The Mahabharata
By Namita Gokhale
I am just finishing The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. Given that I've been married to AA for almost 13 years, and he grew up on these stories, it's amazing that I haven't read a version of it before and didn't know the basics of the story. It's been a pretty transformative experience for me. As AA said, "People say that the Mahabharata, the longest story in the world, is a library. It is not a single story but is a repository containing all the stories." If one isn't feeling very "universalist," one can alway say it contains all Indian (or ancient/pre-modern) Indian stories. There are endless variations. There are many, many characters. Divakaruni does a great job of introducing a number of characters in a mere 300 pages. Hers is told from the POV of Draupadi, wife to the Pandavas. It's made me interested in reading other versions, but it's not a kid's book.
We started reading the Puffin version of the Mahabharata by Namita Gokhale to GG. She is interested in it, but she's pretty confused about who is who and what their relationship/back story is in the book. We're not far into it, yet, and she keeps saying, "I don't get it." We stop and explain, but there are so many characters she's getting confused. I think the authors could have cut out some of the characters. While there are arguments that they're still in the story because they're major characters, a book for kids should streamline and make minor or unnamed some of the many, many characters to help kids get their heads around it. We might have to quit, and start with the comics instead. While generations of Indian kids have grown up reading Amar Chitra Katha's comic books about the epics, one of the things that bothers me is how skin color is portrayed in them (whitening the good characters, for instance). We can have conversations about those editorial decisions, but visual images are still pretty powerful. Such is life. If anyone has a good version of the Mahabharata for a 1st or 2nd grader who isn't very familiar with the story, yet, it would be helpful to hear about it.
Amar Chitra Katha comics:
