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Podcast: New Books in South Asian Studies
Episode: N. S. Hawley and S. S. Pillai, "Many MahÄbhÄratas" (SUNY Press, 2021)
Description: Nell Shapiro Hawley and Sohini Sarah Pillai's bookĀ Many MahÄbhÄratasĀ (SUNY Press, 2021)Ā is an introduction to the spectacular and long-lived diversity of MahÄbhÄrata literature in South Asia. This diversity begins with the SanskritĀ MahÄbhÄrata, an early epic poem that narrates the events of a catastrophic fratricidal war. Along the way, it draws in nearly everything else in Hindu mythology, philosophy, and story literature. The magnitude of its scope and the relentless complexity of its worldview primed the MahÄbhÄrata for uncountable tellings in South Asia and beyond. For two thousand years, the instinctive...