Beginner’s Guide to the Mahabharata and Ramayana

Do you desire to know the stories of India’s two great epics, but are intimidated by the massive tomes with hundreds of characters and thousands of pages full of sentences like this: “Ugrasrava, the son of Lomaharshana, surnamed Sauti, well-versed in the Puranas, bending with humility, one day approached the great sages of rigid vows, sitting at their ease, who had attended the twelve years’ sacrifice of Saunaka, surnamed Kulapati, in the forest of Naimisha.”

Well if so, I’ve got just the guide for you!

I didn’t see any good beginner’s/laymen’s guides to the Mahabharata or the Ramayana. When searching for recommendations I only found books that I don’t think are good, books that are good only for people who already have some semi-decent familiarity with the stories and characters (so, most Indians), or books that are really only meant for serious scholars who want direct, unabridged translations. 

(I read many insistences that one must read the unabridged translations, but that is absurd for non-scholars. I couldn’t get through a single page, let alone thousands. I don’t see the point of the translations, anyway. If you have the patience to even process this stuff, you probably have the patience to learn Sanskrit and read the original. Might as well go all out. Also, the direct translations just feel lifeless to me. I don’t see the point in being a purist for living epics with no definitive versions when billions of people over millenia encountered them through varied mediums of art and storytelling. I say read (or watch or listen to, though my focus is on books) whatever version appeals most to you, which I hope to help you do.) 

(On the other end of the spectrum, I frequently get told to watch the very famous 1980s television versions which… come on people. I’m told they’re good for what they are but I can’t watch 100 hours of this. Would rather learn Sanskrit.)

I was fairly embarrassed to have gone many years in India without knowing these stories, which are so widely referenced in Indian culture that they’re really a must if you want to be India literate (to the extent that that’s possible, even for natives). I made the decision after about five years of being here that I would finally learn them. I got to know the Ramayana somewhat decently well, and then I got stumped on the Mahabharata, and continued to be slightly embarrassed for another four more years. And now I’m writing this.

I don’t feel like wasting too much time on the value of reading them. They’re very entertaining stories, they’re among the most popular stories told in human history (almost certainly top ten and probably even top five?), and they’re referenced widely in art, popular culture, politics, and daily life in India and Southeast Asia. What more do you need? 

(I’ve even been to three different cities, in three different countries, named after Ayodhya! Not to mention various other places that claim to be where scenes from the epics are set.)

The value of reading them depends on who you ask. For me, it’s for a mix of historical and cultural relevance and their inherent entertainment value. To many serious minded people in India, they are devotional texts and philosophical treatises. Honestly, that stuff doesn’t speak to me at all, and I find those parts of the texts to be unreadable. I can only recommend what I find to be pleasurable and legible. I hope some of you are able to engage with them on a deeper level than me.

This isn’t an exhaustive survey of every version out there, it is just the thoughts of a layperson who can’t stand archaic language or poetry and had little prior familiarity with the stories. I can’t handle the translations, so I need modern retellings, of which there are many. I sampled over a dozen versions of each epic and found many to be quite good, but different versions serve different purposes. What you choose should depend on how much time you want to devote and how deep you want to go. I will be recommending a mix of lengthy novels, short picture versions for kids, and a range of options in between.

(Though I am recommending some kids versions, I want it to be clear that I’m recommending them to adults. A lot of Indian kids books, uh, aren’t for kids. High levels of sex and violence in these. Some sanitize them better than most, but not all do, and to some extent it’s impossible. Parental discretion is advised and I’m not responsible for scarring your children or having them ask you what it means whenever someone “spills their seed.” But whatever, these are probably fine, give your kids some culture.)

I will break my recommendations into categories based on length and complexity. Many authors I’m recommending have written versions of both the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, so I’m grouping the epics together in the different categories rather than listing recommendations separately for each epic. I generally only sampled each author’s version of one of the stories. I assume the quality of one is representative to the other, but that may not be true in every case. 

I encourage everybody to read more than one version of each story, preferably of different category types, and preferably including an illustrated version (especially the DK Illustrated books). I liked doing them concurrently (reading, say, 10% of a primary version, and then catching up in the backup version, and so on). This will show you different interpretations in the storytelling and the illustrations. It will also act as review for the story, which isn’t necessary for the fairly simple Ramayana but is kind of essential for a first timer reading the Mahabharata (at least for the shorter versions), which has countless characters that are hard to keep track of in an initial reading. More than just review, though, I feel that trying out different versions of the story is part of the experience, given that these are stories that have evolved over thousands of years and are interpreted through many different narrative and artistic lenses. As the famous quote by A.K. Ramanujan* goes, no Indian reads the Mahabharata for the first time, something non-Indians can’t quite recreate, but you can still give yourself a good immersion in them and a variety of encounters with the material.

