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The Mahabharata: The Epic and the Nation
Author: G N Devy
Publisher: Aleph
Price: Rs 499
Pages: 142
No Indian, it is said, encounters the Mahabharata for the first time. Its chaotic plot twists and polychromatic cast of mortals and gods are so deeply embedded in the country’s cultural consciousness that the text, like an old love, never really has to explain itself.
A father blind to his children’s flaws is Dhritarashtra (the blind king who failed to discipline his errant son), a wronged son caught in the wrong company is Karna (abandoned at birth, he was a Pandava, but fought on the side of the
