The final form of Mahabharata consisted of 18 Books and one adittion named Harivamsham,

and contained 200 000 poem lines in total. So the translation of such a huge work was not an
easy thing to do.

The oldest known retelling of Mahabharata from Sanskrit is in Tamil, a book called “Bharatha
Venba”, written by Perunthevanar in probably 9th century CE. Some believe he belonged to 5th
century CE. At that time the temples were the main centres of education in India. Many
religious books were translated from sanskrit to tamil, kannada and telugu – those are so called
Dravidian languages, that are spoken in India till nowadays. So in 9-13 centuries Mahabharata
was first translated to these Dravidian languages:

In 9th centuary to Tamil (by Perunthevanar)

In 10th centuary to Kannada (by poet Pampa)

In 12-13th centuary to Telugu (by three poets Nannayya, Tikkana and Errapragada)/ Telugu was
created in 12th centuary as a mix of Sanscrit and Kannada.

Translations to regional languages (Bengali, Persian) was made a bit later in 15–16 centuries. It
may be surprising how the regional translations came much later, but which also points to how
Sanskrit remained pervasive until very recent times and did not require translations.

The first translation to English was made by Charles Wilkins, who translated the Book about the
Gita in 1785. It was the first time The Mahabharata was seen by western European reader.
Wilkinses translation caused a huge interest in all Western European countries and was
immediately retranslated into German.

The first complete English translation was created only in a late 19 th centuary by Kisari Mohan
Ganguli. He was a bengali sanskrit scholar. A team of scholars headed by him was the first one
to translate complete mahabharata into English. It took him over 10 years - the first volume of
Ganguli's translation was published in 1883, and the complete 12-volume set was published
between 1883 and 1896. Gangulis translation is still widely regarded as one of the most
comprehensive and accurate English translations of The Mahabharata, and it has been
reprinted many times since its initial publication.
More or less at the same time the other version of English translation of Mahabharata was
made. One of India’s greatest translator was Manmath Nath Dutt (Shastri) who translated
from Sanskrit to English (individually) and did much more than Kisari Mohan Ganguli during his
lifetime. Chronologically, he translated the Valmiki Ramayana (sequentially from 1892 to 1894),
several parts of Puranas and many others Sanscrit texts. Compared to Kisari Mohan Ganguli
(the translator of the Mahabharata), Manmatha Nath Dutt is considered much more prolific.

Both translations are being often compared. Most experts accept that both are accurate and
complete. However there are some evident differences.

Ganguli's translation Manmath Nath Dutt’s translation

is made in standard prose format translation is written in form of paragraphs,
enumerated accurately according to the
Sanskrit text, a verse by verse, which will give
a reader the true sense and format of
Mahabharata sloka structure

Takes Bombay edition of Mahabharata as a Takes Kalkutta edition of Mahabharata as a

source source

Both editions are written in an old English and are pretty hard to understand by a
modern reader.

Then in 1919 the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (or BORI took up the
project to compile a ‘Critical Edition’ of Mahabharata. This edition would be a
consolidation of all the available manuscripts, across all vernacular languages,
sourced from different states of India. It was a massive project, and many
scholars were involved in distilling the true Mahabharata, without the later
additions, regional interpolations, and other unnecessary factions. (The version
being referred to by most writers and scholars before this was called the Vulgate
edition and it was from the 17th century).

Finally, after five decades and ~1300 manuscripts later this critical edition of
Mahabharata was published in 1966.

There were not the last English translations of Mahabharata. Each new one adds
more and more conveniences to a reader, there is even a special edition for
women about women of Mahabharata. And there is probably a normal process
while the language continue changing so new versions of translation are needed.

As for Ukrainian language the first translations belong to Ivan Franko. Beginning
from 1875 he translated several chapters of Books 1, 3 4 and 6 of Mahabharata
basing on works of German translators Albert Hoefer and Franz Bopp. Unlike
English translations, composed in text paragraphs, Frankos translation is written
in a form of not rhymed poesy using iambic octameter (8мистопний ямб). These
translations of Mahabharata by Ivan Franko have introduced to Ukrainians rich
heritage of Indian culture and showed an alternative type of thinking and values,
used in Eastern cultures.

Other famous translations of Mahabharata was made directly from the Sanscrit
by Kharkov National University scholar Pavlo Ritter in 60s years, by Dmytro
Burba, Mykola Ilnitskiy nowadays and many others.

And only full Ukrainian translation of Mahabharata was made, basing on full
Russian translation made by Russian translators Kalyanov, Vasylkov and
Neveleva. The last part of Mahabharata Harivamsham was translated from
existing English and French translations.

There are several tv series of Mahabharata that are translated into Ukrainian.

Despite, numerous translations are still being made directly from the Sanscrit.
Perhaps one day we will have full Mahabharata translation from the original
texts.