Magadh Hardcover by Shrikant Verma

Product Details

• Publisher: Liveright (2026-05-05)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 144 pages
• ISBN-13: 9781324097686
• Item Weight: 277.83 grams
• Dimensions: 21.64 x 14.4 x 1.5 cm

“A masterpiece of twentieth-century Hindi poetry that reads as if it were written today.” —Devika Rege

Why are you silent, friends?

What’s happened in Magadh?

Magadh, Shrikant Verma’s masterpiece, takes its name from the ancient Indian kingdom of Magadh, which rose to prominence in the sixth to second centuries BCE. First published in Hindi in 1984, it 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 splendor, their decline and eventual fall. In poems that are stark and urgent yet richly allusive, Verma lays bare these kingdoms’ tales of corruption, guilt, ignorance, and arrogance.

Rahul Soni’s landmark translation, finally available in the United States, stays faithful to the spareness and the haunting, incantatory cadences of the original text, revealing how startlingly prescient Magadh remains today.

About the Author

Shrikant Verma (1931–1986) was an Indian poet and a member of Parliament from 1976 to 1986. He is the prize-winning author of twenty books.

Rahul Soni is a writer, editor, and translator. He has translated the work of Ashok Vajpeyi, Pankaj Kapur, and Geetanjali Shree, among others. He lives in India.