Erotic in style and content, this collection unearths the forgotten and lesser known tales of love from the great epic. The narrative is sensuous and often sensual in detail, pulsating with the blood and throb of bodies that breath in unison, in a world particularized by its own mores. Parikshit and Sushobhana, Agni and Svaha, Agastya and Lopamudra, and many more lovelorn couples take the reader on a journey through the crosscurrents of physical desire and psychic union.

Ever wanted to read the Mahabharata but never ended up finishing the epic due to the sheer size of the story or the numerous characters that simply overwhelm? Have you always been curious of who the Pandavas actually were and why the Kauravas hated them so much until they resorted to deception and deceit to get rid of their cousins? Was Arjuna actually the greatest archer of all time? Or was it only because of favourable circumstances that Arjuna became known as such? Have you ever wondered how divinity himself, Krishna ended up as Arjuna’s charioteer? And what actually transpired during the battle on the holy lands of Kurukshetra that resulted in us still talking about the Mahabharata more than 5000 years later? This book will answer all these questions and more. Enjoy the greatest epic of our time, the Mahabharata, in a compact and easy-to-read version that is suitable for all ages.

"Forty years after the God Wars, Dresediel Lex bears the scars of liberation--especially in the Skittersill, a poor district still bound by the fallen gods' decaying edicts. As long as the gods' wards last, they strangle development; when they fail, demons will be loosed upon the city. The King in Red hires Elayne Kevarian of the Craft firm Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao to fix the wards, but the Skittersill's people have their own ideas"--

"In the forest, the mighty eat the meek. In human society, the mighty should take care of the meek. This is dharma" -- Back cover.

The Mahabharat--which means "the great tale of the descendants of the prince Bharata"-- is one of India's greatest religious epics and has had a profound and continuing influence upon the popular psyche of the nation. Consisting of over 100,000 couplets (about eight times the length of the Iliad and Odyssey combined), this vast epic forms the background to much of India's religious and cultural life. While there are many episodes included in the Mahabharat, the central story follows the struggles of two rival families--the Kauravas and the Pandavas--to secure control of Kurukshetra, an area northeast of modern Dehli (a conflict that has its basis in real events that probably took place before the tenth century, B.C.). In his beautiful and evocative retelling of fourteen of these classic tales, Gopal Das Khosla emphasizes the morality of love and war as presented in the epic, focusing especially on these themes as seen in the feud between the two families, a fight which culminates in the great battle of Kurukshetra. Based entirely on the ten-volume Hindi translation, Khosla underscores the narrative flow of these tales allowing unfamiliar readers to not only appreciate this fine work of literature, but to delve into the rich Indian culture that surrounds The Mahabharat.

The blue-eyed boy of Indian publishing, Abhimanyu Razdan is known for his bestselling romances, which move his readers to tears. PaperInk, an up-and-coming publishing house, is looking for an A-list author who will take them to the next level. So, when Abhimanyu's contract with his current publishers comes to an end, PaperInk decides to swoop in. But Abhimanyu isn't quite like the emotional and sensitive characters in the novels he writes. Callous, egoistic and drunk on success, he gets into a hot argument with Asmita, PaperInk's literary fiction editor, even before his first meeting with them. Already put off, despite her apology, he is even more incensed when he discovers that Asmita looks down on popular fiction, especially the kind he writes. He vows to teach her a lesson that could jeopardize her job. At each other's throats, Abhimanyu and Asmita are as different as can be, but fate has something else in store and they soon find that there is no running away from love.

One of India’s greatest epics, the Ramayana pervades the country’s moral and cultural consciousness. For generations it has served as a bedtime story for Indian children, while at the same time engaging the interest of philosophers and theologians. Believed to have been composed by Valmiki sometime between the eighth and sixth centuries BCE, the Ramayana tells the tragic and magical story of Rama, the prince of Ayodhya, an incarnation of Lord Visnu, born to rid the earth of the terrible demon Ravana. An idealized heroic tale ending with the inevitable triumph of good over evil, the Ramayana is also an intensely personal story of family relationships, love and loss, duty and honor, of harem intrigue, petty jealousies, and destructive ambitions. All this played out in a universe populated by larger-than-life humans, gods and celestial beings, wondrous animals and terrifying demons. With her magnificent translation and superb introduction, Arshia Sattar has successfully bridged both time and space to bring this ancient classic to modern English readers.

A dazzling and eloquent reworking of the Mahabharata, one of South Asia's best-loved epics, through nineteen peripheral voices. With daring poetic forms, Karthika Naïr breathes new life into this ancient epic. Karthika Naïr refracts the epic Mahabharata through the voices of nameless soldiers, outcast warriors and handmaidens as well as abducted princesses, tribal queens, and a gender-shifting god. As peripheral figures and silent catalysts take center stage, we get a glimpse of lives and stories buried beneath the dramas of god and nation, heroics and victory - of the lives obscured by myth and history, all too often interchangeable. Until the Lions is a kaleidoscopic, poetic tour de force. It reveals the most intimate threads of desire, greed, and sacrifice in this foundational epic.

An accomplished Kshatriya princess who falls in love with and dares to choose the sutaputra over Arjun, Uruvi must come to terms with the social implications of her marriage and learn to use her love and intelligence to be accepted by Karna and his family. Though she becomes his mainstay, counselling and guiding him, his blind allegiance to Duryodhana is beyond her power to change. The story of Uruvi and Karna unfolds against the backdrop of the struggle between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. As events build up leading to the great war of the Mahabharata, Uruvi is a witness to the twists and turns of Karna's fate; and how it is inextricably linked to divine design.

“Narayan makes this treasury of Indian folklore and mythology readily accessible to the general reader . . . he captures the spirit of the narrative.”—Library Journal The Mahabharata tells a story of such violence and tragedy that many people in India refuse to keep the full text in their homes, fearing that doing so would invite a disastrous fate upon their house. Covering everything from creation to destruction, this ancient poem remains an indelible part of Hindu culture and a landmark in ancient literature. Centuries of listeners and readers have been drawn to The Mahabharata, which began as disparate oral ballads and grew into a sprawling epic. The modern version is famously long, and at more than 1.8 million words—seven times the combined lengths of the Iliad and Odyssey—it can be incredibly daunting. But contemporary readers have a much more accessible entry point to this important work, thanks to R. K. Narayan’s masterful, elegant translation and abridgement of the poem. Now with a new foreword by Wendy Doniger, as well as a concise character and place guide and a family tree, The Mahabharata is ready for a new generation of readers. Narayan ably distills a tale that is both traditional and constantly changing. He draws from both scholarly analysis and creative interpretation and vividly fuses the spiritual with the secular. Through this balance he has produced a translation that is not only clear, but graceful, one that stands as its own story as much as an adaptation of a larger work.