Epic News! Penguin India to publish Ashok K. Banker’s Mahabharata series in 9 volumes
It’s official now.
The contracts are signed, sealed and delivered, the signing advance has been banked, the manuscript delivery schedule set.
Penguin India, publishers of the Indian edition of my Ramayana series, will publish the Indian edition of my forthcoming Mahabharata series as well.
The Mahabharata will be published in 9 volumes, starting sometime in mid-2006 and appearing at the rate of one book every six-to-nine months (the publication schedules have yet to be finalized).
Each volume will be at least twice as large as the Ramayana volumes, and perhaps thrice as large, in wordage.
For those of you who care about such trivia, the Ramayana series, comprising six books, totalled about 1 million words.
The Mahabharata will be somewhere between 2.5 and 3 million words.
As of now, I’ve promised myself that it will not go beyond 9 large books.
As for publication, I think you’ll find that the Mahabharata books will appear much faster than the Ramayana books did, if only for the simple reason that Indian rights have been sold separately from the very beginning, rather than midway through the series as happened with Ramayana.
I can also confirm that due to my personal choice, I’ve only offered and sold Indian rights to the Mahabharata as of now.
Which means that no other editions are planned as of now in the rest of the world.
Of course, that doesn’t mean the series won’t be published worldwide – just that the Indian edition will take precedence over them.
I want this to be the first major book by an Indian author (to me it’s still one enormous book, split into 9 parts, not 9 separate books, ditto the Ramayana) that’s edited in India and then reprinted elsewhere, rather than the other way around.
I also understand that this usually means the kiss of death for books, because, as we all know, it’s all that overseas hype that allegedly helps Indian books sell in such large numbers here in apna desh.
(Later this year, we’ll see evidence of that overseas hype machine working overtime as Vikram Seth releases his long-awaited record-advance Two Lives published simultaneously worldwide, including India.)
But I don’t give a hang.
As far as I’m concerned, my Mahabharata series, like the Ramayana before it, can only truly be appreciated and enjoyed by readers who have some foreknowledge of these great ancient myths and legends.
It also helps tremendously if you’re Indian!
Which is not to say that a whiteskin blonde-haired firang in some icebound fjorded nation can’t pick up one of these books and enjoy them – but said firang simply won’t get the resonances and nuances that Indian readers (or even Indian diaspora readers) can pick up.
So it’s a great source of pride to me that my Mahabharata will first be edited and published by Indians, for Indians.
This time, the firangs can do the waiting.
Which will, I trust, be well worth every minute.
So with a bow to Lord Ganesh, and Shri Krishna, and with the support and encouragement of you, loyal readers, I’m starting out on this long journey – or at least on the publication of this long journey, for the journey itself began well over a year ago, with the actual writing – by your grace and blessings.
Stay with me, beautiful child…
Hold my hand when I falter…
See me through to the end…
This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 1st, 2005 at 10:44 am. It is filed under Ashok.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