*(The full Ramanujan quote: “No Hindu ever reads the Mahābhārata for the first time. And when he does get to read it, he doesn't usually read it in Sanskrit. As one such native, I know the Hindu epics, not as a Sanskritist (which I am not), but through Kannada and Tamil, mostly through the oral traditions. I've heard bits and pieces of it in a tailor's shop where a pundit used to regale us with Mahābhārata stories and large sections of a sixteenth-century Kannada text; from brahman cooks in the house; from an older boy who loved to keep us spellbound with it (and the Kannada Arabian Nights which he was reading in the Oriental Library) after cricket, in the evenings, under a large neem tree in a wealthy engineer's compound; from a somewhat bored algebra teacher who switched from the binomial theorem to the problems of Draupadi and her five husbands. Then there were professional bards who 'did the Harikathā Kālakşepam', redeeming the time with holy tales (and not always holy ones). They were invited into a neighbourhood by a group or a wealthy man, and they would recite, sing and tell the Mahabhārata in sections night after night, usually under a temporary canopy (pandäl) lit by petromax lanterns, with a floating audience sitting on rugs on the street and on the verandas of houses that lined the street now turned into a makeshift auditorium. They sang songs in several languages, told folktales, sometimes danced, quoted Sanskrit tags as well as the daily newspaper, and made the Mahābhārata entertaining, didactic and relevant to the listener's present.”)

I wish I could say there was a “Best” version to read in every category, but there isn’t. I found it hard to rank one over the other. So look at samples (between Kindle and Internet Archive I was able to sample most of these), decide how much time and effort you want to put in, see what’s available at a reasonable price wherever you are, and pick at random if you have to.

I’ll start here with a brief summary of the recommendations followed by the same recommendations with greater detail. Further below I have recommendations for further reading which includes novelized interpretations meant for people who already know the stories (I haven’t read these, it’s my own reading list), and some films and art and other stuff.

Brief Summary of the Book Recommendations (With Amazon Links!)

All of these are reasonably faithful tellings of the story. They vary in depth, and there are definitely creative liberties taken, but for the most part they are straightforward retellings. After this section I have a section on novels inspired by the myths which take them in different directions.

Visual Companions

The epics have historically been multimedia experiences so I highly recommend some versions that I classify as visual companions.

DK - The Illustrated Ramayana (Amazon India / U.S.) and The Illustrated Mahabharata (Amazon India / U.S.) - Big coffee table books. Excellent. They tell the stories of the epics via images depicted in various mediums of art over centuries. You can also read them, they give a good narration alongside historical and cultural context, but I mostly just flipped through the pictures while reading other versions.

Samhita Arni - Sita's Ramayana (Amazon India / U.S.) - A short and simple graphic novel telling the story from Sita’s perspective. The narrative is too slim to work on its own for newcomers, but the Patua artwork is wonderful. Arni also has a Mahabharata book but I don’t recommend that as much.

I also recommend clicking around on Wikipedia for images. For example, scroll through the images of each Parva of the Mahabharata for a chronological run through of the story, showing several major scenes in images. For the Ramayana go through each Kanda. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the wikipedia pages and you’ll find the orange colored box that has a bunch of wikipedia pages associated with the myths, click to expand it if necessary and click around on various pages. Characters’ wikipedia pages have pictures of key scenes of theirs depicted in art. Just get the DK books, though.

Easy Kids Books

For kids… or lazy adults. For adults, I’d recommend one of these as a companion to one of the bigger versions rather than just reading these on their own. I’d say just skip these altogether, honestly, but for a long time I found my reading level for mythology was akin to being cognitively challenged, so you might find these helpful. 

Arshia Sattar - Ramayana for Children (Amazon India / U.S.) and Mahabharata for Children (Amazon India / U.S.) - Prose, contains some nice illustrations but not many. If you can’t find these, the Puffin versions are a fine alternative.

Sanjay Patel - Ramayana: Divine Loophole (Amazon India / U.S.) and Mahabharata: Designs of Dharma (Amazon India / U.S.) - Fully illustrated alongside the prose. The artwork is too modern for my tastes, but Patel, a former Pixar guy, is a good storyteller. Probably the best option for non-Indian kids, and the best fully illustrated option.

Short or Medium Sized Novels

Listing these in order of length, from shortest to longest. Each is probably the best for their respective sizes.

R.K. Narayan - The Ramayana (Amazon India / U.S.) and The Mahabharata (Amazon India / U.S.) (There’s also a set with both along with some other myths - Amazon India / U.S.) - His Ramayana is a great option if you want something short and accessible, but I found his Mahabharata too thin to be engaging and comprehensible as an outsider. Should be good clubbed with another version. 

Devdutt Pattanaik - Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana (Amazon India / U.S.) and Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata (Amazon India / U.S.) - More detailed than Narayan’s, and with asides on cultural/historical context, plus regional variations of the stories. 

Carole Satyamurti - Mahabharata: A Modern Retelling (Amazon India / U.S.) - Told in verse rather than prose, but I found it very readable even as a poetry hater. It feels like a novel. The most elegantly written of them. The pages are short so it isn’t nearly as long as its 900ish pages make it look.

