by Bibek Debroy
All these translations, ever since the Bhagavad Gita in 2006, have been published by Penguin India. I am indebted to Penguin for believing in the utility of not just the Bhagavata Purana translation, but the entire Purana Project, which still seems to stretch into the interminable horizon of the future. But one step at a time. For the record, with the Bhagavata Purana published, I am now translating Markandeya Purana, the next one in the series. In particular, Meru Gokhale and Ambar Sahil Chatterjee at Penguin India have been exceptionally patient, persevering and encouraging. But for them, the Purana Project might not have taken off. Paloma Dutta has been the editor since the days of the Mahabharata translation. That makes life a whole lot easier. She knows my style and I know hers. There is a Paloma hand in the product, even though it won’t be detected and isn’t meant to be.
ययोरात्मसमं वित्तं जन्मैश्वर्याकृतिभवः | तयोर्विवाहो मैत्री च नोत्तमाधमयोः क्वचित । (10.60.15) Ever since this translation journey started in 2006, my wife, Suparna Banerjee (Debroy) has been a constant source of support, ensuring the conducive and propitious environment required for the work to continue unimpeded. She has been much more than that. (She was with me in Mayapur too.) In a rich language like Sanskrit, I can think of close to twenty words—all capturing the different nuances of ‘wife’. Suparna has been all these and more. अनुकूलकलत्रे यस्तस्य स्वर्ग इहैव हि । प्रतिकूलकलत्र्स्य नरको नात्र संशय :।। This too is destiny.
THE BEGINNING
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This collection published 2019
Copyright © Bibek Debroy 2019
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Jacket images © Meena Rajasekaran
ISBN 978-0-143-42803-9
This digital edition published in 2019.
e-ISBN: 978-9-353-05380-2
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
