About the Book

WINNER OF THE 1987 SAHITYA AKADEMI AWARD
Magadh, Shrikant Verma’s masterpiece, was first published in Hindi in 1984 and is widely regarded as one of the most important works of modern Indian poetry.
A chorus of narrators – commoners, statesmen, nameless wanderers – pieces together the histories of ancient cities and kingdoms on the Indian subcontinent, their rise to splendour, their decline and eventual fall. In poems that are stark and urgent yet arch and richly allusive, Verma lays bare their tales of corruption, guilt, ignorance and arrogance.
Rahul Soni’s landmark translation stays faithful to the spareness and the haunting, incantatory cadences of the original, revealing how startlingly prescient and relevant Magadh remains even today.

About the Author

SHRIKANT VERMA (1931–86) was a central figure in the Nayi Kavita movement in Hindi literature. He published two collections of short fiction, a novel, a travelogue, literary interviews, essays and five collections of poetry, including Jalsaghar and Magadh. He won numerous awards for his writing, including the Sahitya Akademi Award for Magadh in 1987.

About the Translator

RAHUL SONI is a writer, editor and translator. His translations include a selection of Ashok Vajpeyi’s poetry, A Name for Every Leaf, Pankaj Kapur’s novella, Dopehri, and International Booker Prize winner Geetanjali Shree’s acclaimed novel, The Roof Beneath Their Feet.