Hello di. Congratulations on advancing another milestone

I have finished the 1st book and in the 2nd now , bibek debroy has done a great job in the translation, it's a deep dive , not everyone might enjoy it.

Can't thank enough for this long and detailed video, narrated well. The decoding of the book cover is good, the questions you raised about jayadratha and Karna's misplaced compassion was thoughtful , and the dilemmas on both sides are mind - boggling. Thanks again madam for the detailed review, all the best for the next volume.

Fun note: Kiran Millwood Hargrave released The Mercies in 2020 and The Dance Tree in 2022. I read The Dance Tree in 2022 and The Mercies in 2024. What fun! It seems both of us seem to have a preference for taking 2 years gaps between books. 😂🧡🧡

Fun note: Kiran Millwood Hargrave released The Mercies in 2020 and The Dance Tree in 2022. I read The Dance Tree in 2022 and The Mercies in 2024. What fun! It seems both of us seem to have a preference for taking 2 years gaps between books. 😂🧡🧡

How is the language ...is it simple

If not this what should I read Should I go with Rajgopal chari one

How did you come on conclusion that mahabharata was written by men only? Just assume by prefeed mind or any concrete conclusion?

I think that penguin publishers are destroying our Hindu shastras. They are publishing Ramayana, Mahabharata as novel. No Sanskrit slokas, no explaining only the enjoyment of storyline. You could also see their mahabharat's cover page. No pictures of Lord Sri Krishna or any other god or goddess or pandavas at the cover page. So we must read authentic books.

Thanks for your videos. I've used several to decide wether to buy a book/sticker/card collection.

Thank you for making a video about this. For an author who produces such detailed prose, the author made some stereotypical choices around the Chinese father Winston. Powers even went out of his way to create a whole conversation between Winston and his father to showcase him talking in broken English because it was to “practice for the upcoming trip to America” - for what literary purpose? When Winston went through customs and showed the customs officer his mooncakes and thousand year eggs the customs officer shouted in disgust at the smell, once again for what literary purpose? Thousand year eggs and moon cakes don’t really smell like anything at all unless he peeled all of them which makes no sense. Powers went out of his way to specify that Winston is from the hui minority in northwestern China. They have their own rich culture with ties to the central plains towards Kazakhstan and other central Asian regions and follow Islam. I assume Powers made this choice to paint Winston’s family as rich traders who profited off the silk trade, but aside from that doesn’t seem to write the character with any nuance that fully respects the unique background and intersectionality of a Hui Chinese. Then Powers uses this kind of character background to reference Confucian values and Buddhist philosophy? What is going on here? Why not profile a wealthy immigrant from a family of port-side traders based out of Hong Kong or Guangdong who follow Buddhist traditions more closely? Why not detail one of the many poor immigrants that arrived in droves to San Francisco or New York City where Chinatown served as a beacon for many immigrant stories in the early part of the century? I’m going to give Powers the benefit of the doubt and assume he cross-referenced his Chinese characters with strong Chinese writers but for a white man with so much to say and share, he should really stick to what he knows and leave the “walk a thousand steps in someone else’s shoes exercise” to a different project. Also, why pick Asian immigrant stories to caricaturize when there are so many indigenous, black, and brown stories that go untold especially in the realm of conservancy?

All the best wishes for your research on Indian Mythology 😊

Congo ma'am. All the best for your future endeavors

Congrats madam for the effort you are putting in reading these critical editions, half of the work is done, so happy for the valuable time allotted for making these videos, vol. 5 liked the entire video, and the thing you mentioned about Comparing ancients weapons with modern day weapons seems to be very good idea, all the best on that work, and I am a little bit surprised knowing that duriyodana cared much for his army than yudhistira. Once again thanks for the review, and all the best for the upcoming volumes.

