Indian Idylls from the Sanskrit of The Mahabharata.

Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1883 Hard cover, 8vo., 318pp. + 4pp. ads. In publisher's mustard cloth binding with blocked decorations in gold.** CONDITION: Near Fine. Some pages unopened. One or two pages opened roughly. Light , with tiny tears to head of spine. **A translation of selected parts of the ancient Indian epic poem, "The Mahabharata," one of the two great foundational Sanskrit poems of India. It concerns the Kurukshetra War, a struggle for power between two dynastic branches of a family. The war itself takes place over eighteen days, and "The Mahabharata" follows the course of the war and its aftermath. The selections in this book are titled: "Savitri; or, Love and Death", "Nala and Damayanti", "The Enchanted Lake", "The Saint's Temptation", "The Birth of Death", "The Night of Slaughter", "The Great Journey" and "The Entry into Heaven". ** **English translator Edwin Arnold (1832 - 1904) was an English journalist and poet, notable for his 1879 work "The Light of Asia", an epic poem describing the life of Buddha, derived from the Sanskrit "Lalitavistara Sūtra". His career started as the Principal of a school in India, where he witnessed and survived the Indian Rebellion of 1857. He returned to England as a journalist for "The Daily Telegraph", where he arranged the famous expedition to Africa by H.M. Stanley. Arnold later lived in Japan and married a Japanese woman, Tama Kurokawa. He was a vegetarian, and was Vice President of the West London Food Reform Society which boasted Mahatma Gandhi as secretary. Scarce. . First American Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine.