With prostrations to Nara, Narayana, Devi Saraswati and Vyasa, may the Mahabharata be narrated.
Happy to share with you, my narration of the first parva of the greatest of epics… The Adi Parva of Mahabharata.
31 Audio recordings, of around 50 minutes each..
Pl check the YouTube link to the Adi-Parva playlist below.
Also sharing a pdf that contains all the links, in one file…
May the Force of Bheema be with you ! Enjoy the epic.
Jaya!
नारायणं नमस्कृत्य नरं चैव नरोत्तमम् |
देवीं सरस्वतीं व्यासं ततो जयमुदीरयेत् ||
Bowing to Narayana (Krishna), to the greatest of men Nara (Arjuna), to Goddess Saraswati, and to Vyasa, let Mahabharata be told thereafter.
Some of you may know that Soota has the joy of narrating Mahabharata… Few years back there was a write-up in The Hindu ( Click here to access)
This Soota’s narrations commenced sometime in 2001 and went on for ten years… The whole of Mahabharata… Narrated once a week, around 40 plus weeks every year.. And these were recorded in audio, as home recordings, live, while the narrations were done…
One part of the recordings was available briefly through an online channel that was later discontinued. These were a subset of episodes related to the great war of Mahabharata… (A blogger wrote a post about her experience in listening the stories. Click here to read that post )…
That version had 18 episodes, which were a part of the overall 50 episodes War set…
Now the whole set of 50 is available..
Folks in India who are interested in the recordings can now buy it, MP3 in Audio CD form, marketed by “Rasa – Experience of Art…”
In addition to the “Great War of Mahabharata” set, two other sets are available.
So: Overall: The following are available now…
– The great War of Mahabharata ( a series of 50 episodes )
– The story of Nala and Damayanti ( a series of 11 episodes )
– The story of Savitri and Satyavan ( a series of 8 episodes )
Each episode is around 50 minutes of audio….
*
I had earlier blogged about the first set of 18 recordings.. You can see the post by clicking here.
To quote from that post:
In my experience over these years, I have seen the Mahabharata stories deeply touch people of all ages. From teenagers, to regular adults, to senior citizens….
Such is its sweep and appeal, that Soota Ugrashrava says in Mahabharata:
श्रुत्वा त्विदमाख्यानं श्राव्यमन्यन्न रोचते |
पुम्सकोकिलरुतं श्रुत्वा रूक्षा ध्वाङ्क्षस्य वागिव ||
Having heard this story, one does not relish listening to any other. After hearing the song of the Koel (cuckoo), who would be interested to listen to the caw-caw of a crow?
न तां स्वर्गगतिं प्राप्य तुष्टिं प्राप्नोति मानवा: |
यं श्रुत्वैव महापुण्यं इतिहासमुपाश्नुते ||
Not by attaining heaven do men achieve satisfaction, happiness, as much as they do after listening to this great PuNyA, The Mahabharata!
**
Welcome to Dharmakshetra! Where there is Dharma, there is Krishna! Where there is Krishna, there is Victory!
Listen to the day-by-day unraveling of the greatest war ever written about…So welcome to Kurukshetra! And experience the sky filled with the sound of Sri Krishna’s great conch, Paancajanya!
Listen to the story about Nala – the great King, horseman, gambler, connoisseur of food… Who lost his all in a great bout of gambling… Who too was exiled to the forest and suffered even more than Yudhisttira did… Who is known as Punyashloka – one who is so holy, that hearing his name is gives Punya…
Listen to the story of Pativrata Savitri… Which Maharshi Markandeya relates to Yudhisttira, in reply to his question on whether there has ever been any lady as great in virtues as Draupadi… The story of Savitri, who dialogues with Yama to get her husband back from the land of the dead…
Once more:
Or the related link on the blogroll of this blogsite.
Right now it is available for sale only in India… As mentioned, these were recorded in non-studio, home conditions, live. The recording quality would vary here and there… Requesting listeners in advance to forgive any deficiencies, and enjoy the great words of the greatest of epics – Mahabharata…
Jaya!
नारायणं नमस्कृत्य नरं चैव नरोत्तमम् |
देवीं सरस्वतीं व्यासं ततो जयमुदीरयेत् ||
Bowing to Narayana (Krishna), to the greatest of men Nara (Arjuna), to Goddess Saraswati, and to Vyasa, let Mahabharata be told thereafter.
**
Here’s a news item from The Hindu today…
The Hindu : Life & Style / Metroplus : Epic in a digital avatar
http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/metroplus/article792934.ece
Feels nice that the Podcasts happened just around the time that I visited Shengalipuram!
