After extensive research he wrote a book Mrityunjay (English: Triumph Over Death) based on Karna, one of the leading characters of the epic Mahabharat. This book was translated in Hindi (1974), English (1989), Kannada (1990), Gujarati (1991), Malayalam (1995) and received numerous awards and accolades. In 1980 he wrote a book Chhava based on Sambhaji's life.
I recently finished reading this novel 鈥淵ugandhar鈥� by Shivaji Sawant the 6th time. But each time I read it, I get a totally new meaning from the same lines n words which I have read twice before. Well, you鈥檒l say that I must have mugged up the atleast 3/4th of the novel uptill now, n that is true! But still when I take it in my hands, I automatically get eager to read it once again, to know whether there is some more of the Krishna which I have not yet understood even after reading so many times...... He Preached so many examples n teachings by first following it himself, the importance of Mother, Friend, Lover, Husband, Brother, King, each n every role played by a human being in his life. Such a different meaning of every small thing .....
I finally finished this gem of a book & I can't stop praising it. Originally written in "Marathi" & translated into many Indian languages along with English, this one is a very well researched book with most accurate descriptions of those times.
"Yugandhar"(meaning-Ever Lasting) tells us the story of Lord Krishna's life from childhood to his death. It considers "Krishna" as a normal human being who because of his "karma" ( Deeds) attained an irreplaceable place in everyone's heart.
Told through multiple POVs made it an intriguing read, epitomizing Krishna's glory with miraculous aura. Without being religious & preaching philosophy, it tells you how to live life in the simplest ways possible.
"Love is the only true thing, Love is infinity" says Krishna. Krishna is incarnation of God Vishnu himself.
Sometimes in the past I couldn't understand the perspective of Mahabharata. Being a God, Krishna should have stopped The Mahabharata (the big Indian Mythological war) from happening . Oh boy, could i have been more wrong.
First thing, Krishna wasn't the reason behind the great Indian war that took place at Kurukshetra. He was just an observer. Nothing was missed by his keen eyes. He never even once interfered in the affairs of others. If he hadn't been in the scene at all, the war would have happened much earlier.
Secondly, the war didn't happen just for a single reason or coz of wrong doings of a single person. It was result of multitudes of misconducts happened over a period of decades which lead to the final warfare & ultimate cataclysm.
There is a shloka in Mahabharata roughly translated to - "Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, and a predominant rise of irreligion鈥攁t that time I descend Myself."
Krishna did what he had to do, what he had promised to do, when he realized the inevitablity of the war. He helped to get Justice for the rightful & punished the wrongdoers & offenders by the means of the war.
I recommend this, if you are interested to know about Krishna & his life & a part of Mahabharata.
Shivaji Sawant is well known name in Marathi literature. I had read his Mrityunjaya, it was a brilliant book. This one took me to another level. I had this book with me for last 4 years. I don't know why I was so lazy to pick this one. Now I am glad I read it. No review of mine can justify this book. This book reminds me of famous scholar Shatavadhani R. Ganesh who composed few lines in praise of Krishna.
Born within prison walls, separated from parents at birth, you spent your childhood among cowherds; You were insulted by kings; constant death-threats; driven out constantly from your own land and country; Family feuds, cantankerous wives, intoxicated sons You had to work as a charioteer and die an insignificant death by a hunter's stray arrow, yet you were so content, self-satisfied!
Yet another masterpiece by Shivaji Sawant.. This book gives us a different perspective to look at the life of Krishna.. NOT as a HERO or GOD but as a HUMAN who wanted to let people know that the greatest power in the world is love. He considered all living beings as his own beloved. He lived to his teachings by spreading PREMYOG in the then Aryawat. What I loved most about this book is it gave me completely agreeable and practical possible reasons behind the CHAMATKARS by Krishna. The reasons why Krishna loved Arjun and Uddhav more are fascinating. The novel gets a bit slow in between but all in all its worth everything!
