The Mahabharata, Volume 8 : Book 12, The Book of Peace, Part 2 / James L. Fitzgerald, James L. Fitzgerald, James L. Fitzgerald.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Fitzgerald, James L., editor.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Chicago University of Chicago Press, [2026]

Language Note:

In English.

Biography/History:

James L. Fitzgerald is St. Purandara Das Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sanskrit, Department of Classics, Brown University.

Summary:

A translation of the twelfth book of The Mah ābhārata , an epic tale of history and kingship, reinforced with legends, romances, and metaphysical, theological, and ethical teachings written in Sanskrit 1700 or more years ago. A remarkable composition of 100,000 couplets, The Mah ābhārata is the second-longest poem in world literature. In this volume, James L. Fitzgerald completes his translation of the twelfth of The Mah ābhārata's eighteen books, the vast Shanti Parvan , or The Book of Peace . Covering a wide range of ancient Indian intellectual history, The Book of Peace was intended to serve as a comprehensive, brahmin-inspired basis for living a Good Life in a Good Society in a Good Polity and is one of the most important and complex books of the poem. Fitzgerald's previous contribution to the Chicago edition of The Mahābhārata , volume 7, opened with Book 11, The Book of the Women , which movingly portrayed the grief of the wives, mothers, and sisters of the many warriors slain in the epic's central war narrative. The crises of grief presented in The Book of the Women give particular poignancy and depth to the shanti, or pacification, that is the theme of Book 12, The Book of Peace . Volume 7 included the first half of The Book of Peace , and volume 8 now completes it with the second half, which is focused particularly on the ways people can escape the cycle of rebirth and realize sublime beatitude by way of saving knowledge or yoga meditation or devotion to God Viṣṇu-Nārāyaṇa. Supported by an extensive introduction and notes, this publication will be greeted as a major event in Sanskrit studies.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Content

Preface

List of Abbreviations

General Introduction: The Continuation and Completion of the Translation of Book 12 of the Mahabharata, The Book of Peace

The Mokṣadharma Collection in the Mahābhārata: Introduction to the Mokṣadharmaparvan

Contents of Book 12, Part Two

Summaries

Translation. Part 1

Translation. Part 2

Translation. Part 3

Appendix: Departures from the Pune Text of the Mahābhārata

Notes to the Translation of Book 12, Part Two

Concordance of Chapters in the Critical Edition and the Bombay Edition

Corrigenda to Mahābhārata, Volume 7

References

Index of Proper Names and Selected Technical Terms

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed August 05 2026)

ISBN:

9780226835938