Mahabharata: Volume 7 by Bibek Debroy Read Free Book Online Page A

Madra.
    384 More specifically,
sidhu
, liquor made from molasses. Actually, the negative nuance doesn’t seem to be on liquor, but on the fact that it is made from molasses.
    385
Samskara
. There are thirteen samskaras or sacraments. The list varies a bit. But one list is
vivaha
(marriage)
, garbhalambhana
(conception)
, pumshavana
(engendering a male child)
, simantonnayana
(parting the hair, performed in the fourth month of pregnancy)
, jatakarma
(birth rites)
, namakarana
(naming)
, chudakarma
(tonsure)
, annaprashana
(first solid food)
, keshanta
(first shaving of the head)
, upanayana (
sacred thread)
, vidyarambha (
commencement of studies)
, samavartana
(graduation) and
antyeshti
(funeral rites).
    386 Shalya’s words are being compared to the bite of a scorpion.
    387 Parashurama.

Chapter 1236(17)
    1 The word used is
madhyama
, meaning mild or moderate. The word used for formation is
gulma
, not vyuha. The entire army is arrayed in the form of a vyuha, while a gulma is a smaller division, something like a battalion. The suggestion probably is that the Pandavas did not take this attack very seriously.
    2 The Kouravas who were trying to rescue the followers of the king of Madra.

With the war over, the eighth volume is on the aftermath of the war and covers Souptika Parva, Stri Parva and a large chunk of Shanti Parva of the 18-parva classification, and parvas 78 through 85, with a part of 86, of the 100-parva classification. In the night, Ashvatthama kills all the remaining Pandavas—with the exception of the five Pandava brothers—and Panchalas. The funeral ceremonies for the dead warriors are performed. Shanti Parva (Bhishma’s teachings after Yudhishthira is crowned) is about duties to be followed under different circumstances.
    The Mahabharata: Volume 8
will be published in November 2013
.

Acknowledgements
    C arving time out from one’s regular schedule and work engagements to embark on such a mammoth work of translation has been difficult. The past tense should not be used, since only 70 per cent of the road has yet been traversed. Sometimes, I wish I had been born in nineteenth-century Bengal, with a benefactor funding me for doing nothing but this. But alas, the days of gentlemen of leisure are long over. The time could not be carved out from professional engagements, barring of course assorted television channels, who must have wondered why I have been so reluctant to head for their studios in the evenings. It was ascribed to health, interpreted as adverse health. It was certainly health, but not in an adverse sense. Reading the Mahabharata is good for one’s mental health and is an activity to be recommended, without any statutory warnings. The time was stolen in the evenings and over weekends. The cost was therefore borne by one’s immediate family, and to a lesser extent by friends. Socializing was reduced, since every dinner meant one less chapter done. The family has first claim on the debt, though I am sure it also has claim on whatever merits are due. At least Suparna does, and these volumes are therefore dedicated to her. I suspect Sirius has no claim on the merits, though he has been remarkably patient at the times when he has been curled up near my feet and I have been translating away. There is some allegory there about a dog keeping company when the Mahabharata is being read and translated.
    Most people have thought I was mad, even if they never quite said that. Among those who believed and thought it was worthwhile, beyond immediate family, are M. Veerappa Moily, Ashok Desai, Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Laveesh Bhandari. And my sons, Nihshanka and Vidroha. The various reviewers of the earlier volumes have alsobeen extremely kind. Incidentally, I wouldn’t have been able to do it without Vaman Shivram Apte. When he compiled the student’s Sanskrit dictionary more than a hundred years ago in Pune, I am certain he had no idea that it would be used so comprehensively to translate the