Virata Parva, also known as the “Book of Virata”, is the fourth of eighteen books of the Indian EpicMahabharata. Virata Parva traditionally has 4 sub-books and 72 chapters. The critical edition of Virata Parva has 4 sub-books and 67 chapters. It discusses the 13th year of exile which the Pandavas must spend incognito to avoid another 12 years of exile in the forest. They do so in the court of Virata. They assume a variety of concealed identities. Yudhishthira assumes the identity of game entertainer to the king and calls himself Kanka, Bhima of a cook Ballava, Arjuna teaches dance and music as eunuch Brihannala and dresses as a woman, Nakula tends horses as Granthika, Sahadeva herds cows as Tantipala, and Draupadi in the name of Malini went as Sairandhri to queen Shudeshna.
Structure and chapters
This book traditionally has 4 sub-parvas and 72 adhyayas. The following are the sub-parvas: , defeats the attack by the army of Kuru brothers. He returns to his capital with wealth and cows that were looted from Matsya kingdom. This story is recited in Go-grahana sub-book of Virata Parva.
English translations
Several translations of the Sanskrit book Virata Parva in English are available. Two translations from 19th century, now in public domain, are those by Kisari Mohan Ganguli and Manmatha Nath Dutt. The translations vary with each translator's interpretations. J. A. B. van Buitenen completed an annotated edition of Virata Parva, based on critically edited and least corrupted version of Mahabharata known in 1975. Debroy, in 2011, notes that updated critical edition of Virata Parva, with spurious and corrupted text removed, has 4 sub-books, 67 adhyayas and 1,736 shlokas. Debroy's translation of a critical edition of Virata Parva appears in Volume 4 of his series. Clay Sanskrit Library has published a 15volume set of the Mahabharata which includes a translation of Virata Parva by Kathleen Garbutt. This translation is modern and uses an old manuscript of the Epic. The translation does not remove verses and chapters now widely believed to be spurious and smuggled into the Epic in 1st or 2nd millennium AD.