Long Novels

Ramesh Menon - The Mahabharata: A Modern Rendering Volumes 1 & 2 (Amazon India / U.S.) and The Ramayana: A Modern Retelling of the Great Indian Epic (Amazon India / U.S.) - Long and pretty complete versions that give you the feel of reading the epics without being quite as long. But damn the 1500 page Mahabharata was long and, while suitably epic, not always engaging to read. 

Kamala Subramaniam - Mahabharata (Amazon India / U.S.) and Ramayana (Amazon India / U.S.) (For some reason there were numerous Amazon listings for these, and often the listing attached to the Kindle version had a more expensive paperback version than what was listed elsewhere. So, browse around.) - Menon used Subramaniam’s version as a template but added in more detail and dramatization. If you want a Mahabharata that feels pretty complete but isn’t as much of a massive undertaking as Menon’s, this is probably a good pick, coming in at half the length. Their Ramayana books are around the same length, so the difference is likely mostly in style.

Longer Summary

Now I’ll go into a bit more detail on all of the above. 

I want to reiterate that I highly recommend The Illustrated Ramayana and The Illustrated Mahabharata from DK. They’re great, both as visual companions to flip through alongside a different book, or to read on their own (the content is great but it does feel a bit like reading a textbook). I don’t have that much more to say about them than what I noted above, but for me the artistic depictions of the myths is a big part of my appreciation of them. These books have artwork that ranges from ancient India to modern India as well as some Southeast Asian arts. It adds to the civilizational significance of the stories.

There are other art books collecting illustrated versions of the epics, such as the Mewar Ramayana and the Mughal version of the Mahabharata, the Razmnama, but these are very expensive and I like the DK books because they have a wider range of artwork. Also, my library had the DK books and not the others. I’m sure these art books are awesome, though, I’d love to flip through them.

Another strong recommendation for a visual companion is Sita's Ramayana, illustrated by Moyna Chitrakar and written by Samhita Arni. The story is told from Sita’s perspective and is done in the style of patua scroll paintings. These artworks were traditionally accompanied by songs that would narrate the stories. Here’s a short video (like the book itself, highly recommended) where the artist sings alongside some of the scrolls, and also talks about her life and art. The book turns the paintings into a graphic novel. Because it is a pretty simplistic retelling of the story from one perspective, I wouldn’t recommend it as a primary version for people who don’t already know the story, though it is well told and I appreciated the perspective shift. The wonderful artwork is the star though, and it makes for a great companion. A very special book that I’m happy to have as part of my collection.

Arni, who wrote the text for Sita’s Ramayana, also wrote and illustrated her own version of the Mahabharata… when she was 12. It’s an interesting curiosity and is fun and charming, and I really enjoyed her introduction. But I wouldn’t rank it among my top recommendations.

As for other illustrated kids books, which I think make for good introductions to the stories, I recommend Sanjay Patel’s Ramayana: Divine Loophole and Mahabharata: Designs of Dharma. Patel was a Pixar animator before he started writing and illustrating Hindu mythology books for kids. I read his Ramayana, which was my first full encounter with the story. It’s simple kids stuff, but Patel is a good writer, and because the audience is American kids, they’re good for the mythologically challenged like I was in the beginning. I prefer a more traditional art style, but it’s well done and creative.

Also in the category of illustrated kids books is the comic series Amar Chitra Katha, which has various versions of both epics in addition to countless other Indian myths and stories. I find them too kiddy in a meatheaded way, and the art style is too crudely comic bookish for my taste. Fine in small doses (I do frequently read ACK comics that are relevant to places I’m traveling), but I wanted more depth for the big epics. (At least that was the case for the Mahabharata. Before I came to India a decade ago, I got the massive three volume Amar Chitra Katha Mahabharata set. I think I got halfway through the first volume before giving up. The Ramayana probably fares better.) This is what many Indian kids grow up with. You may like it more than me, if you like juvenile comic books. 

For prose kids books, I found Arshia Sattar’s Mahabharata for Children to be quite solid (she also has a Ramayana for Children). That was my backup version, while reading a big novelized version at the same time. I also sampled The Puffin Mahabharata by Namita Gokhale which I thought was similarly solid. There’s also a Puffin Ramayana by another author, probably decent.

I say skip the kid’s books, though, unless you really want something you can read in one sitting or you find the longer ones too challenging and want one of these as a backup. Or you’re a parent/child. (Hello children, thanks for reading, hope you like the blog.)

Now onto some longer versions for adults.