I picked up this book because it had been ages since I read mythology and I missed all those profound lessons and larger than life characters. I have read Mrityunjay by Shivaji Sawant and it was an amazing book. Karna is my favourite from Mahabharata and it was great reading in detail about his life. Yugandhar is about Krishna鈥檚 life, the mastermind behind the Kurukshetra War. I didn鈥檛 know much about Krishna before other than the basics and was looking forward to Shivaji Sawant鈥檚 narration of his life. This edition was translated by his daughter Kadambini Dharap.
I had two images of Krishna in my mind 鈥� one was the innocent, naughty boy who loved milk and milk products and the other was the manipulative adult who never gave a straight answer but made sure things worked out in a way that he had planned. From Amar Chitra Katha comics and the oral stories that we hear in our homes, I liked the baby Krishna and kept my distance from the adult one. This book is told from six perspectives. We start with Sri Krishna and his childhood 鈥� his pleasant life in Gokul which is filled with love, laughter, and companionship. His platonic relationship with Radha, his first sakhi, is described here. The characteristic peacock feather which adorns Krishna鈥檚 crown is placed there by the loving Radha. The Vaijayanti flower garland which he wears always is also given by her. This part of Krishna鈥檚 life is the ideal childhood. He leaves Gokul for Mathura and annihilates his evil uncle, Kansa and liberates his biological parents and the dwellers of Mathura from Kansa鈥檚 demonic clutch. Balaram Dada, Krishna鈥檚 elder brother is with him all along. Then comes along Jarasandha and his constant attacks on the city of Mathura which is cradled by the Yamuna river. Krishna鈥檚 life moves ahead with several incidents most of which consist of eliminating the tyrants from Bharatvarsha. The most crucial amongst these fights of 鈥榞ood vs evil鈥� is without a doubt the war of Kurukshetra war which was fought between the Kauravas and the Pandavas where more than 40 lakh soldiers and several royal members of the Kuru clan lost their lives. Bhagvad Gita, which is one of the Holy Scriptures in Hinduism is told by Krishna to a disheartened Arjun on the battlefield. Krishna justifies the war with several reasons, but I think there could have been ways of averting the war and still ensuring justice in a peaceful manner given that he was an avatar of a God and very powerful.
We meet Rukmini, Daruka, Draupadi, Arjuna, Satyaki, and Uddhava in the book. Their voices are distinct and it is refreshing to see Krishna鈥檚 life in patches through these different people who were close to his heart. However, because of a multi-perspective approach, some things get repetitive. Some interesting things that I learnt from this book: The golden city of Dwarka was beautiful and so very well planned. Krishna was a Jalapurusha, someone who is very adaptable like water and also who likes water. Two other Jalapurusha鈥檚 in his age were Bhishma and Karna. Along with Bhagvad Gita, there is also something called as Ashwa Gita which consists of Krishna鈥檚 conversations with his horses of the Garudadhwaja chariot. The end of the Yadava clan was also something I had no idea about. The concept of Krishnasopana was amazing 鈥� having a staircase with each step dedicated to someone close in his life. Premayoga, which was Krishna鈥檚 guiding philosophy, made sense to me.
Today, I assert that the essence of life is Premayoga. Love has no limit. It is endless. The human race has been created only for spreading love. Hatred comes to an end. When one person hates another, that hatred ends with the death of the other person. In short, hatred ends at some point of time. Till it comes to an end, the individuals, castes, groups and kingdoms on both sides suffer tremendous irrecoverable loss. That is not the case with love. The more one gives love, the more it multiplies. It never gets reduced by giving.
I enjoyed reading the book but it took me very long to finish it so by the end I was just waiting to get it over with. I am sure that the original Marathi version is much more impactful. Nevertheless, I am really thankful that I got to read it in English. The book, like Krishna鈥檚 life, is grand and filled with many thoughtful proclamations.
A beautiful book, Yugandhar depicts the life of Sri Krishna through the various phases in his life. The book is split into chapters, each chapter being narrated by important individuals in his life, in first person. This gives different perspectives, since the range of people includes his beloved wife Rukmini and his saarthi (charioteer) Daruk. Apart from giving a fairly detailed account of his life, it also had a surprisingly calming effect, and left my feeling rather peaceful even after reading as little as two pages. Highly recommended to anyone who can read Hindi.
