This book offers a new way of interpreting contemporary Indian fiction, by analysing Shashi TharoorÆs The Great Indian Novel (I989). Unlike most readings of postcolonial narratives which tend to be articulated in dialogue with postmodern and potentially Eurocentric notions such as historiographic metafiction or the re-writing of the "classics", this book discusses The Great Indian Novel in terms of its rich pre-colonial and pre-modern heritage. Thus, The Great Indian Novel is read here in dialogue with a long South Asian tradition of playful retellings of the Mahabharata and Ramayana cycles.