# The Mahabharata of Vyasa ~ Book XII The Complete Santi Parva Part 2 (Moksha-Dharma)

- Link: https://writersworkshopindia.com/2016/11/29/the-mahabharata-of-vyasa-book-xii-the-complete-santi-parva-part-2-moksha-dharma/
- Published: 2016-11-29T19:18:36+00:00
- Author: shuktara

5/5 - (6 votes)

**Translator:** Pradip Bhattacharya[](https://writersworkshopindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/The-Santi-Parva-Part-2-2.jpg)
**
Pages:** 1112 **Year of Publication:** 2016 **Price:** Rs 2000 **ISBN: **978-93-
5045-122-9 (9789350451229)

_**About the Translator**_
 Pradip Bhattacharya retired from the Indian Administrative
Service as Additional Chief Secretary (Development and Planning) to the Government
of West Bengal. He graduated with Honours in English from St. Xavier’s College, 
Calcutta, where he was later Lecturer in English for two years. He took his M.A.
in English as a student of Presidency College from the University of Calcutta, being
placed first in the first class with gold and silver medals. From the University
of Manchester he received the Post-graduate Diploma in Public Service Training with
Distinction. He trained the All India, Central and State Civil Services for several
years, and served in the Government of India and the West Bengal Government. His
Ph.D. is on narrative art in the _Mahabharata_. He is the only Indian chosen as 
International HRD Fellow by the University of Manchester and the Institute of Training
and Development, U.K. He was the sole representative from the developing world to
address the annual conference of the Institute of Transactional Analysis, U.K., 
in London. He established the Directorate of Homeopathy and launched two World Bank
projects in West Bengal, advised on computerising official work, drafted the Right
to Information Rules for West Bengal, several state Acts, and the Expert Committee
Report on Administrative Reforms, and modernised manuals of procedure. He has chaired
sessions and read papers in national and international conferences on the _Mahabharata_
organised by the Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre, Indira Gandhi National Centre for
the Arts, Sahitya Akademi, and University of Mumbai. He is on the Board of Governors
of the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, for over 15 years, and on the editorial
board of its _Journal of Human Values_ and of _MANUSHI_. He has authored and edited
over 30 books, monographs, comics and papers on public administration, transactional
analysis, ancient Indian history, comparative mythology and homeopathy. He is translating
into English the rare _Jaimini Bharata_ from the Grantha script for the National
Mission for Manuscripts and the first Bengali _Mahabharata_ composed by Kabi Sanjay
as a West Bengal Government project. He can be contacted at [kanakpradip@gmail.com](https://writersworkshopindia.com/2016/11/29/the-mahabharata-of-vyasa-book-xii-the-complete-santi-parva-part-2-moksha-dharma/kanakpradip@gmail.com).

_**About the Book**_
 After Professor P. Lal passed away in November 2010, we approached
Dr Bhattacharya and asked him if he would complete Professor Lal’s Mahabharata transcreation
project. In his lifetime, Professor Lal had transcreated 16 volumes and the first
part of _The Śānti Parva _from Sanskrit to English. With Dr Bhattacharya’s translation
of the _Moksha-Dharma Parva_, our English translation of _The Śānti Parva_ is now
complete.

This is the first English translation of the _Moksha-Dharma Parva_ in free verse.
Distinctive ślokas have been reproduced by Dr Bhattacharya in Sanskrit.

_**Reviews**_

**Kevin McGrath** in the **_Journal of Vaishnava Studies_** [Volume 26, No. 1/Fall
2017] writes:

“Pradip Bhattacharya is the foremost Sanskrit scholar in India today in the field
of Mahābhārata Studies …  [He] captures well the extremely complex dramatic quality
of so much of Bhīṣma’s vast monologue in which the old warrior imitates the hundreds
of different voices who inhabit and who express the narrative; this great event 
of mimēsis is fully conveyed by the translation wherein Bhīṣma the poet enacts innumerable
characters and voices.

The prophets Nārada and Bhṛgu play significant roles in this section of the Great
Bhārata as does Kṛṣṇa himself at times. There are also many episodes that are given
in the style of faunal allegory where animal speech and behaviour are important 
components of communication. The great Naranārāyaṇīya, which comes at the end of
the book is beautifully translated and finely captures the tone and flavour of that
long anthem which lies at the heart of early Hinduism.

