ISBN: 9780195139150    Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc Year of publishing: 2001     Format:  Paperback No of Pages: 236        

Over a period of ten years, William Sax studied the inhabitants of the former kingdom of Garhwal, located in North India. These people are devoted to the great Indian national epic, "The Mahabharata". Sax attended and participated in dozens of performances of "The Pandav Lila" - a ritual re-enactment of scenes from "The Mahabharata" in dance - and observed village life. He also discovered and documented a bizarre and fascinating cult whose existence was only previously rumoured, which worships and exalts the villains of the epic and reviles the usual heroes. This book not only examines a fascinating (and threatened) aspect of rural Indian life and Hinduism as a living religion, but also provides an accessible introduction to the Mahabharata itself, including translations of many songs and poems based on the epic, and a prologue containing a summary of the story.
Read less