yayati

A story of desire and greed, Yayati's story is a chapter from the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Purana. V. S. Khandekar's rendition of the story into Marathi is a masterful translation and captures the magic and mythology of the great Indian classics.

Summary of the Book

The Puranic king Yayati once came across a beautiful woman in a dry well. Saving her from the well, he found her irresistible and fell in love with her. When he went to seek her hand in marriage however, he found her to be arrogant and heartless, although the daughter of the mighty sage Shukracharya. Doomed to marry her to appease the sage, Yayati instead becomes spellbound by her maidservant, Sharmishta, daughter of the great Asura king Vrushaparva. The story of their relationship and forbidden love is one of what love can do to a blind soul. When Sukracharya discovers their sin, he curses Yayati to eternal doom. One that only one of his beloved sons can redeem him from. If they're willing to take his place, of course. This is the story of the ancestor of the Kuru and Yadava races, and a story out of the Bhagavad Purana and the Mahabharata.

About V. S. Khandekar

Vishnu Sakharam Khandekar was a Marathi writer, Television screenwriter and scholar. He was the first Marathi writer to win the prestigious Jnanpith Award.

He has written several other books which have entered the pantheon of Marathi classics, including: Don Mane, Abhishek, Davbindu and Shitijsparsh. Several of his novels have been adapted into classical Hindi, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu movies. One notable movie is Dharma Patni which launched the careers of Telugu producer Alur Chakrapani and veteran actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao.