This is always a confusing question for sincere readers as to which Mahabharata and Ramayana to read out of the multitude of options available in the market?
When I wanted to start with these two great texts I too had this confusion. Being aware that there have been many adulterations in both these texts and it is very difficult to conclude which is the right one.
I took help from a few of my mentors to suggest the best one. Many of them agreed that over thousand of years there has been so many prakshep (adulterations) in both these texts that even the most trusted and researched authored book cannot be expected to be 100% correct.
Since both these texts are huge, reading them is a time consuming task and I wished to spend my time on the near correct one. Here are the shortlisted ones which were suggested more often.
‘Mahabharatam‘ book by Swami Jagadishwaranand Saraswati
Language – Hindi
Purchase link – https://amzn.to/3MHPERX
‘Valmiki Ramayan‘ book by Swami Jagadhishwaranand Saraswati
Language – Hindi
Purchase link – https://amzn.to/3q1x5OR
Update: I completed Ramayana and Mahabharata and both the books are fabulous. Shlokas are nicely printed and translated into Hindi. Several foot over notes are added detailing the concepts and points. Highly recommended.