At times the author frequently leaves within his translation certain words in the
Sanskrit which brings to the text a much larger authenticity and authority and where
the intrinsic vitality of the original language effects—both sonorously and linguistically—
a quality that might evade perfect translation. This is a crucial aspect of the 
book’s effectiveness as a medium not simply of specific communication but also of
cultural significance …

This wonderful, thoroughly well-composed, and masterful book is faultlessly printed
and handsomely bound and will become a uniquely useful reference text for those 
non-Sanskritists who work in both Mahābhārata Studies and in the field of Divinity;
it is surely to become a matchless title on the shelves of any library of theology.
This mighty work will long remain as one of Pradip Bhattacharya’s most renowned 
and paramount contributions to current Indology, both in Asia and in the West.”

**Satya Chaitanya **in _**Religions of South Asia**_ [11.2-3, 2017] says:

“While Bhattacharya’s translation is basically in verse, he has translated the prose
in the original into prose, which makes this the only verse-and-prose sloka-by-sloka
translation of the Parvan. The translation is a monumental piece of work as well
as a superb literary achievement. One of the unique aspects of the translation is
the retention of Sanskrit words that are in the Oxford English Dictionary … A new
reader finds this rather unsettling, but once you are used to it, you discover it
has a charm of its own, giving the entire work a surreal quality. And of course,
it avoids, as the translator points out, the need for annotations, colophons and
dovetailing explanations …

Bhattacharya’s mastery of the English language is astounding. With amazing fluidity,
the mighty torrent of the translation flows on for 1077 pages, carrying us with 
it.”

**Indrajit Bandopadhyaya** in **_Indologica Taurinensia_** remarks:

“The _parvan_ stands out as unique in its advocacy of _Liberal Varṇa System_ (portraying
non-_Brāhmiṇ_ characters like Sulabhā, prostitute Piṅgalā and _Śūdras _as qualified
for higher merit and social status through wisdom), and carries the important and
interesting message that understanding _Gender Relation_ or _Evolutionary Nature_
of Gender is essential for _Prajñā _leading to _Mokṣa_. Yudhiṣṭhira learns all these
theoretically from grandfather Bhīṣma, who is then on his Bed of Arrows. This is
not without significance. Bhīṣma’s physical life-in-death or death-in-life is apt
parallel and metaphor for Yudhiṣṭhira’s mental state. Yudhiṣṭhira and his brothers
and Draupadī qualify to gain knowledge on _Mokṣa-Dharma_ only after their growing
realization through dialogues, debates, experiences and feelings that victory in
war has been futile, and Kurukṣetra War is as much external as internal. Yet, at
the end of _Śānti-__Parvan_, theoretical knowledge does not suffice, and the Pāṇḍavas
and Draupadī emerge Dynamic in their quest for more quests – that sets the stage
for further of Bhīṣma’s advice in _Anuśāsana Parvan_. The message that emerges from
_Mokṣadharmaparvan_ is that, one has to actually attain _Mokṣa_; mere theorizing
is only furthering _Bandhana _…

Bhattacharya has done an invaluable job to English readership by providing four 
episodes found in Haridās Siddhāntavāgiś (Nibandhana-Bhogavatī, Nārada, Garuḍa and
Kapilā Āsurī narratives) and many verses not found in the Gorakhpur edition. Of 
these, the Kapilā Āsurī Saṃvāda at Section 321-A (p-815) is only found in Siddhāntavāgiś
edition (vol. 37, pp. 3345-3359). Just as in archaeology, every piece of human-treated
rock delved from earth is beyond value, I would say that every unique variation 
or every narrative in Mahābhārata recensions is of similar value particularly in
marking a curious interaction point between _Classical_ and _Folk Mahābhārata_ –
that no serious Mahābhārata scholar can ignore.

Bhattacharya deserves kudos for bringing into light the stupendous work and name
of Siddhāntavāgiś, an almost forgotten name even to most Bengalis, and an unknown
scholar to most Mahābhārata scholars or readers, almost eclipsed by the other popular
Bengali translator Kālī Prasanna Siṃha.”

Reviews of the book have also come out in [Boloji.com](https://www.boloji.com/articles/49557/the-dharma-of-moksha);
a shorter version of this review was brought out in [The Statesman](http://epaper.thestatesman.com/m/1044020/8th-Day/25th-December-2016#issue/1/1).
An article on the larger Mahabharata project can be read in [The Times of India](http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/epic-project-of-mahabharata-translation-nears-completion/articleshow/56061481.cms).
A review published in December 2019 can be read [here](https://www.boloji.com/articles/51356/brilliant-translation-of-mokshadharma-parva?fbclid=IwAR2mPOvLD96Gx7-t8zNAYlFI1SDvfS1VT3m0HmNYFttiugfUdiMF69m8_84).