Vyasa-Katha: Fables from the Mahabharata-Nityananda Misra

Book: Vyasa-Katha: Fables from the Mahabharata
Author: Nityananda Misra
Publisher: Bloomsbury India

Have you read the fables in the Mahabharata?

Vyasa-Katha by Nityananda Misra presents fifty-one fables from the Mahabharata. These fascinating and instructive fables are a treasure-trove of practical and political wisdom, moral values, universal truths and philosophy. Animals, birds, reptiles, fish, insects, trees, rivers, directions, life forces, death and time intriguingly teach ancient Indian wisdom. With vivid descriptions and colorful expressions, the fables exemplify the advanced art of storytelling in ancient India. He contextualizes the fables and presents a faithful and unabridged translation. Carrying insights from Nilakantha's commentary and numerous Indian texts, with a beautiful collection of twenty-four illustrations, this is a must-read for children and adults alike.

When you talk about fables, the primary idea is to get the message across using allegories and symbols so as to keep readers across ages interested. The stories in this book are well chosen and each of the fifty-one fables has a wonderful message that conveys the wisdom of the great epic in a simple manner. The way the book has been structured is quite interesting with each story having a prologue, the main story, an epilogue and lessons learnt. In some cases, the author has also introduced trivia which makes it even more interesting. All said and done, there are a few issues with the book that I felt reduced the overall reading experience. First, there are some terms for which citations have been mentioned, but turning to the end of the book just to check them is quite cumbersome. Secondly, the stories have been translated and reproduced, and at times the language sounds more like a sermon than a fable which might discourage people from reading further, which infact happened with me as I had to take long breaks to finish the book. I would have preferred if the author had actually used his tone to tell the stories which would have actually made them even more enjoyable.

Overall, this collection of fables is not for everyone, but recommended for people who have a keen interest in the Hindu mythology and can devote attention to read these fables. The book scores a 4.06/5 for me.

I was provided a media copy of the book in exchange for an honest review by the publisher.

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