"Few works in world literature have inspired so vast an audience, in nations with radically different languages and cultures, as the Mahabharata, a Sanskrit verse epic written some 2,000 years ago. The Mahabharata is probably the largest Indian epic ever composed. It is the story of dynastic struggle, between the Kurus and Pandavas for land. In his introduction, sanskritist B. A. Nooten notes "Apart from William Buck's rendition [no other English version has] been able to capture the blend of religion and martial spirit that pervades the original epic.""--BOOK JACKET.