GORAKHPUR: After the much popular
Urdu version, Gorakhpur-based Gita
Press is set to come out with the Telugu version of the Mahabharata. The Telugu version is expected to arrive in the market in next two weeks.
Gita Press is the world's largest Hindu religion books press and has published 1,800 types of books in 15 languages.
"A few years ago, two persons had voluntarily translated the Mahabharata into Telugu, but owing to excess work load we were not able to publish it. Now the press is ready to publish it. The Telugu version will have seven 'khand' (parts) and each will be a separate books. Initially, we are printing 800 copies and they will be in the market in 15 days," said production manager, Gita Press, Lalmani Tripathi.
Giving more details, Tripathi said, "We will publish 2,000 copies of each khand; so overall 14,000 copies would be printed. The price of each khand will be Rs 400 and the price of total 7 khand will be Rs 2,800. Each part will have 8 photographs based on the stories described in the book." Asked if there was a demand for the epic's Telugu version, Tripathi said, "We don't publish books keeping in view of their demand. We are conserving our great books. The aim is to make books available to people at lowest prices."
In 1955,
Gita Press had published the Mahabharata in Hindi in 6 khand and since then more than four lakh copies of it have been published. The press has also uploaded 50 books in various languages on its official website and plans are afoot to upload more books.
Representative image