Irawati Karmarkar Karve (1905–1970)

A slim book, it takes on a vast Indian epic that has been read and reread multiple times and strives to find new meaning and hints of dark reality hidden behind mythical events.

It mostly succeeds. The narrative is conveniently split into character studies and so jumps back and forth multiple times, giving us views of the same events from many angles. The core idea it argues for is that Mahabharat is a study of human weaknesses and a deep reflection of what it means to exist in the world. There are no Gods and monsters here, just deeply flawed men and women burning with jealousy or closely guarding their stations in life. People do good and evil things to follow a "code", and then also ditch that same code if it suits them.

Some of the stories are conjectures and don't really add a whole lot (Gandhari and Draupadi's stories near the end of their lives are weirdly placed). Others - esp. the ones about Bhishma, Karna and Krishna are logical and do not invent new legends but manage to show the events that are already well known in a whole new light.

I would highly recommend this to anyone who is even superficially interested in mythology.… (meer)

I read the Kannada translation of this book and I really loved it. I was surprised that not a lot of people know about this work of Ms. Karve.

Pick up this book if you want to know:
- what happened to Dhritharashtra and Gandhari after the left Hastinapur
- how Yadava dynasty (almost) came to an end
- why Bheeshma's entire life ends up as a futile sacrifice
- why Karna is not so much of an ideal man
- how Sita and Draupadi have comparable lives

This book talks about prevailing cultures and how it impacted the life style of 'Mahabharatians'. The chapter on Karna is extremely well-written.… (meer)