Hey Helen
Assuming that it was perhaps the Peter Hall version you saw - about nine or ten hours long, with Mrinalini Sarabhai (??) in the role of Draupadi?
Never got to see it myself, but heard it was very good. As an alternative, a truly awful version screened on Indian television in the early '90s - exploitative (of Indian reverence for the work), shoddily made, badly acted, and in general more like a sub-Bollywood film than a respectful, creative or original rendition of one of the world's major literary artefacts. Many more than 10 hours long - runs to tens and twenties of video cassettes (every pious Hindu must have a full set!)...
The original, as with all the 'old' Indian classics, is in Sanskrit.
And, oh yes, the old Hindu texts are often given the collective title the 'Puranas' - meaning the old ones.
cheer
the sunshine warrior
