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Myths and Legends of India

Myths and Legends of India

Radice, William
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Since time immemorial, India has been an ocean bed over which numerous stories have flowed and enriched the world. Storytellers from Tulsidas to Rohinton Mistry have added their magic to this magnificent repository. Inspired in part by Somadeva’s Kathasaritasagara, William Radice collects these timeless tales of India, and tells them anew through his unique idiom. Like itinerant storytellers, he fills these tales with emotion and wit, bringing them alive for the contemporary reader. In Volume 1, the first section begins with the creation myth of Prajapati, while the Mahabharata section starts with Sakuntala’s story, going up to the founding of Dvaraka by Krishna. In Volume 2, the first section begins with the Hindu myth about Brahma’s creation of bodies, while the Mahabharata section starts with the notorious dice-game and ends with the death of Abhimanyu. True to India’s diversity, the third section of both volumes comprises legends and folk tales from Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Jain, Christian and tribal sources. The volumes of Myths and Legends of India are a treasure to delight in and cherish.

Imprint: Penguin Audio

Published: Sep/2019

ISBN: 9780143499299

Run time : 480 mins

Myths and Legends of India

Radice, William

Since time immemorial, India has been an ocean bed over which numerous stories have flowed and enriched the world. Storytellers from Tulsidas to Rohinton Mistry have added their magic to this magnificent repository. Inspired in part by Somadeva’s Kathasaritasagara, William Radice collects these timeless tales of India, and tells them anew through his unique idiom. Like itinerant storytellers, he fills these tales with emotion and wit, bringing them alive for the contemporary reader. In Volume 1, the first section begins with the creation myth of Prajapati, while the Mahabharata section starts with Sakuntala’s story, going up to the founding of Dvaraka by Krishna. In Volume 2, the first section begins with the Hindu myth about Brahma’s creation of bodies, while the Mahabharata section starts with the notorious dice-game and ends with the death of Abhimanyu. True to India’s diversity, the third section of both volumes comprises legends and folk tales from Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Jain, Christian and tribal sources. The volumes of Myths and Legends of India are a treasure to delight in and cherish.

Buying Options
Paperback / Hardback
Audiobooks

Radice, William

William Radice was born in 1951 and went to Westminster School. He read English at Magdalen College, Oxford, winning the Newdigate Prize for poetry in 1970. He went on to do a Diploma in Bengali at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. After working as a psychiatric nurse and a schoolmaster, he returned to Oxford in 1979, researching on the Bengali epic poet Michael Madhusudan Datta for the degree of D.Phil. (1987). In 1991 Penguin published his translation of Tagore’s Selected Short Stories (revised 1994). His other publications include four books of poems, Eight Sections (1974), Strivings (1980), Louring Skies (1985) and The Retreat (1994); a book of children’s stories translated from Bengali, The Stupid Tiger and Other Tales (1981); The Translator’s Art – Essays in Honour of Betty Radice (Penguin, 1987), which he co-edited with Barbara Reynolds; and Teach Yourself Bengali (1994). He has been given literary awards in West Bengal and Bangladesh, and is now Lecturer in Bengali at the School of Oriental and African Studies.

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