Karna--the Achilles and
Hector of the Indian Epic--first met and each marked the other for his
foe; the gorgeous bridal of Draupadi; the equally gorgeous coronation
of Yudhishthir and the death of the proud and boisterous Sisupala;
the fatal game of dice and the scornful wrath of Draupadi against her
insulters; the calm beauty of the forest life of the Pandavs; the
cattle-lifting in Matsyaland in which the gallant Arjun threw off his
disguise and stood forth as warrior and conqueror; and the Homeric
speeches of the warriors in the council of war on the eve of the
great contest,--each scene of this venerable old Epic impresses
itself on the mind of the hushed and astonished reader. Then follows
the war of eighteen days. The first few days are more or less
uneventful, and have been condensed in this translation often into
a few couplets; but the interest of the reader increases as he
approaches the final battle and fall of the grand old fighter
Bhishma. Then follows the stirring story of the death of Arjun's
gallant boy, and Arjun's fierce revenge, and the death of the priest
and warrior, doughty Drona. Last comes the crowning event of the
Epic, the final contest between Arjun and Karna, the heroes of the
Epic, and the war ends in a midnight slaughter and the death of
Duryodhan. The rest of the story is told in this translation in
two books describing the funerals of the deceased warriors, and
Yudhishthir's horse-sacrifice.

"The poems of Homer," says Mr. Gladstone, "differ from all other
known poetry in this, that they constitute in themselves an
encyclopaedia of life and knowledge; at a time when knowledge,
indeed, such as lies beyond the bounds of actual experience, was
extremely limited, and when life was singularly fresh, vivid, and
expansive." This remark applies with even greater force to the
_Maha-bharata_; it is an encyclopaedia of the life and knowledge
of Ancient India. And it discloses to us an ancient and forgotten
world, a proud and noble civilisation which has passed away. Northern
India was then parcelled among warlike races living side by side
under their warlike kings, speaking the same language, performing
the same religious rites and ceremonies, rejoicing in a common
literature, rivalling each other in their schools of philosophy and
learning as in the arts of peace and civilisation, and forming a
confederation of Hindu nations unknown to and unknowing the outside
world. What this confederation of na