MAHABHARATA

PREFACE TO FOURTH EDITION

WITH their characteristic zeal, the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan are bringing out a fourth edition of this book. Asked to write something by way of a fresh preface, I think of the days when I first began to write these chapters in Tamil for KALKI. The Congress had then resigned from its position in all the provincial governments and Hitler's war was on.

I was in a double wilderness. I remember what great peace I found then inre-reading this great epic of our land and telling it in simple, Tamil. This was twelve years ago. Again, in the middle of 1954, when I laid down the office of Chief Minister ofMadras after a difficult and critical period of two years, I found the peace that I needed in Valmiki's epic. I re-told the Ramayana in weekly chapters to the Tamil people. I have just concluded thatwork as I write this preface. I have lived a pretty active life.

But I feel that -these two things that I have done are the best service I have rendered to my people. These two books of mine have been widely read and enjoyed. They have helped the simple folk in the Tamil country to realise their higher selves. Naturally, this has been a source of great joy to me in the evening of my fife. It is good to be a political and national worker and to take office and work hard. But I have seen that it is better to be able to leave -it and enjoy the company of the sages of our land and to help them to speak to our men and women again.

The English rendering of my Mahabharata has been distributed by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan with remarkable success and I tender to them my warm gratitude for this service. The sages of our land had never any thought of land or sea boundaries. They thought in all things for all mankind and we are fulfilling their intention when we render our classics into English in a form suitable for the present- day international world.

MADRAS: C. RAJAGOPALACHARI

18th October 1955. 

[ Back ] [ Up ] [ Next ]