Book Review: The Mahabharata: a Child's view by Samhita Arni

Quote: Once, Shantanu the king of Hastinapur fell in love with a maiden. He asked her for her hand in marriage, and the maiden, being equally attracted, agreed. However, she laid down certain conditions--that Hemant never asks who she was or what she did. He agreed and they got married.

A book I have reread multiple times over the years. I have not read Mahabharata in actual Sanskrit, closest I have come to read it in regional tongue was in Hindi years back.

Samhita Arni's book is from the perspective of a child. The book was in making since Arni was a child. At the age of four, she read the epic, her mother had asked her to rewrite the epic during vacation because the author was finishing her books too fast. At age of four, I barely could construct spellings! The author even illustrated the scenes in simple pen and ink.

This book is special because it just narrates, minus the higher thought process and dictum of morals. In the introduction Arni tells that we should let the children learn the story as it is; with its blood, gore and brutality, instead of censoring it. Where she also speaks about a ten-year-old boy who spots the pattern of mistakes or character flaws in the story. When Shantanu again falls for another beauty by the river, the kid uttered: that's no good.

Indeed Mahabharata has repetitions, parallels, and mistakes made because of hubris or wows or ill-hearing. Which you start to spot when you take away the base morality and religiousness from it and treat it as narrative text. This version makes me nick a quote from D.H. Lawrence: In a sense, the Bible is a great confused novel. Mahabharata too is!

It's a smart book that has commonality in the language with fairy tales, short crisp narrative, short chapters, and funny art. I found the art as fascinating doodles that are to the point and very practical from a child's perspective. The wooden bird on the tree that Arjuna struck, doodle has a tree and big enough bird to spot.

This Mahabharata, with all its origins, detailing, actions and consequences is beautiful. Simplified for a child to read on her own, chaptered well for a parent to drag the story for months.

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