R.K. Narayan’s Ramayana and Mahabharata are both very short, around 150-180 pages. This works well for the Ramayana, which I read fully after reading a kid’s version. The slim size works less well for the Mahabharata, which I read about half of, without any accompanying version or prior knowledge of the stories and characters, and gave up on. The lack of depth made it difficult to keep track of the characters and care about what was happening. Narayan is the only writer on this list that I’m a fan of outside of the myths, but I don’t rank these as highly as his other work, just because the length doesn’t do them justice. Recommended if you want something in between the kids books and the longer versions, though. These were published in the 70s, and were probably the best short, accessible versions available for several decades. They probably remain the best at this length, but I prefer going deeper. If you’re really lazy, I recommend these, though you’d probably want to club the Mahabharata with a kids version, and the visual companions.

I also tried reading the Mahabharata by both William Buck and C. Rajagopalachari (widely known as Rajaji). They both have versions of the Ramayana as well. Buck is known for novelized versions for western audiences, published in the 60s, and Rajaji’s, published in the 50s, are much beloved in India (two very intelligent Indian friends recommended the Rajaji version to me). I think both were probably the best available for their time, and they are longer than Narayan’s (around 400ish pages for the Mahabharata). Personally, I found the writing in both of these to be both clunky and old fashioned, and I struggled to get into them. I read 20 pages of each of their Mahabharatas and gave up. They have more depth than Narayan’s versions, but Narayan is a better writer. Also, I’m convinced the Rajaji version is unintelligible if you don’t already know the story. It skips significant chunks and makes no sense and just tells random stories and expects the reader to piece them together somehow? Maybe it would have clicked if I kept reading, but I’m happy with the decision I made to move on.

More recently published, and I felt much better, are Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana and Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata by Devdutt Pattanaik, who is the most popular mythology writer in India today (he also consulted on the DK books, mentioned above). I was always skeptical of him since he puts out multiple books a year and has dozens of books on shelves at Indian bookstores and some of them have titles such as Business Sutra: A Very Indian Approach to Management. This seemed like a cringey choice of author. But I found his Mahabharata (around 400 pages) to be very good, from the bits that I read (I actually reverted to it for the war scenes where I found the longer version I got to be unreadable). Cleanly written, a good level of detail without being overwhelming, and with notes at the end of each chapter that give cultural and historical context along with tidbits about regional variations in the stories. I should note that I tried reading these when I first came to India (as they were recommended often) and was kind of lost, partly because the names and Sanskrit words really confused me. If that’s you, try bundling this with one of the kids books, at least at first to help you get over the hump.

Next up is Carole Satyamurti’s Mahabharata: A Modern Retelling. This is told in verse, a concept I’m not cultured enough to understand. Poetry usually makes my head hurt, and the words spin around on the page and I can’t read it. I sampled a few dozen pages of this, though, and found it surprisingly legible and effectively written. It reads like a novel, and it is more elegantly written than any of the other books on here. It’s around 900 pages, but they are fast pages given the form, so I’d say it’s closer to a 400ish page novel. A good, crisp level of detail. I got too drawn to the greater detail of the later versions, but I half regretted not going with this. I’d actually say it’s a good intermediate version for people who don’t want to read the super long versions but want something more detailed than the kid’s versions, and with more artistic flair than the others already mentioned. 

Now, getting into even bigger stuff, with more detail and a greater level of dramatization than any of the previous ones. I recommend these over the shorter versions, if you’re willing to dedicate the time to them. With that said, I still feel there’s a lot of room for improvement. With the shorter versions, the ones I recommended are about as good as you can get given the constraints of the short length. But I think there are great 500-1000ish page versions that are yet to be written. (This reminds me of when I was sourcing recommendations and asked a friend if there were any versions of the Mahabharata he liked, and he said “Not really. I’ve been thinking of writing the version I want to read.”)

Kamala Subramaniam’s Mahabharata and Ramayana were respectively published in 1965 and 1981, and they’re each around 800 pages. I read most of the free Kindle sample of the Mahabharata, and it was the first time I felt I got to know the characters beyond being paper thin cardboard cutouts. This helped me a lot with following along with the big cast, because without the depth they’re hard to remember. The writing is simple, though, and I didn’t feel it wasted time on excessive descriptions. I really liked this version and almost bought it, but then I sampled one more version, listed next, and preferred that, though in the end I sort of regretted not going with this or the Satyamurti one. Maybe. I could never decide and I guess I’ll never know what the right choice was. 

Subramaniam also wrote a modern retelling of the Srimad Bhagavatam. I don’t know what the hell that is, but I’ll probably read her version of it one day. 

A level up from this is Ramesh Menon’s The Mahabharata: A Modern Rendering (Volumes 1 & 2) and The Ramayana: A Modern Retelling of the Great Indian Epic. Both were published in the 00s, and the Ramayana is around 700 pages while the Mahabharata is around 1500 pages. These actually use Subramaniam’s versions for their structure, but expand on them with much more detail and dramatization. At least that’s true for the Mahabharata, which I read in full and is nearly twice the length of Subramaniam’s. I haven’t sampled either of their versions of the Ramayana, but those are roughly the same length, so I assume the difference is more in style than in level of detail. (He also has much longer full translations, make sure you buy the right version!) 

