The Art of Translation

Prof P. Lal's ambitious English verse translation of the Mahabharata is now complete, with the last volume published by Writers Workshop

- Aditya Mani Jha

Indian readers and writers know the late Purushottam Lal (19292010) as a poet and professor who founded the Kolkata-based literary publishing house Writers Workshop in 1958. Creating a publishing house from scratch is tough in India. However, another one of Prof. Lal's projects proved to be even more gargantuan. In 1968, he started translating the entirety of the Mahabharata in English verse. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2010 before the project could be completed. His student Pradip Bhattacharya finished the incomplete 'parvas' of the Mahabharata-and now, all 18 volumes have been completed, the last to be published being the Anusasana Parva. Published by Writers Workshop, it is the only English translation in existence that follows each and every Sanskrit shloka and every single variation, including verses that prose translators have missed.