One of the most significant plays of post-Independence India, Dharamvir Bharati’s Andha Yug takes place on the last day of the Great Mahabharata War. The once-beautiful city of Hastinapur is burning, the battlefield beyond the walls is piled with corpses, and the few survivors huddle together in grief and rage, blaming the destruction on their adversaries, divine capriciousness—anyone or anything except their own moral choices. Andha Yug explores our capacity for moral action, reconciliation, and goodness in times of atrocity and reveals what happens when individuals succumb to the cruelty and cynicism of a blind, dispirited age. Andha Yug is illustrated with paintings from a rare, single manuscript of the Razmnama (Book of War), dated to 1598–1599. Created during the reign (1556–1605) of the great Mughal emperor Akbar, the Razmnama is written in Persian, yet it is a translation of the Mahabharata, one of the great Indian epics of Hinduism. An essay by Yael Rice reveals the Indian, Persian, and European elements within the translations, as well as the diverse cultural character of the Mughal court of Akbar.

Translated by: Alok Bhalla