Dodda mahabharatha

 What should I write? When this mind has become a mess? There is nothing in it except for hundreds of detectives I watch.

I thought and decided I will start translating again - this time the one and only epic - Mahabharatha. Good and ambitious decision. But how feasible is this?

I started with source - there is no dearth of Mahabharath source. The best according to me is Sanskritdocuments which converts the languages also for us. So I need Vyasa's Sanskrit verses in Kannada language -   change the language in the top widget. Lo, I have it in Kannada. So I copied the first parva - aptly called adiparva (adi - beginning), first chapter. And saved it safely in my editor. 

Then came the actual work - translation. I had already decided not to go for word by word translation - what with the obstacles I faced during translation of ashtavakragita etc. So I easily selected an English translation from wisdomlib.org which also has grammar analysis of original words. 

Narayanam namaskrutyam naram chaiva narottamam. 

So far so good. I know all these words. But the next line had "Jayamudirayet". What is Jaya? This I know - Mahabharata was originally called Jaya. But what is udirayet. It is a verb. Which tense - which number and what does it mean? 

Turned out it means speak. So before we speak Jaya, we need to bow to Narayanam and Saraswati. 

Next verse started with Lomaharshanaputra Ugrasrava, sutaha, puraniko ...

Who is Lomaharsha? Is he the putra(son) or the pitru(father)? Who is suta? Who is puranika? What and where is Naimisharanya? What does this forest got to do with hastinapur? 

Too many questions which are not to be resolved by simple translation. I relinquished. Which I do frequently, easily and remorselessly. 

Then afternoon, when I was again feeling restless and useless I thought, if I go to the part where the story of Shantanu - the father of Bhishma, I will understand the words from the context. 

Thus began the search of chapters in Adiparva and took me to chapter 92.

Where there is another unknown king called Prateepa.

This Prateepa is sitting on the banks on river Ganga and doing tapas for many years. Who comes to disturb him - not Rambha or Menaka or some apsara. But Ganga. 

She comes and straight sits on his lap. But Prateepa being a good man, rejects her advances. And also tells her, as you are sitting on my right thigh. That seat is reserved for my daughters and daughters in law. So you can become my daughter in law. 

And thus the story continued. 

I some how felt disinclined to start with this story. So again I renounced. Tell me what else should I translate?

 Let me search for a less ambitious project. 

The title - if there a big mess, we say adondu dodda mahabharatha agi hoitu.