Welcome to the paperback trails - today we talk about a book released just under a week back. The 3rd part of the highly successful Ram-Chandra series by Amish Tripathi - Raavan The Enemy of Aryavarta. The book is Indian historical fiction / mythological fiction and is based upon the Indian epic The Ramayana and deals with the epic's antagonist Raavana.
Amish Tripathi rose to prominence with his bestselling Shiva trilogy which again dealt with Lord Shiva, a member of the trinity of the Hindu pantheon. The Shiva trilogy introduces us to the non-deity version of Shiva as a character of any fantasy adventure. The trilogy was a fresh take on re-writing Hindu myths and given how much we Indians like our stories, it was extremely well received. Post the Shiva trilogy, Amish dealt with Ramayana one of the two most important epics of India (the other being the Mahabharat). The Ram-Chandra series has had two books prior to this one and dealt with Rama and Sita respectively introducing us to their characters and their backstories. This one talks about Raavana, Ramayana's antagonist.
For those who don't know, here's a summary of the Ramayana for you. With that out of the way, let us begin with the 3 questions of What, Why and How.
Why did I pick up this book - Well this was a long-awaited book. I had read the first two parts and other works of Amish as well. In addition to this, I have always found Raavan to be a very interesting character and any literature which tries to explain Raavan or commentaries on his character automatically get on my TBR list
What was this book all about - The book comes in after the first two books (Rama - The Scion of Ikshavaku and Sita - The warrior princess of Mithila) and picks up slightly after where the first book began. We are introduced to a precocious young Raavan, son of Sage Vishrava and Kaikesi (in the texts Raavan's mother is from the Rakshas clan). Raavan shows an exceptional appetite for everything from knowledge to cruelty and we see a four-year-old Raavana trying to dissect a living hare to study its innards. Ravana stops his cruel experiments when he sees a Kanyakumari (a pre-pubescent girl believed to house the spirit of the primordial Mother Goddess) and upon her words "You're better, at least try" drops his knife. This meeting remains forever etched in her memory, with these words forever reverberating in his mind, and for good reason too as you would later see in the book. The usual elements of Amish's universe (from the first Shiva trilogy) are present here too. We are told Raavan is a naga (deformed) and bleeds from his navel outgrowth. This and the ever so precocious nature of Raavan is a source of constant friction between him and his father. Kaikesi's second child is also a born a naga with a hand like outgrowths and Raavan along with this newborn brother, his mother and his uncle Mareech is forced to flee from their home since the sage's disciples were under strict orders to kill the baby if it was born a naga. Out in the world Raavan steps up to take care of his family and using his sharp intellect and grit makes a name for himself in the smuggling world. By his teenage years end, Raavan, we are told becomes a famous pirate and smuggler. The story progresses and we are introduced to a grown Kumbhakaran (the naga brother Raavan had fleed along with) Akampana, Vibhishana and a host of other characters. The book merges with the first book of the Ram Chandra Series and we see the iconic parlance between King Dashrath and Raavan (now the chief battle commander for the Lankan Army). The battle that ensues results in an emphatic win for Raavan and his suzerainty over the Indian subcontinent.
Later the book then merges with the second book where we see Raavan's failed attack at Mithila after he is not allowed to compete for Sita's hand and the ambush that follows. Raavan's army is decimated after Rama (who wins Sita's hand) fires a Daivi Astra (divine and prohibited weapon). Raavan is forced to retreat and sufferers losses both in terms of his army and Kumbhakaran who gets seriously injured. Many years pass and back at Ayodhya Rama is exiled for his unsolicited use of the divine weapon. During this exile, Raavan kidnaps Sita under the pretext of taking revenge for Laxman injuring his step sister Shurpnakha. The real reason for Raavan to kidnap Sita is, however, a little more nuanced and I'll leave that for you to find out yourself. The book connects Sita to Raavan's one object of absolute worship leaving us a great cliffhanger and setting the pace for future books.
How was this book to read - Purists have often criticised Amish for oversimplifying or dumbing down mythology making his books a vapid read. I for one, don't feel that way at all. I feel his way of re-telling myths from our pasts have really helped the youth connect to the ancient stories and the values they tried to emote. Further his style of writing ensures that his books are a quick and effective read. The elements of surprise, despair, happiness etc all which Amish's characters show, make them more relatable to the present-day readers. For instance, Amish through a conversation between Raavan and Kumbhakaran presented his views on the issue of menstruating girls entering the temple of Sabarimala, which as we know a social issue being hotly debated recently in India. Coming back to the book, there are a lot of liberties which Amish has taken while developing his version of Raavan and most of them are tangential to what the texts talk about. But given the open-ended nature of our mythologies, there is all the space for personal interpretations. Further, the book is not a retelling of Ramanayan per se as much as it is a fictionalised account built around the Ramayana. So the Raavana of Valmiki or Tulsidas is pretty different from Amish's Raavan but that's what makes the book a fresh read I had a great time reading the book and if you like reading about Indian myths then you should definitely check Amish's work out.
You might not like this book - If you are reading it to understand the text. Amish's work remains as an all-out fiction. If you are picking up this book and expecting textual veracity and commentaries on Raavan's character then I would suggest you pick up works of mythologists like Devdutt Patnaik. The book is Amish's take on the character of Raavan and while the characters and their backstories have similar themes as the original texts, the details have been changed quite a lot to fit into the larger narrative of Tripathi's literary universe.
