Shanta Rameshwar Rao's Mahabharata tells the central story of India's great Sanskrit epic, one of the oldest works of literature in the world. The warrior princes called the Kauravas and the Pandavas, two branches of the royal clan of the Kurus who lived in northern India thousands of years ago, are its main characters; its main theme, the events - some comic, some beautiful, some bitter that led to a catastrophic war between the two branches of the clan. Intensely human in their passionate loves and hates, happiness and grief, the people of the Mahabharata have their recognizable counterparts in all ages and civilizations. The grandeur, beauty and colour of their story and the variety and depth of its message make it a book for all times and all occasions. Here, the story is further brought to life by Badri Narayan's illustrations. Rich in line and symbol they add a dimension that could only have been provided by an artist so steeped in the Indian tradition.