A modern classic of Indian poetry?now available to American readers for the first time.

First published in 1984, Shrikant Verma's masterpiece takes its name from the ancient Indian kingdom of Magadh, which rose to prominence between the sixth to the second century BCE. Narrated by a chorus of speakers?commoners, statesmen, and wanderers?these fifty-six poems piece together the history of Magadh and other long-forgotten kingdoms of the Indian subcontinent, their rise to power, and their eventual fall. These stark and haunting poems, eloquently translated from Hindi by Rahul Soni, lay bare all-too-familiar tales of guilt, ignorance, and arrogance. This landmark edition, finally available in the United States, vibrates with the unsettling force of cultural memory and contemporary relevance.

Winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award

?In Magadh, [Verma's] collection of verse, excellently translated, we can see, eerily prefigured, our own present: the grand illusions, the raucous vanity, the chronic self-doubt and ultimate fragility of power.??Pankaj Mishra