And, btw, they are showing a feature on this in NDTV-Hindu TV, It’s going to be aired at 9:30 PM IST (on Saturday). It’s also streamed live on the Net, (Noon EST on Saturday)
It will be aired again on Sunday 5:30 pm, and on days next week at different times (Sun 17:30, Mon 08:30, Tue 11:30, Wed 22:30, Thu 16:30, all IST)
If time permits, please do take a look.
And yes… Happy 1000th anniv celebs of the great Tanjore temple!
( Podcast CDs are now available from Rasa – Experience of Art . Pl contact rasa.experience@yahoo.in )
(Update Aug 2014: The podcasts are no longer available thru Charsur.
They are now available from Rasa – Experience of Art . Pl contact rasa.experience@yahoo.in )
**
नारायणं नमस्कृत्य नरं चैव नरोत्तमम् |
देवीं सरस्वतीं व्यासं ततो जयमुदीरयेत् ||
Bowing to Narayana (Krishna), to the greatest of men Nara (Arjuna), to Goddess Saraswati, and to Vyasa, let Mahabharata be told thereafter.
**
Happy Ganesh Chaturthi to all!
Salutations, again and again, to the great God Ganesha, the one who scribed the greatest of epics, The Mahabharata! May his blessings be showered on the whole world!
Some of you may have noticed (and perhaps wondered about), the reference to “Soota” in the title of my blog. Soota is a term that refers to a charioteer, who is more importantly, a Pauranika, a story teller. It was Soota Ugrashrava who related the mighty epic Mahabharata, to the Rshis at Naimisharanya. As also a Soota it was who narrated all the eighteen Puranas composed by Vyasa.
A decade or so ago, fascinated by the Indian story-telling tradition, I found my new calling, as a story-teller.
And in line with this Soota tradition, I have had the joy of relating the Mahabharata in English, every week, last eight years or so, to a core set of listeners in Chennai, as also to another set of listeners in Bengaluru, whenever I happen to visit there. And so huge is the Mahabharata, that the flow is still on.
In my story-telling, keeping the Sanskrit Mahabharata of Vyasa as the primary source, I have attempted to convey the “Rasa” of the Vyasa original as experienced by me. At some places, I have also related variations from Mahabharata versions of other languages, and from independent treatises that were inspired by stories of the Mahabharata.
And now, there has come an opportunity to share some of this with a larger audience.
Charsur Arts Foundation, a digital music publishing company, has come forward to make this available over the Net.
We are commencing with the story of the great war of Mahabharata, the 18 day Dharma-Yuddha. Extracted and edited from live recordings done over the years, the ‘Great War’ has been related in a set of around fifty episodes, perhaps one of the most elaborate renderings of the great war.
To begin with, we go online with eight episodes, starting from the first day of the war, and ending with the fall of the great Bheeshma.
The next forty two episodes will follow in due course.
To access the audio podcasts, you can go to the Home Page of Charsur by clicking here, and click on the ‘Charsur Arts Foundation” link on the left frame displaying the catalog. One of the options below is the link “The Great War of Mahabharata”. Click that to go to the Mahabharata page.
In India, click here to access page listing the full podcast set of eight episodes.
Individual episodes can be got by clicking the appropriate links in the Mahabharata page. Each episode is around 45 to 50 minutes or so in length. Each has a one minute sampler that can be listened to, and a bullet-list of what the episode is about.
Why story telling? Why did I take up Mahabharata? Why begin with the war? Who is the target audience?
I have tried to answer these questions in the audio bit, “Prelude to Mahabharata”, which can be downloaded at no cost.
**
In my experience over these years, I have seen the Mahabharata stories deeply touch people of all ages. From teenagers, to regular adults, to senior citizens….
Such is its sweep and appeal, that Soota Ugrashrava says in Mahabharata:
श्रुत्वा त्विदमाख्यानं श्राव्यमन्यन्न रोचते |
पुम्सकोकिलरुतं श्रुत्वा रूक्षा ध्वाङ्क्षस्य वागिव ||
Having heard this story, one does not relish listening to any other. After hearing the song of the Koel (cuckoo), who would be interested to listen to the caw-caw of a crow?
न तां स्वर्गगतिं प्राप्य तुष्टिं प्राप्नोति मानवा: |
यं श्रुत्वैव महापुण्यं इतिहासमुपाश्नुते ||
Not by attaining heaven do men achieve satisfaction, happiness, as much as they do after listening to this great PuNyA, The Mahabharata!
**
So welcome to Kurukshetra! And experience the sky filled with the sound of Sri Krishna’s great conch, Paancajanya!
Welcome to Dharmakshetra! Where there is Dharma, there is Krishna! Where there is Krishna, there is Victory!
Jaya!
athato 
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