Review by Pradip Bhattacharya
Written over a period of six years, as claimed by the author who is head of the department of management studies, MDS University, Ajmer, it claims to \x{201C}demolish\x{201D} the western claim that management is America\x{2019}s contribution to civilisation. Khandelwal analyses each parva to list the concepts of self-management, communication skills, leadership qualities, staffing patterns, organisational behaviour, stress management and meditation. His finding is that if man is well managed, so will all else. The problem is that there are numerous errors in spelling, syntax, even in the names of characters, which is most irritating. The method of drawing up parva-wise lists of concepts is excessively tedious. One would have expected that the author would draw together all the elements he has analysed over 326 pages to present an integrated picture of man-management. Instead, the book ends abruptly with listing the causes of downfall from the Mahaprasthanik Parva, leaving it to the reader to make something out of the repetitive and often trite and invariably didactic text. Justice Kodandaramaya has done a far better job in his Message of the Mahabharata which takes the trouble of identifying the unifying thread that knits together the multiple episodes in this gargantuan epic. Khandelwal would have done well, as a management teacher, to consult the books and journals on Indian management concepts that are now available, particularly the works of Dr S.K. Chakraborty, the Journal of Human Values, the publications of the Management Centre of Human Values of IIM Calcutta, all of which integrate the concepts available in our ancient heritage into management teaching successfully.