Mahabharata Condensed in the Poet's Own Words /12

"Every scene on the shifting stage is

a perfect and impressive picture. The

tournament of the princes in which

Arjun and Karna--the Achilles and

Hector of the Indian Epic--first met

and each marked the other for his foe;

the gorgeous bridal of Draupadi;

the equally gorgeous coronation of

Yudhisthir and the death of the proud

and boisterous Sisupala; the fatal

game of dice and the scornful wrath

of Draupadi against her insulters; the

calm beauty of the forest life of the

Pandavs; the cattle-lifting in Matsyaland

in which the gallant Arjun threw
off his disguise and stood forth as

off his disguise and stood forth as
warrior and conqueror; and the

Homeric speeches of the warriors in the

council of war on the eve of the

great contest-each scene of this
-each scene of this
venerable old Epic impresses itself

on the mind of the hushed and

astonished reader."--R. C. Dutt.