There are many condensed versions in English of the Mahabharata of Vyasa, but the only one that can be called a translation is Dr V Raghavan's rendering, which, by shortening the 100, 000 shloka epic to about 2,000 shlokas, is microscopic in its compression. The aim here has been to retell the story of the Kurukshetra war in greater detail, always in Vyasa's own words, without simplifying, interpreting or elaborating. Only those shlokas have been selected that form a continuous narrative, leaving out the large clutch of sub-stories, legends, peripheral digressions and other tangential material that is fascinating in itself but not directly relevant to the tale of the Kaurava-Pandava conflict

Some readers may wonder why the transcreation in this book sometimes differs from that of the same passages in the continuing shloka-by-shloka complete version. This is probably because the passages were transcreated at different times, with the differences resulting from changes in understanding and appreciation of Vyasa. Diacritical marks have been omitted in the main text of the Introduction and the translation.