It is hard enough for anyone other than a dedicated scholar to read all 18 cantos of the great epic Mahābhārata let alone the Rāmāyaṇa, Bhāgavata and the many Purāṇās as well. In view of this and particularly today's fast-paced life, this book presents the stories of characters from all the books of Hindu Mythology in a compact English version.

While reading a Telugu book titled 'Pūrva Gāthā Lahari', the author was surprised to discover many fascinating stories and substories even in books with which he was quite familiar. He was so impressed that he decided to make the stories accessible to a wider audience of Indians as well as the Indian diaspora by writing an English version based on the Telugu book. A few examples of surprising details will illustrate the point:

• Several great warriors on the Kaurava side in the Mahābhārata war were known to be invincible to anyone in the Pānḍava forces. The means of making the greatest of them, Bhīshma disarm himself was devised several lifetimes earlier in Brahma's court.

• The wife of Sage Atri was able to turn the Trimūrtis into infants, and another ordinary woman was able to stop the dawn of a new day due to the spiritual power from being Pativratas.

• Even Vishṇu was not immune from accountability for His actions, facing hardships in one incarnation from Ṣāpas given to Him in a previous incarnation.

Whether one is inclined to read the whole book as a nonfiction narrative or use it as a reference to check particular stories, there is much here to savour.