Epic Loves

The Mahabharata is usually remembered as an epic of war, but Ashok Banker suggests that love sits at its core, in forms that are tender and painful, romantic and calculating. Here he retells five love stories drawn from the Adi Parva, the epic's opening book.

The collection starts with the star-crossed pair Shakuntala and Dushyanta, then moves on to less expected ground. King Shantanu is consumed by his passion for Ganga, who has taken human form and will in time leave him. Satyavati's love lifts Shantanu out of his grief, but a son ends up paying a terrible price for it. Bhishma and Amba meet only briefly, and the encounter marks both of them for life. The last story, perhaps the most moving, is about the friends Devayani and Sharmishtha and the man they both loved, Yayati.

Banker has long written fiction based on Indian myth and history. In these retellings he gives old tales of desire a vivid, dramatic and easy style for today's readers.