The Mahabharata of Vyasa — All 18 Parvas Retold, Bhagavad Gita in Brief, 29 Key Shlokas + What Vyasa Really Says

⚔️ The whole Mahabharata, from Vyasa’s own Sanskrit, told simply and faithfully. All eighteen parvas, from Bhishma’s vow to the Pandavas’ ascent to heaven, with the Bhagavad Gita in brief, in one beautifully designed book.

Most of us know the Mahabharata from television, storytellers and retellings. This book goes back to the source: the Critical Edition, the scholarly text prepared over nearly fifty years at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, from more than a thousand manuscripts. It retells the epic in Vyasa’s order of events, gives the famous shlokas in Sanskrit with their meaning, and shows which well-loved details come from Vyasa and which were added later.

Language: English. Every Sanskrit verse is given in Devanagari, in easy Roman transliteration and with an English meaning. This is not a Hindi book.

What's inside (76 pages)

• Introduction: Vyasa and the frame of the epic, the eighteen parvas, the people of the Mahabharata and the family of the Kurus
• Adi Parva: Bhishma’s vow, the births of the Pandavas and Kauravas, Drona and Ekalavya, the house of lac, Draupadi’s svayamvara and Indraprastha
• Sabha Parva: the rajasuya, the game of dice and Draupadi in the assembly hall
• Aranyaka and Virata Parvas: Arjuna and Shiva, Bhima and Hanuman, Nala, Savitri, Karna’s armour, the Yaksha’s questions and the year in disguise
• Udyoga Parva: Krishna’s choice, Vidura Niti, Krishna’s peace mission, and Karna’s choice
• Bhishma Parva: the Bhagavad Gita in brief, with six of its great verses, and the ten days of Bhishma
• The war: Abhimanyu, Jayadratha, the fall of Drona, Karna’s chariot wheel, the eighteenth day and the night raid
• After the war: Gandhari’s lament and curse, Bhishma’s teachings, the Vishnu Sahasranama and the horse sacrifice
• The last journey: the end of the Yadavas, Krishna’s departure, Yudhishthira and the dog, and heaven
• 29 key shlokas, each with its parva, chapter and verse number, from “What is here is found elsewhere; what is not here is found nowhere” to “Where there is dharma, there is victory”
• Companion pages:
  • the eighteen days of the war, and the Gita chapter by chapter
  • the hard questions of dharma
  • what Vyasa says and what he doesn’t
  • places of the Mahabharata and the many Mahabharatas of India and Southeast Asia
  • reading the Mahabharata at home, common doubts, the story at a glance and a glossary

Why this edition

• Every verse is quoted directly from the Critical Edition, and every event is checked against it, then checked again independently.
• “Vyasa says” notes cover details often told differently today. In the Critical Edition, Ganesha does not write down the epic, Draupadi never says “the son of a blind man is blind”, and at Draupadi’s svayamvara there is no fish.
• Honest about the epic’s hardest questions: Draupadi’s question, Karna’s loyalty, Yudhishthira’s half-truth.
• An evergreen edition, with no dates that go out of date.

Frequently asked questions

Is this the complete Mahabharata? It retells the complete story of all eighteen parvas, with 29 key verses in Sanskrit. It is not a verse-by-verse translation of the epic’s nearly 74,000 verses.

Does it include the Bhagavad Gita? Yes. It includes a summary of the Gita’s teaching, six of its best-known verses and a chapter-by-chapter guide. It is not the full Gita.

Which version is it based on? The Critical Edition of Vyasa’s Sanskrit Mahabharata. Where popular versions differ, the book says so.

How do I get it? A download link appears as soon as you pay and is also emailed to you. If you can't find it, check your spam folder or write to ourdigiverse@gmail.com.

Can I read it on my phone? Yes. It's an A5 PDF that reads well on any phone or tablet and prints neatly at home.

Format: PDF eBook, instant download. Part of the Sanatan Granth Sangrah series by YourDigiverse.

Licensed for the personal use of the purchaser.