Based on the Kindle sample, I chose Menon’s Mahabharata over all the others I tried. I feel like up until the Menon version, it is all “tell, don’t show,” while Menon actually dramatizes things and puts you into the scenes. It still has the feel of an old fashioned epic rather than a modern literary novel, i.e. there’s not much subtlety and characters always speak in broad declarations and there’s something “lol wtf” worthy on most pages, but it’s the least “this happens, then this happens” and is the most novelistic, with brief but effective detailing into settings, character motivations and emotions, and reasonably well established cause and effect storytelling. It’s the first that felt complete rather than like a condensed version of a larger story. 

(It also doesn’t skimp on the sex, up to you whether that’s a pro or a con. It’s probably the horniest book I’ve ever read, which may be true of any version you read, even most kid’s versions, but this is the most explicit.)

While I really loved the first… 500 or so pages (!), I was mixed on it by the end. The extra detail worked well in the early, episodic portions which span generations and run quickly through a large cast of characters. Once the pace slowed down, though, the extra detail just made it drag. The fidelity to the original text robs it of dramatic potency as many scenes are repetitive, and the silliness of some of the material doesn’t play well with the seriousness of the tone and the time it takes for these things to happen. If something silly is over with quickly and has a lighthearted folkloric feel, we are amused and can roll with it. When the silliness takes dozens of pages to get through and is deadly serious, you start to ask more questions. (I’m afraid of offending people by criticizing these great religious texts, but let’s face it, that dice game was really dumb.) And the writing style, which I really liked at first, got old. Some of it is very good, but it can frequently be odd and clunky and repetitive, and Indian editing budgets aren’t adequate for a 1500 page behemoth.

I began to skim judiciously through certain portions, particularly the battle scenes (where I just reverted to some of the smaller books), and the various scenes where dozens of pages are spent on characters delivering philosophical treatises. (I think the book does the full Bhagavad Gita?!) As I said, this gives me the feeling of reading the full epic, but it comes at a dramatic cost. 

I’m ultimately glad I read this version, and in the parts that I liked I thought it may be the best book I’ve ever read, but I did debate through much of the second half whether it was the right choice. Ultimately, I do think it is a great, if tedious, work, and though there’s potential for a better 1500 page Mahabharata literary novel, this currently stands as the best option if you want something that feels like a complete epic but can’t handle an actual translation. But I do think less may have been more and perhaps I’d have been better off with the Subramaniam or Satyamurti versions.

I bought Menon’s version of the Ramayana and will probably read that over another version (Subramaniam’s is the runner up, I’ll compare them before starting, but my guess is I’ll go with Menon’s, unless anyone has a better version to recommend!). Menon also has a handful of retellings of other myths (Shiva Purana, Devi Bhagavatam, Bhagavata Purana), which I will likely read at some point. So despite being mixed about his Mahabharata, I liked it enough to keep going, that counts for something.

But if you don’t want to do 1500 pages, the Subramaniam or Satyamurti versions are fine and seem pretty complete too. Of the two, Satyamurti’s is shorter and more elegant, while Subramaniam’s has more character depth.

Modern Literary Interpretations

Both the Ramayana and Mahabharata have many modern novels based on them that give different interpretations of the story, whether from particular characters’ points of view or with some other angle to them. These aren’t for beginners, though, as they are written for audiences that have at least a decent familiarity with the stories.

There are several of these I want to read. I figured I should read a handful before writing this post, but I didn’t want to spend a few more months on this. Plus, I want to engage with the myths the way Indians do, having a lifelong relationship with them, rather than just cramming them into a small window of my life (I only regret that I didn’t start younger). So I’ll get to these novels when I get to them. 

Until then, I’ll list some of the ones that sound intriguing to me. There’s a ton out there and novels based on mythology have become a sort of cottage industry in recent years and most probably don’t appeal to me. This is just what I’m interested in checking out one day, maybe, probably just the shorter books. 

(A few of the books I’m not interested in may interest you, so I’ll quickly mention them. There are some “fantasy series” versions of the epics, such as those by Amish Tripathi and Ashok Banker. From a quick look at goodreads/reddit, the Banker versions are much preferred. There are also some interpretations set in the present day, the most noteworthy is Shashi Tharoor’s The Great Indian Novel.)

The Tamil writer Jeyamohan has a 26 volume retelling of the Mahabharata called Venmurasu, dubbed as “Puranic Realism.” This has not been translated into English, which I’m happy about because it’s over 22,000 pages!!! Jeyamohan is crazy. (I’ll otherwise only include books that are available in English, but I’m fascinated by Jeyamohan so I wanted to mention this.)

Another iconic writer from South India, S. L. Bhyrappa (whom I’ve yet to read), has the Kannada language Mahabharata adaptation Parva, which has been translated and comes in at a relatively modest 900ish pages. Apparently it strips away the fantasy elements and has a strong character focus. Bhyrappa also has Uttara Kanda, a take on the Ramayana’s final section of the same name.