Disagree with the manner in which the story of Suryadeva and Kunti has been depicted in this book. As per K M Ganguli's shloka-wise translation of the Mahabharata, indeed, Suryadeva does threaten Kunti that he would curse her father, family and that Brahmin sage who bestowed her with that Atharvashirsha mantra...if she didn't surrender her body that had just come of age then (she had experienced her first menstrual cycle then apparently), to him! Kunti fears for her family and that Brahmin, and so heeds to his demand. But Surya being a celestial, does not enter into a physical sexual intercourse with her (as an ordinary human being would). He uses his yogic powers to enter her body and place a portion of himself within her womb by touching her navel from within (that's when Kunti falls unconscious). However, Surya does not physically defile her, she retains her virginity even after the encounter. Further, from K M Ganguli's translation: when Suryadeva tells Kunti that he would confer upon her a son who would be mighty and illustrious, she expresses a desire that the child should be born with a protective coat and earrings! So Karna is born with the kavacha-kundala because that's what Kunti desires! And as for Kunti's virginity, that again is a condition that she puts before Surya: that if he was to bring a child into the mortal world through her, he would have to do it in a manner that does not impact her virginity! So yes, Suryadeva does force a child upon Kunti, but accusing him of "sexual assault" is inappropriate as there is no intercourse!

Plz ma'am suggest some books on cli- fi or books that deal with environmental issues, both Indian or foreign writers

Thanks for the review madam

Mai kharidne wala hu ye book

Link was not there in description

beautifullll thanks for sharing <3 <3

Thank you so much. If possible could you compile a map with the locations of these

The fans would like to hear what they want. If we tell the reality, we become villains or haters of that MB character.

Thanks for making a separate video on bhagavad Gita.

💛🧡💛🧡

Just finished reading Kumarasambhavam... and I am in awe of Kalidasa. I cannot imagine anyone writing like this today. The translation was splendid... i cannot even fathom how glorious the raw Sanskrit must be. I am definitely going to read it again... preferably a different translation...so far, this is my favourite work by Kalidasa (i have read all his works except Raghuvansham)... You read some really fantastic books in 2023.

A very happy new year Ma'am. Glad to know that you completed the fourth volume. I am also on the run but I have the gita press edition. Would surely buy Bibek Debroy translations soon

Happy New Year madam, the fourth volume review is interesting, thanks for your efforts for taking nearly one hour to explain in depth, which many reviewers simply avoid, I wish tales and texts channel all the best this year 2024. Looking forward to your book reviews mam.

Thank you ma'am for providing an unbiased and extensive review of the book 🙏

I am starting the new year with Ramayana i have read some pages of the 1st part of the following edition ! And i must say ...this is so underrated not all youths are exploring this area ! As a 18year old i have so much interest in all these things that how our rashtra changed , thankyou ma'am for these reviews 😊

Thanks for this comprehensive interpretation and research, you saved my time.

I was curious about if this would work with GoodNotes! Thank you I’m a true beginner and got some good insight from your review👍

I am really looking forward to this book. I have read a few Kalidasa plays and I really love the imagery and humour in his writing.

So fortunate to have found your channel. You have some really cool Indian classics in your collection. I just got this book. Very excited to read this 1000 year old text.

How many pages are in bori including 10 volumes in english ??

There is an interesting book on thirthas called-- India:A Sacred geography.

Detailed review liked it, all the best for the upcoming volmes in Mahabharata. Very few of them do this chapter by chapter review, I hope many youngsters start reading these critical editions, and learn about our Indian literature in depth.

please do bookshelf tour

Is the course have quize only or both quize and assignment to pass for certification?

