Yugandhar by Shivaji Sawant - "Conqueror of Yugas"

This was not a book that I would have picked up, not for anything but the fact that Krishna's story is etched in my brain from the age of two. I know all versions and ages - baby, child, teen, adult etc. My grandfather was quite thorough. Mr. Sawant's book intrigued me because it was translated from Marathi by his daughter and the back cover promised a new perspective. Out of the 6 books I bought that day, this was what I reached out to first.

The language was jagged, thought it was a matter of getting used to, but I never did till the end. It was a literal translation, tough for me. I have read enough (lately) translations to know that I cannot read literal translations. My need is the translator's words and the author's direction and essence. Which I realise is rare. Is it that the translator is told not to step away from the author's word or is that what they are comfortable with the most? I don't know. The book is fabulous in Marathi is what I hear, I am actively looking for someone who has read it, so I can pick their brain a bit.

The book itself is written from multiple perspectives including Krishna's, Draupadi's, Arjuna's and people I have never heard of like Uddhava (Krishna's brother) and a few more. This was lovely actually. And many, many tinier stories came into my basket of Krishna's life map, which was unexpected.

The bit that blew my mind was the number of names that was introduced in the book, people, family, kingdoms, places, rivers, mountains etc. It would have been fantastic to put it all together in a map of sorts for places and people as the same place or person was called differently in different parts of the story by different people. Totally confusing. I managed to simplify it a bit for myself, it still needs another round of versioning.