There are numerous single character perspective books. Some of the regional language ones are quite acclaimed, such as the Malayalam writer P. K. Balakrishnan’s Ini Njan Urangatte about Karna from the perspective of Draupadi (translated as Battle Beyond Kurukshetra, only 216 pages, a bargain!), M. T. Vasudevan Nair’s Malayalam language Randamoozham about Bhima (translated as Bhima - Lone Warrior), and the Marathi writer Shivaji Sawant’s Mrityunjay about Karna (translated under Mrityunjaya: The Death Conqueror).

There are also some “feminist” retellings that focus on the female characters, which I actually find more intriguing. The most popular are the English novels by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, whose The Palace of Illusions tells the Mahabharata from Draupadi’s perspective, and her The Forest of Enchantments tells the Ramayana from Sita’s perspective. I’m more drawn to the regional language literature, though. Pratibha Ray, whom I wrote about in my Odisha book post (I loved one of her short stories but was unimpressed by one of her novels) kicked off the feminist retelling trend with Yajnaseni, about Draupadi (the English title is Yajnaseni: The Story of Draupadi). Then there’s the Telugu writer Volga, whom I also wrote about (she had quite a good short story in a collection I read, though I found the didactic approach to the storytelling and to her curation of the collection to be annoying), who wrote two Ramayana books, The Liberation of Sita, which despite the title is apparently about female characters other than Sita, as well as On the Banks of the Pampa, about the character Sabari (good news, Volga’s books are rather slim, 128 and 164 pages respectively).

There are also the “villain’s perspective” books, such as Anand Neelakantan’s Asura, which tells the Ramayana from Ravana’s perspective, and Ajaya, which tells the Mahabharata from Duryodhana’s perspective. There are some others along these lines, as well. I don’t think these are as critically acclaimed as the books mentioned above, but it’s kinda interesting.

I’m also interested in a graphic novel series by Amruta Patil, the Parva Duology, which has two books, Adi Parva: Churning of the Ocean and Sauptik: Blood and Flowers. The artwork seems interesting.

I searched for writeups from people who have read many of these. The best I found is from the writer Jai Arjun Singh, whom I really like. He wrote about the various perspective novels of the Mahabharata, plus some interpretations, which together make for a Rashoman-esque experience of approaching the story. I’m not sure I have the patience to read so many, but I like the idea. Singh has written about various other versions of both myths on his blog, including ancient Sanskrit dramas based on the Mahabharata. He also has a post on Yuganta, a book of essays on the Mahabharata by the anthropologist Irawati Karve. I like that he engages with the soap opera versions and treats them with respect.

For some further reading on the Ramayana, there’s Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God: Retracing the Ramayana Through India, a Ramayana themed travelogue by anthropologist Jonah Blank. And the DK picture book Along The Ramayana Trail has photos and text on places and traditions associated with the myth. 

I wish I knew of good versions to read telling some of the Southeast Asian adaptations. The Thai Ramakien doesn’t have any reasonably priced copies available, and I’m not sure how readable those are anyway. I also want to read the Hikayat Seri Rama, the Malay Ramayana, where the prophet Adam shows up and talks to Ravana about the wishes of Allah. That sounds cool.

Films

There are many film versions of both the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, not to mention the various soap opera versions, most famously the 80s ones. I’ve seen very few, unfortunately, though honestly only a few look any good. Still, there’s enough worthwhile stuff here to warrant a small section.

Though most of these films/TV shows are probably tough to watch, I’d really love to see a documentary / video essay that collects scenes from them to show how major scenes are interpreted and staged on screen across different versions, essentially doing an abbreviated retelling of the stories through a supercut of footage from multiple sources. This sounds like an amazing and worthwhile project for an India obsessed nerd with too much free time… not that I know of anyone who fits that description. 

The massive scope of the Mahabharata means the entire epic doesn’t translate well to film. There are instead many films that tell episodes of the story, as Satyajit Ray had hoped to make but never got around to. Many of the “episode” films are based on classic plays that derive from parts of the epic. Mythology provided the source material of many of India’s classic dramas, many of which were in turn adapted to films, though many films also derive from regional variations and folklore and frequently focus on side stories and stories within stories that aren’t totally connected to the narrative. Some of them have characters from the epic but in stories that aren’t in the epic (India’s first cinematic universe, I guess). Some of them I don’t even know how they fit in. It’s kind of funny looking at the plot summaries of Mahabharata films after reading the 1500 page version and being like “Uh, that name is familiar… do I know this character? Did I read this part?” 

The most beloved Mahabharata derived film is probably the Telugu classic Mayabazaar, which is one of those regional variant side stories. There’s a good restoration of the original black and white version which I saw a few minutes of at a film fest. Unfortunately this isn’t available to stream anywhere, to the best of my knowledge. Most versions available are colorized and/or have the wrong aspect ratio. Great soundtrack.

