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Indian novelist Narayan has produced accessible English translations of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, the great Sanskrit epics. Drastic abridgment limits their scholarly use — the entire Bhagavid Gita section of the Mahabharata, for example, is condensed into a couple of paragraphs — but they preserve the central stories and characters. In the Mahabharata the five Pandava brothers (Yudhistira, Arjuna, Bhima, Nakula, and Sahadeva) struggle to obtain their inheritance, culminating in the great battle of Kurukshetra. The Ramayana centres on Rama, avatar of Vishnu, covering his marriage, the theft of his wife Sita by the demon-king Ravana, and the search and struggle to recover her. Both epics have a plethora of side stories, covering the adventures of the heroes in exile and the deeds of their supporters and opponents.