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Insights
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Click on the volume titles for translators’ personal accounts of their books and their
relationships with the texts they have chosen to translate.
Handsome Nanda Aśvaghoṣa
Linda Covill
Nanda has it all—youth, money, good looks and a kittenish wife who fulfils his sexual and emotional needs. He also has the Buddha, a dispassionate man of immense insight and self-containment, for an older brother. When Nanda is made a reluctant recruit to the Buddha’s order of monks, he is forced to confront his all-too-human enslavement to his erotic and romantic desires. More
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Heavenly Exploits (Buddhist Biographies from the Dívyavadána)
Joel Tatelman
Indeed, why should we in the twenty-first century take an interest in ‘karma’ stories about super-powered monks, autocratic kings, jealous queens, manipulative politicians, crafty merchants, ancient family conflicts, or worse, ghosts, godlings and heavens and hells? More
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Into the Fray: An Introduction to the Maha·bhárata
Vaughan Pilikian
The Maha·bhárata is the longest poem in human history. Its origins stretch back deep into the past. Over three thousand years ago in ancient India there arose new stories of gods and men who had come to heaven and earth after the old divinities of the Veda. More
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Life of the Buddha Aśvaghoṣa
Patrick Olivelle
I have been especially interested in how experts within one tradition represented itself to others and represented the others to its own adherents.… What is most interesting and impressive about Aśvaghoṣa is that he manages to do this twin task with a light touch and the elegant beauty of the language. More
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Love Lyrics Amaru, Bhartṛhari & Bilhaṇa
Greg Bailey & Richard Gombrich
Apart from the punch these poems have always delivered to me, I have never ceased to be astonished by the poet’s massive knowledge of ancient Indian culture and his mastery in the use of the linguistic sign... More
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Maha·bhárata II: The Great Hall
Paul Wilmot
The game of dice is the climax of “The Great Hall” and its most famous episode; after the match, nothing can ever be the same again... More
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Maha·bhárata IV: Viráta
Kathleen Garbutt
The Virāṭaparvan starts with the tales of how the Pándavas suffer and survive in disguise, but ends with their discovery, when their power, heroism and majesty are finally revealed in battle. Their trials are many and varied but in every scene there is a balance between dramatic tension and playfulness. More
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Maha·bhárata IX: Shalya (volume one of two)
Maha·bhárata IX: Shalya (volume two of two)
Justin Meiland
As the fourth of the Maha·bhárata’s five battle books, the Shalya Parvan devotes a great deal of material to war. It is here in the relentless suffering of the battlefield that the confusion and instability of the world becomes most realized, its fickle violence described as ‘a game of dice in which life is the stake’ and its horror expressed through accumulated images of baroque-like intensity and gore. More
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Much Ado About Religion Bhaṭṭa Jayanta
Csaba Dezső
Bhatta Jayánta’s play stands out as unique among the works of Sanskrit literature. It is a curious mixture of fiction and history, of scathing satire and intriguing philosophical argumentation: a work of a true genius and a rewarding read for everyone interested in the culture of classical India. More
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Ramáyana Synopsis
John P. Clay
Rama, the crown prince of the City of Ayódhya is a model son and warrior. He is sent by his father the king to rescue a sage from persecution by demons, but must first kill a fearsome ogress. More
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Rama Beyond Price Murāri
Judit Törzsök
How can a Shaiva choose to translate a Vaishnava play about Rama? And especially one so untheatrical? More
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