Stunned by Marathi literature. The layers, the depth, the characters. A book which is NOT a page turner. Quite the opposite,You savour it, taking in all that is laid out for you with a painstaking deliberateness.
Being an atheist, I found this book extremely enjoyable and was absolutely delighted when the author proclaimed that all the characters are too be viewed as fallible, human rather than the gods they are.
Yugandhar- is a brilliant piece of work from Shivaji Sawant. Author tries hard to contain the protagonist within human sphere but also surrenders to the divinity at appropriate places. Immense detailing takes the reader into that era. It is a long long piece of text but something worth having and passing onto generations.
An epic by Shivaji Sawant in which he has tried to describe the life and thoughts of Krishna in about a 1000 pages. The book is written in first-person narrative, but the narrator keeps changing. Shivaji Sawant has divided the life of Krishna in 7 broad phases and each of this phase has been narrated by an individual who played a key role in that phase:
1. Krishna narrates his own childhood 2. Rukimini, the first wife of Krishna talks about the next phase of Krishna鈥檚 life 3. Daruk, the charioteer of Krishna, narrates the 3rd phase 4. Draupadi, wife of the Pandavas, takes us through the next phase 5. Arjun talks about the 5th phase which majorly revolves around the battle of Mahabharata 6. Satyaki, a warrior in the Yadava army, narrates the final phases of the battle of Mahabharata 7. Uddhav, a cousin and the closest friend of Krishna, narrates the final phase of Krishna鈥檚 life
One of the most important aspects of this book is that Krishna isn鈥檛 described as a supernatural being or God, but as an extraordinary human being, a charismatic leader and a philosopher-warrior. The book describes how he takes up many roles during his entire lifetime, and how every person he gets in touch with gets to understand only a part of him. In the end, the reader is left trying to weave all these parts of him together to try and figure out who Krishna was and why he did the things he did.
For me, the book started with Krishna being an enigma and I ended up with Krishna being even more of an enigma than he was before I started reading the book. Though I was much more aware about the events which take place in his life, but I couldn鈥檛 really understand the entire personality, which is also the note at which the book ends 鈥� Uddhav asking himself if anyone actually understood who Krishna really was.
It鈥檚 difficult to imagine the sheer effort, understanding and knowledge which would have gone into creating this book. Needless to say, it demands a lot of time and effort to read as well.
A beautiful read. The only part that bored me a bit was the description of Krishna's children narrated in Uddhav's chapter. As such the names are all so confusing and they do not appear again in any significant way except for one. Otherwise a very good flow of Krishna's life at various stages through the characters present in those stages of his life - Krishna, Rukmini, Daruk, Draupadi, Satyaki, Arjun and Uddhav. I gave this a 0.5 points less because I liked Mrityunjay a bit better.
I read the translation in English by Kadambini Dharap. The translation is excellent and I enjoyed reading the book very much. There were so many details that I didn't know about.
The only reason I am rating it 3 is for the idea and the original text. This translation is a major let down and does not do one bit justice to the original composition.
Shivaji Sawant does a wonderful job of describing Sri Krishna the orchestrator of the entire Mahabharata, his motives, his life and his kingdom. But much is lost in this English translation and I felt a lot was left desired for.
The excessive veneration for Lord Krishna and even more excessive is the adjectives used for most characters, that puts me off. This translation is dealt with as a holy text and not as a Novel and that's the major let down. I am not reading about Krishna the God but Krishna the human with a lot of clarity about life, politics and valour.
This translator treats it with reverence but this book could have been handled better. I wish the publisher had managed to stop when they could.
Can't find any words to review this book. This book has somewhat changed my thinking about Indian religion and Gods. Even the Gods have to obey all the natural laws when they come to this planet as an Avatar. Even they have to face good times and tough times just as we do. So why should we complain.?All we can do is to keep doing our Karma and leave the result on the almighty. After reading this book I feel so blessed to know how to read Hindi .
Its a story of SriKrishna told by himself and persons close to him Rukmini, Daruk , Arjun , Draupadi ,Satyaki and Uddhav. I i immersed myself into the life of Srikrishna as i read the book and enjoyed it. Its a masterpiece.