The one quasi-full narrative filmed version of the Mahabharata that is widely acclaimed is the Peter Brooks version, originally a nine-hour play then reduced to a six hour TV version and a three hour film version. There’s a new restoration (trailer), I believe just of the three hour version, though there are plans to restore the longer cut as well. As of writing this, the three hour version is appearing at film festivals (though for silly bureaucratic reasons it was pulled from a festival in India!) but it should be more widely available soon. I’ll likely wait for the six hour version.

Honestly, those are the only ones that interest me? (There are some great soundtracks, though. I love Daana Veera Soora Karna.) I may be unaware of some, and I would like to watch some of the classics when they get restored. There are also the modern day adaptations, such as Shyam Benegal’s Kalyug and Mani Ratnam’s Thalapathi (one of my favorite soundtracks) (I don’t believe either film is available in a decent print, as of now). 

Various filmmakers have stated that the Mahabharata is their dream project and they hope to make it into a multi-film series (most recently, Aamir Khan and Rajamouli have separately expressed interest), and I do expect something to be made in the near future given the current boom of mythological films, but unless we actually get Rajamouli or Aamir doing it I wouldn’t expect them to be good.

Also, I learned from Wikipedia that The Legend of Bagger Vance is somewhat based on the Bhagavad Gita, with Will Smith as Krishna. Now you know.

As for the Ramayana, the relative simplicity of the story means it lends itself better to film. At least in theory. There are numerous film versions of the Ramayana, but I’m not sure if any are good, other than the anime version.

The 1993 animated Indo-Japanese co-production Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama is pretty well regarded. There’s a new restoration (trailer) which played theatrically, though I’m not sure about its streaming status yet. As I understand it, the English version is the “official” version, and it features an Indian voice cast. There was another version made for American audiences that cut 45 minutes and got an American voice cast with James Earl Jones as the narrator and an unknown Bryan Cranston as Rama, which is kind of wild (this has not been restored).

That’s it for straightforward adaptaitons that are supposed to be good. As with the Mahabharata, though, there may be some hidden gems and I would like to watch some of the classics as they get restored, but I’m not holding my breath. Against my better judgment I do think the kid’s version starring Jr. NTR looks kinda awesome, I’ll report back one day. There is the upcoming two-parter by Nitesh Tiwari which is maybe promising, but who knows. 

As for artsy interpretations, there is Kanchana Sita by the Malayalam arthouse filmmaker G. Aravindan, adapting the Uttara Kanda section of the epic. It’s an odd, slow, oblique film that most people won’t like, but I recommend it for people into this stuff, assuming they know the Ramayana well. If you don’t know what the Uttara Kanda is, stay away. An interesting bit, from wikipedia: “It was shot in the interior tribal areas of Andhra Pradesh. The roles of the epic heroes are played by Rama Chenchu tribal people, who claim lineage to the mythological Rama.”

Then there’s Mani Ratnam’s modern adaptation Raavanan, which I loved. Visually and sonically striking. I watched it many years ago, not knowing anything about the Ramayana, no context necessary, but it will be interesting to rewatch now that I know what it’s riffing on.

Another interesting interpretation is the animated Sita Sings the Blues, which gained some popularity when Roger Ebert gave it a rave review. I watched 10 minutes and wasn’t into it at all. I wouldn’t want to discourage anybody from watching it, though. The filmmaker Nina Paley has made it available for free. Here’s an HD Youtube link.

Art

Art is a big part of the Indian epic experience, whether it’s paintings or sculptures or even toys, and one big thing I got out of learning the epics is that I now understand the countless references to them as I travel in India and Southeast Asia. 

I recommended the DK Illustrated Mahabharata and Ramayana books earlier, as they tell the story alongside many photographs showing a wide range of art across various mediums and geographies. I’ll still collect some favorites here, mostly things I’ve encountered while traveling or reading, though my goal is less to showcase any particular art than to express how the epics have inspired art over millenia and, hopefully, to deepen your appreciation of both the epics and Indian (and Indian inspired) art in general. As I also said, click around on Wikipedia on character and chapter/book pages.

And spoiler alert for both epics, I guess.

There are periodic exhibitions showcasing art from the epics. I went to an excellent one collecting Ramayana themed artwork at NGMA in Mumbai in 2024. I periodically hear of others, and most museums in India have quite a bit of Ramayana and Mahabharata inspired art. 

I wanted to link to the amazing Ramayana paintings by Iqbal Hussain on display at the Nirmala Birla Modern Art Gallery in Hyderabad, but I can’t find any photos online, nor was I allowed to take photos when I was there. But something to check out when you’re there. (I think there may have been an incomplete set of Mahabharata paintings as well, but I didn’t know the Mahabharata then, so I didn’t spend too much time on them. Or I made that up.)

Above I mentioned the book Sita’s Ramayana, which turns patua art into a short graphic novel. I highly recommend the book and the video demonstration, and it is worth checking out more examples of patua storytelling, where there’d be singing to accompany the artwork. Here’s another Ramayana example, and a shorter one. I love the vibrant artwork in all of these, which as a friend pointed out is reminiscent of Jamini Roy who took influence from patua artists and has several of his own Ramayana paintings. 

