Morality Tales

In her latest book-a translation of lesser-known stories from the Mahabharata-Wendy Doniger returns to the themes and ideas of her earlier work

- Arshia Sattar

A new book from Wendy Doniger always creates a stir-both friends and foes are eager to see what she has to say. Neither group is ever disappointed, each finds something that fulfils their expectations. Having been her student in the 1980s, I fall firmly in the first group and I am delighted, yet again, to read her lucid, bright translations that are marvellously fluent in English and yet, retain something of the lilt and pace of the Sanskrit original. If you have any doubt about this rare skill of Doniger's, you have only to read 'How the Procrastinator Saved Gautama from Killing His Wife'-you will experience the pleasure of Sanskrit puns and sarcasm even as you laugh out loud for what it sounds like in English.

As always with Doniger, this is primarily a book of stories.

Drawn from classical Sanskrit texts (here, the Mahabharata), this collection includes stories we know, stories we don't know, characters we know whose actions are mainly familiar and sometimes are surprisingly against what we know, and a host of named and unnamed magical creatures and supernatural beings. For me, that is sufficient. But Doniger also provides us, in her brief commentaries, with new perspectives and insights and a veritable symphony of resonances and contrapuntal melodies that we can enjoy.