a native language editor.

 

For a Krishna Bhakta, the Maha-bharata is the most extensive and elaborated amongst Krishna Lilas. Although those who love Radha Krishna prefer the stories in Vrindavana, nobody can hide his attraction for the Maha-bharata.

 

THIS EDITION OF THE MAHA-BHARATA

At present the Adi Parva is composed of 513 pages of a book the size of 7.39 by 10.03 inches in two columns.

When the work of philosophical and historical explanation will be finished the pages will be many more. I would not be surprised if it surpassed the 600 pages.

 

The complete Maha-bharata is composed of 18 Parva. The word Parva literally means sections or chapters, but considering the size of the work can very well be translated as “books”.

Each Parvas are subdivide in sub-parvas that are also called the same.

 

The Adi Parva is composed of 19 of such sub Parvas, 234 chapters and 140 topics.
While the Parva and chapters cannot change, the topics, which have been decided by me, will probably undergo changes.

 

Let’s now see some of the structure of the Maha-bharata.

 

STRUCTURE OF THE MAHA-BHARATA

	Parvas	Parvas	chapters	sloka
	TOTAL		1,936	96,832
1	Adi Parva	19	234	8,884
2	Sabha Parva		78	2,507
3	Vana Parva		269	11,664
4	Virata Parva		67	2,050
5	Udyoga Parva		186	6,698
6	Bhishma Parva		117	5,884
7	Drona Parva		170	8,909
8	Karna Parva		69	4,964
9	Salya Parva		59	3,220
10	Sauptika Parva		18	870
11	Stri Parva		27	775
12	Shanti Parva		339	14,732
13	Anushasana Parva		146	8,000
14	Asvamedhika Parva		103	3,320
15	Ashramavasika Parva		42	1,506
16	Maushala Parva		8	320
17	Mahaprastanika Parva		3	320
18	Svarga Parva		1	209
	Appendix
	Harivamsa			12,000
	Bhavisya			unspecified

 

 

Adi Parva

19 (sub) Parva:

Topics: 140

• Manonatha Dasa (ACBSP)

 

 

 

 

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