'What is in the Bharata is everywhere and what is not is nowhere', states The Mahabharata which deals not only with the power struggle between the princes of two clans but also with a variety of branches of learning. Woven into the main theme are lengthy dissertations and treatises on philosophy, ethics, morality, statecraft and metaphysics. The sages who wrote the epic had an almost uncanny understanding of human nature and have depicted it with unemotional clarity. This abridgement, based on Kisari Mohan Ganguli's translation of the Mahabharata, is told in lucid English, using modern idioms, yet wherever possible the metaphors, similes and allegories of the original have been retained.