The mass destruction wrought by two world wars inspired an Englishman, S.C. Nott to make available to the English-speaking world insights from the Mahabharata. He began by selecting from the first two books (Adi and Sambhava) as had been Englished by K.M. Ganguli in 1883.

This selection, “selected, edited and transcribed by S.C. Nott from the literal and complete edition of Pratapa Chunder Raya, which was translated from the Sanskrit verse into English prose by Pandit Kisari Mohon Ganguli” running to 205 pages, was published in 1956 by the Janus Press, London, with line drawings by Kate Adamson with the help and advice of the Indian Section of the Victoria & Albert Museum and 4 plates from the Museum. It contained the following:

I.        Astika Parva: Sarpasattra, Jaratkaru, Churning, Garuda, Amrita, Ruru. Vaisampayana begins narration of the history of Pandavas & Kauravas. Birth of Vyasa.

II.     Sambhava: Sakuntala, Yayati, Ashtaka, birth of Dhritarashtra, Pandu, Vidura, their sons; death of Pandu; Kurus’ jealousy of Pandavas. Birth of Drona. Kanika’s discourse.

III.  Jatugriha

IV.  Hidimva Parva; Chaitraratha; Swayamvara; Vaivahika (story of 5 Indras & Draupadi’s marriage); Rajya-labha parva; Arjuna vanavasa parva; Subhadra harana; Khandava dahana; Sabha; Rajasuya arambha; Sisupala; Dyuta, Anudyuta.

Nott provided a Glossary based on Dowson and Garrett’s dictionaries of Indian mythology. 

Of very great interest is the Appendix by Alfred Richard Orage who studied the M at the Gurdjieff’s Institute at Fontainebleau-Avon and his appreciation grew as he understood G’s system more. His magazine, The New Age, had provided a forum for modern poets like Ezra Pound, T.S.Eliot, Katherine Mansfield et.al. Here are Nott’s extracts from Orage’s writings in that magazine:

“The M is the greatest single effort of literary creation of any culture in human history…characters appear by hundreds; & episodes follow episodes with the infinite resourcefulness of Time. Nevertheless, there is no moment when the plan of the work is forgotten. At regular stages…everything is gathered together or is re-assembled for a fresh phase of the continuous history. In the interval, relationships have been established between scores of characters, each of whom, moreover, has undergone mutation by experience, yet on re-assembly, the whole innumerable caravan is marshalled and set off again without the least confusion in the mind of the reader. 

Never was a writer more currently aware of his reader than Vyasa the author…the most colossal work of literary art ever created, its example and inspiration are as vital and multiform as Time itself. It contains every literary form and device known to all the literary schools, every story ever enacted or narrated, every human type and circumstance ever created or encountered. Unlike the reading of derivative works of art, the reading of the M is a first-hand experience. One ends it differently, just as one emerges differently from everything real. The M towers over all subsequent literature as the pyramids look over the Memphian sands. Realism of the inexhaustible significance of the M would be the initiation of a modern Renaissance…Where but in the M shall our age find a …fresh literary source that shall be scripture to our literature—scripture being literature in pursuit of an impossible aim. It puts Homer into the shade; he is a marvellous boy in comparison with the marvellous manhood of Vyasa…

The three great treasuries of stories—the Greek, the Scandinavian and the Teutonic, were all derived from the East by diverse ways and the source and container of them all is—The Mahabharata…More real Mysticism can be gathered from the M than from the whole of modern mystical writings. A walk through its table of contents is more than a Sabbath day’s journey. The Iliad and the Odyssey are episodes in it; and the celebrated Bhagavat Gita is simply the record of a single conversation on the eve of one of its many battles… 

The Mahabharata is a complete encyclopaedia of human nature. There is no emotion, no conflict, no situation that is not represented in it. We should read the Mahabharata as a textbook of psychology, for it describes the forces that move us more accurately than any modern work."