The most famous illustrated Ramayana is probably the 17th century Mewar version, with a few hundred illustrations. Though it was digitized and put online by the British Library, the page doesn’t work anymore (I already tried Internet Archive, don’t bother). Anyway, you can buy the book, and here are some scenes. More images on google. William Dalrymple wrote about it here.

The Razmnama, the Persian version of the Mahabharata, was commissioned by Akbar. A few illustrated versions exist, depicting the epic in Mughal art. I can’t seem to find any link to all of the images of any of the books (and the original, most complete version is locked away in the Jaipur palace!), but various links contain scattered images. You can buy the Birla version for 2000 rupees. The DK book features many of these images as well. And here are images and information on a Mughal version of the Ramayana.

The most famous paintings of the epics might be from Raja Ravi Varma, a pioneer in Indian art, bringing European realism to Indian iconography and whose lithographic press made prints of his work popular across the country. Wikipedia has pages with his Ramayana and Mahabharata paintings, though a lot of these are from side stories that I’m only vaguely familiar with.

The great Indian modern artist MF Husain has painted scenes from both epics. Here’s a large Mahabharata piece, and another. And some great Ramayana pieces. 

Some scattered images from Evelyn Paul.

Part of the fun is to see how different artists interpret the same scenes. So, here’s the disrobing of Draupadi, interpreted by Nainsukh, the Razmnama, Raja Ravi Varma, M. V. Dhurandhar, a Pahadi painting, Madhubani artist Dhirendra Jha, more Madhubani art, Chitrkithi artist Rajasri Manikandan, Evelyn Paul, M.F. Husain, Arun Prem, Jadurani Dasi (ISKCON’s first art director), the iconic 80s soap opera (it starts around 31 minutes in and goes for several minutes), a film version told in song, and some not very tasteful advertisements. (I also saw claims of some temple reliefs, but I’m not convinced).

And from the Ramayana, Ravana’s fight with Jatayu, by Raja Ravi Varma (and an alternate), K. Venkatappa, unknown artist from 1605, another unknown from the mid 18th century, 19th century from Jammu, a Kalighat painting, Jamini Roy, various folk art versions that I’m too lazy to link to individually, a mid 20th century calendar, a Mughal version, Balasaheb Pant Pratinidhi from his Chitra Ramayana, Amar Chitra Katha, Archibald Herman Müller, a window from Laos, a Thai painting, the iconic 80s soap opera, a statue in Bali, a painting from Bali, and, my favorite, a relief from Prambanan temple from Indonesia. (And maybe a temple relief from Hampi?)

I love the Lankapodi Hanuman figures with the burning tail, from Odisha. Description from the Odisha Crafts Museum: “The idol has attached wheels and a cloth wrapped to its tail that is set on fire and dragged in the streets to create an illusion of a burning Lanka.” (I debated whether I should do a series of images depicting the Jatayu fight or the burning of Lanka, another favorite. Anyway, here's a bunch.)

I hope I get to see a Ramlila performance one day. I have to see Ravana blow up. I’ve seen these in so many films, so it’s a bucket list activity.

I went to Angkor Wat in 2019 and didn’t know the myths then. I’ll have to go back to appreciate the reliefs showing battle scenes from the Mahabharata (see Bhishma on the bed of arrows at the top) and the Ramayana (I like Ravana’s pyramid of heads). There is more from both epics here and at the nearby Banteay Srei (including an even better head pyramid). I also must revisit the amazing Prambanan, where I went in 2017 and didn’t know the Ramayana well enough to appreciate the story told in the reliefs. 

The ultimate Ramayana tourist destination might be The Grand Palace in Bangkok, which has massive murals telling the Thai version of the story (the Ramakien) on the courtyard walls. Fitting, as the ideal of Thai kingship is modeled after Rama, which is the regnal name of the kings (Rama I, Rama II, etc). (I wish I knew of a good version of the Ramakien to read.) The grand palace ticket also includes admission into a short khon (dance drama) performance that tells an episode of the Ramakien (a full khon performance would take days… I prefer the short version) at the Sala Chalermkrung Royal Theatre. You can pick up Ramakien toys and dolls from a number of gift shops and vending machines at malls and even 7-Eleven.

I also like the Thai love song where the lyrics reference Thossakan (the Thai version of Ravana), with the opening line translating to “If I had ten faces like Thossakan, I would turn those faces to smile at you.” (The whole song builds on this analogy, it’s a sweet song.) I don’t know any Indian songs that have the same conceit.

There are many more Southeast Asian Ramayana performances, but the puppet shows are where it’s at. Though the Ramayana is generally more popular, Mahabharata stories are also popular in the wayang in Indonesia. (See a bunch of character puppets here. They made Krishna look Chinese.)