Title: Dwapar Katha: The Stories of the Mahabharata

Author: Sudipta Bhawmik

Genre: Non fiction, Mythology

Pages: 586 pages

Publisher: Harper Collins

Paperback

This might be one of my greatest reads of my life. How many of you have read Mahabharata? I am especially targetting this question to the Millenials and Generation Z. I am sure none of the parents of Gen Alpha might have even thought about it; barring highly abridged illustrated editions.

So I have always been a fan of the Mahabharata; my primary source of knowledge and information being the B R Chopra Production and a thin illustrated version. Parenting plays a great role in the blossoming of the knack for reading books; particularly religion and mythology. Hence it's a no brainer that my mom had immense interest in this magnum opus; which was instilled in me. My paternal home library houses the unabridged version of the Mahabharata in Bengali language (a very very thick book), and my mom has absorbed every single word of it. While I had been always intrigued by that epic, I never gathered the courage to read it, nor did I come across any adult abridged version, which rose my interest. Long story short, I badly wanted to read Mahabharata (and not just rely on the televised version) but never got the chance until last week.

I would like to start with a small backstory of this epic read.

So if you know me, I like to do a thorough research on the author before I start reading. And I must say Mr Sudipta Bhawmik really left a mark on me. He moved to the States in 1989, and he carried his copy of Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa's Mahabharata by Rajsekhar Basu. Hence he is a Bengali who was fascinated with Mahabharata right from his childhood (since his parents had gifted him) . He wanted to propagate this epic in the West and the younger Indian generations, but could find satisfactory literature for the same. Hence he started his podcast (not without his share of struggles) which grew exponentially popular. With 40 million plus downloads, his podcast is India's most popular one. And that led him jot down everything onto paper to create another magnum opus "Dwapar Katha".

Dwapar Katha is Mahabharata without any subjective interpretation by Mr Bhawmik himself. The facts are laid out in the most descriptive, enchanting and intriguing way; which makes it a challenge to keep the book down. I devoured one chapter after another. The book starts right from Vyasa writing and birth of Bhishma to the very conclusion of this epic. There are total 77 chapters. The language is simple yet very captivating. No one can explain Mahabharata in a more lucid way than this book. It was an absolute delight reading it.

The book has a very attractive cover (although you should never judge by that). And there are vivid illustrations in between the chapters that would definitely consume few minutes of your reading time; if you love to observe and interpret. 

I truly believe Mahabharata shall be read by everyone; and Dwapar Katha is an excellent way to gain this wisdom without overwhelming yourself. A must read for every genre of readers. If you have watched the BR Chopra production, you will enjoy it even more. I have no idea about the newer productions.

PS You also get a Dwapar Katha postcard for colouring by Harper Collins. I am using that as a bookmark. Yay to small wins :)

Mr Bhawmik has a Phd and is an engineer from IIT Kharagpur. I could not have expected any less from him.

Rating: 5/5 

You can order the book here.