I recently finished this book, and was also left with very mixed feelings about it. That resulted in searching for some reviews on KZbin to see if anyone had provided a critical review, where I found your video. Before I give too much of my opinion, I'll say that I'm a white American, so I probably have many of the same blind-spots as the author. However, even with that admission, the storylines around Mimi and Neelay absolutely felt caricatured and artificial from my perspective as well. In particular the portion's with Mimi's father and the grammatical errors in his dialogue, and how those were adopted by Mimi and even Douglas to a degree in later portions of the book. I very much appreciate hearing your personal perspective on Neelay's storyline and how that relates (or poorly relates) to Indian culture. Also, regarding a couple things you mentioned: First, you said that there were two characters with immigrant stories, Mimi and Neelay. But in fact, the book begins with the immigrant story of Nicholas Hoel's family. However, it is very noticeable how the European immigrant story didn't result in such caricatured storylines as the Chinese and Indian immigrant stories. I think that is very emblematic of the underlying issues you have pointed out. Second, there was a brief scene with indigenous characters, involving an older man and his sons who helped Nicholas with the placement of logs towards the end of the book. But you are absolutely correct that the indigenous perspective was excluded. They only appeared as very minor characters in a story that predominantly took place on their ancestral land, and with a clear connection between the broader theme and their ancestral beliefs. What attracted me to The Overstory was that I previously read another Richard Powers book, Bewilderment. To be honest, Bewilderment is a far greater book in my opinion, but reflecting on my experience with The Overstory and hearing your perspective, I'm not sure it didn't have some of the same problems with respect to things like cultural accuracy and sensitivity. For the first half of Bewilderment I imagined the main characters, a father and son, as white Americans like myself. However, eventually a couple details are provided which indicate that they are African American. At that point I started to notice certain areas where their personal experience was intended to reflect the personal experience of POC in the US, but they also felt contrived and inauthentic.

I ran Bengaluru marathon on Sunday. I bought news shoes for it. Do I need to buy new shoes for the run? If yes what shoes would you recommend. Also, thankyou for this video. It is helpful to know your experience

Can you suggest some cli- fi by Indian authors? Except Amitav Ghosh

Thank you so much for this wonderful review. I finished children of memory last night and have been so taken off guard by how deeply moved I am. The ending was heartbreaking on one hand, but on the other hand was so hopeful and … well, im still processing so i dont know how to describe really how beautiful the final scene was to me. All i know is that i keep remembering it and crying. Tchaikovsky tackles ideas that even Avrana Kern described at too spiritual to be taken seriously, they are decidedly woo, but he injects us into these ideas in a way that changes the reader profoundly. This is something he’s so good at. For example in children of time he asks the question “what would the evolution of human intelligence be like if it was undergone by a species of… another, non-ape animal” and he unflinchingly imagines it by studying the life and behavior of that animal on earth and flushing it out. We learn how they communicate, what would their cities look like, what would the first moment of awareness look like, social structures, what would the world physically look like to them, how do they experience their own bodies, etc. So even in the most bombastic of ideas, …or spiritual of ideas, there is a level of realism that is astonishing - i believe him. Throughout the books i simply believe him. Its so wonderful to be able to give yourself over so fully to a world, and its this belief that allows that to happen. And there isn’t a moment in any of the three books where to takes advantage of the reader - he uplifts us by humbling us profoundly.

Very nicely explained, please do all the volumes in the same manner. Valuable content .

Nicely explained

Thanks for posting these! It's hard to find much on Debroy's translations on the anglosphere side of the internet. You've given helpful information to decide on a reading order for all the Puranas. Excited to dive into his Mahabharata soon.

I accidentally saw your video on reading Mahabharatha. Though I knew bibek debroy’s translation, I never researched it much. Only recently I happen to see one of his videos. Such an erudite intellectual! As you say, it is a great service he is doing by translating itihasa and puranas. I have just started his Mahabharata. Let’s see how it goes. Btw, love your channel! Keep them coming. Thank you.

an important book review on an important book. thanks for sharing

Anyone else here for literary fest?

I am tarot newbie and have only a few Rws decks. I am interested in the tarot apps you were referring to in this video. Could you please write the names of apps you recommend b/c I was not able to catch their names in the video, especially the first one you mentioned. Thank you and good luck 🍀

I really appreciate your objective thorough review that is unique but very true. I felt the same "exclusory" and even a sense of mockery about Chinese and Indian characters. I just wished that the writer himself could have replied to your review just to say that this was not personally meant or any other explanation that shows he genuinely cares. So thank you again and I shall definitely follow you.