If you are looking for more such books - You should check out the works of Ashwin Sanghi and Anand Neelkantan. These are two authors who have been doing a great job taking Indian myths and stories and re-telling them with new perspectives and insights which make them all the more relatable and fun to read.
Hope you will have as much fun journeying through the various conflicts and contradictions of this very human character, the brilliant Raavan whose imperfections got the better of him like they do for so many of us. Until then keep reading, keep recommending and keep sharing for more the passengers in the paperback trail the more the fun.
For those who don't know, here's a summary of the Ramayana for you. With that out of the way, let us begin with the 3 questions of What, Why and How.
Why did I pick up this book - Well this was a long-awaited book. I had read the first two parts and other works of Amish as well. In addition to this, I have always found Raavan to be a very interesting character and any literature which tries to explain Raavan or commentaries on his character automatically get on my TBR list
What was this book all about - The book comes in after the first two books (Rama - The Scion of Ikshavaku and Sita - The warrior princess of Mithila) and picks up slightly after where the first book began. We are introduced to a precocious young Raavan, son of Sage Vishrava and Kaikesi (in the texts Raavan's mother is from the Rakshas clan). Raavan shows an exceptional appetite for everything from knowledge to cruelty and we see a four-year-old Raavana trying to dissect a living hare to study its innards. Ravana stops his cruel experiments when he sees a Kanyakumari (a pre-pubescent girl believed to house the spirit of the primordial Mother Goddess) and upon her words "You're better, at least try" drops his knife. This meeting remains forever etched in her memory, with these words forever reverberating in his mind, and for good reason too as you would later see in the book. The usual elements of Amish's universe (from the first Shiva trilogy) are present here too. We are told Raavan is a naga (deformed) and bleeds from his navel outgrowth. This and the ever so precocious nature of Raavan is a source of constant friction between him and his father. Kaikesi's second child is also a born a naga with a hand like outgrowths and Raavan along with this newborn brother, his mother and his uncle Mareech is forced to flee from their home since the sage's disciples were under strict orders to kill the baby if it was born a naga. Out in the world Raavan steps up to take care of his family and using his sharp intellect and grit makes a name for himself in the smuggling world. By his teenage years end, Raavan, we are told becomes a famous pirate and smuggler. The story progresses and we are introduced to a grown Kumbhakaran (the naga brother Raavan had fleed along with) Akampana, Vibhishana and a host of other characters. The book merges with the first book of the Ram Chandra Series and we see the iconic parlance between King Dashrath and Raavan (now the chief battle commander for the Lankan Army). The battle that ensues results in an emphatic win for Raavan and his suzerainty over the Indian subcontinent.
Later the book then merges with the second book where we see Raavan's failed attack at Mithila after he is not allowed to compete for Sita's hand and the ambush that follows. Raavan's army is decimated after Rama (who wins Sita's hand) fires a Daivi Astra (divine and prohibited weapon). Raavan is forced to retreat and sufferers losses both in terms of his army and Kumbhakaran who gets seriously injured. Many years pass and back at Ayodhya Rama is exiled for his unsolicited use of the divine weapon. During this exile, Raavan kidnaps Sita under the pretext of taking revenge for Laxman injuring his step sister Shurpnakha. The real reason for Raavan to kidnap Sita is, however, a little more nuanced and I'll leave that for you to find out yourself. The book connects Sita to Raavan's one object of absolute worship leaving us a great cliffhanger and setting the pace for future books.
How was this book to read - Purists have often criticised Amish for oversimplifying or dumbing down mythology making his books a vapid read. I for one, don't feel that way at all. I feel his way of re-telling myths from our pasts have really helped the youth connect to the ancient stories and the values they tried to emote. Further his style of writing ensures that his books are a quick and effective read. The elements of surprise, despair, happiness etc all which Amish's characters show, make them more relatable to the present-day readers. For instance, Amish through a conversation between Raavan and Kumbhakaran presented his views on the issue of menstruating girls entering the temple of Sabarimala, which as we know a social issue being hotly debated recently in India. Coming back to the book, there are a lot of liberties which Amish has taken while developing his version of Raavan and most of them are tangential to what the texts talk about. But given the open-ended nature of our mythologies, there is all the space for personal interpretations. Further, the book is not a retelling of Ramanayan per se as much as it is a fictionalised account built around the Ramayana. So the Raavana of Valmiki or Tulsidas is pretty different from Amish's Raavan but that's what makes the book a fresh read I had a great time reading the book and if you like reading about Indian myths then you should definitely check Amish's work out.
You might not like this book - If you are reading it to understand the text. Amish's work remains as an all-out fiction. If you are picking up this book and expecting textual veracity and commentaries on Raavan's character then I would suggest you pick up works of mythologists like Devdutt Patnaik. The book is Amish's take on the character of Raavan and while the characters and their backstories have similar themes as the original texts, the details have been changed quite a lot to fit into the larger narrative of Tripathi's literary universe.
If you are looking for more such books - You should check out the works of Ashwin Sanghi and Anand Neelkantan. These are two authors who have been doing a great job taking Indian myths and stories and re-telling them with new perspectives and insights which make them all the more relatable and fun to read.
Hope you will have as much fun journeying through the various conflicts and contradictions of this very human character, the brilliant Raavan whose imperfections got the better of him like they do for so many of us. Until then keep reading, keep recommending and keep sharing for more the passengers in the paperback trail the more the fun.
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