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Asura: Tale Of The Vanquished, The Story of Ravana and His People
The epic tale of victory and defeat…
The story of the Ramayana had been told innumerable times.
The enthralling story of Rama, the incarnation of God, who slew Ravana, the evil demon of darkness, is known to every Indian. And in the pages of history, as always, it is the version told by the victors that lives on. The voice of the vanquished remains lost in silence. But what if Ravana and his people had a different story to tell?
The story of the Ravanayana has never been told.
Asura is the epic tale of the vanquished Asura people, a story that has been cherished by the oppressed castes of India for 3000 years. Until now, no Asura has dared to tell the tale. But perhaps the time has come for the dead and the defeated to speak.
“For thousands of years, I have been vilified and my death is celebrated year after year in every corner of India. Why? Was it because I challenged the Gods for the sake of my daughter? Was it because I freed a race from the yoke of caste-based Deva rule? You have heard the victor’s tale, the Ramayana. Now hear the Ravanayana, for I am Ravana, the Asura, and my story is the tale of the vanquished."
“I am a non-entity – invisible, powerless and negligible. No epics will ever be written about me. I have suffered both Ravana and Rama – the hero and the villain or the villain and the hero. When the stories of great men are told, my voice maybe too feeble to be heard. Yet, spare me a moment and hear my story, for I am Bhadra, the Asura, and my life is the tale of the loser.”
The ancient Asura empire lay shattered into many warring petty kingdoms reeling under the heel of the Devas. In desperation, the Asuras look up to a young saviour – Ravana. Believing that a better world awaits them under Ravana, common men like Bhadra decide to follow the young leader. With a will of iron and a fiery ambition to succeed, Ravana leads his people from victory to victory and carves out a vast empire from the Devas. But even when Ravana succeeds spectacularly, the poor Asuras find that nothing much has changed from them. It is then that Ravana, by one action, changes the history of the world.
The story of the Ramayana had been told innumerable times.
The enthralling story of Rama, the incarnation of God, who slew Ravana, the evil demon of darkness, is known to every Indian. And in the pages of history, as always, it is the version told by the victors that lives on. The voice of the vanquished remains lost in silence. But what if Ravana and his people had a different story to tell?
The story of the Ravanayana has never been told.
Asura is the epic tale of the vanquished Asura people, a story that has been cherished by the oppressed castes of India for 3000 years. Until now, no Asura has dared to tell the tale. But perhaps the time has come for the dead and the defeated to speak.
“For thousands of years, I have been vilified and my death is celebrated year after year in every corner of India. Why? Was it because I challenged the Gods for the sake of my daughter? Was it because I freed a race from the yoke of caste-based Deva rule? You have heard the victor’s tale, the Ramayana. Now hear the Ravanayana, for I am Ravana, the Asura, and my story is the tale of the vanquished."
“I am a non-entity – invisible, powerless and negligible. No epics will ever be written about me. I have suffered both Ravana and Rama – the hero and the villain or the villain and the hero. When the stories of great men are told, my voice maybe too feeble to be heard. Yet, spare me a moment and hear my story, for I am Bhadra, the Asura, and my life is the tale of the loser.”
The ancient Asura empire lay shattered into many warring petty kingdoms reeling under the heel of the Devas. In desperation, the Asuras look up to a young saviour – Ravana. Believing that a better world awaits them under Ravana, common men like Bhadra decide to follow the young leader. With a will of iron and a fiery ambition to succeed, Ravana leads his people from victory to victory and carves out a vast empire from the Devas. But even when Ravana succeeds spectacularly, the poor Asuras find that nothing much has changed from them. It is then that Ravana, by one action, changes the history of the world.
504 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
About the author
Anand Neelakantan
27 books1,707 followersAnand Neelakantan is an Indian author, columnist, screenwriter, and public speaker. He is known for writing mythological fictions and has authored ten books in English and one in Malayalam. He follows the style of telling stories based on the perspective of the antagonists or supporting characters of a larger work. His debut work Asura: Tale of the Vanquished (2012) was based on the Indian epic Ramayana, told from the perspective of Ravana—the first book in his Ramayana series. It was followed by series of books based on characters from Mahabharata and Baahubali. His books have been translated to different languages such as Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali , Gujarati, Assamese, English and Indonesian Bahasa.
Anand's Asura is one of the 100 books to be read in a life time as per Amazon.[1] The book has sold more than half a million copies across the years. Three of his books have been shortlisted for Crossword Book Award during the respective years. He was listed as one among the "100 top celebrities in India" in 2015 and 2017 by Forbes India. Anand also writes a column for The New Indian Express on current affairs and his fortnightly column is called "Acute Angle".
Anand's Asura is one of the 100 books to be read in a life time as per Amazon.[1] The book has sold more than half a million copies across the years. Three of his books have been shortlisted for Crossword Book Award during the respective years. He was listed as one among the "100 top celebrities in India" in 2015 and 2017 by Forbes India. Anand also writes a column for The New Indian Express on current affairs and his fortnightly column is called "Acute Angle".
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,518 reviews
September 29, 2017
How to Define Dangerous Books
Sometimes the only force that can take you through tabductso the end of a book this bad is the sweet thought of revenge: of how you are so going to maul the author in your review once the book is done and dusted.
This is a book that is so painfully badly written (500+ pages of tripe!) that ordinarily it should not merit much thought, but the fact that it tells a story that so many would want to hear, and might believe too easily, makes it dangerous nevertheless, and worth discrediting.
Also, the idea of giving voice to the victims, of inverting the historical bias of “history is written by the victors” is quite interesting. This was the reason I could not resist picking up the book.
Written through a distorted prism of historical victimization, this book is simplistic beyond imagination, is replete with misprisions, and makes no attempt either to capture the poetry of the original epic or show any sort of fidelity to its philosophy. Instead it mangles every aspect of it.
The author is clearly a Dravidian fanatic and tries every angle to work his fever-pitch hatred into the epic and its ‘historical atrocities’.
In effect, the author wants to fan the North-South Divide (the Aryan Vs Dravidian political flame) and the caste divide, and is extremely vitriolic in his language throughout. The hatred is obvious in every page.
The two main threads running through this atrocious and fanatical novel are:
1. Hate the North Indians, they brought all evils into society.
2. Our only weakness is our lack of unity, let us band together, Brothers, we are the original rulers of India before these intruders came into our lands.
The basic thesis is this:
India was originally ruled by the Asura kings and Tamil was their language and it was high culture and complete equality and what not - a la Mahabali’s paradise - celebrated through the Onam festival of Kerala - the book assumes that fable to be the default condition of India. In a classic nostalgic narrative, this Mahabali’s India is evoked throughout as the Golden Age of India. According to the author, then the ‘Aryan Invaders', a bunch of uncouth barbarians came and overthrew the Asura kings (all due to their own lack of unity) and established an uncultured primitive society throughout India. Yes, the barbarians not only won every war but they conquered the whole of the sub-continent - and this is in spite of the fact that the Asuras were so advanced in technology that they even had flying chariots (the Pushpaka Vimana) and stuff. Go figure.
Then the main narrative takes over - Ravana, an ambitious youth, rebuilds some semblance of the original glory of the Asura’s and eventually starts capturing back the mainland from his base off it - in Sri Lanka. During one of his conquests, he fathers a girl child who was abandoned and then adopted by the king of Mithila - yep, Sita is Ravana’s daughter in this narrative - can’t have the good guy indulging in random abductions, can we?
Then Ravan watches with great sadness as Sita marries Rama later in life and decides one day that her life with Rama will never be really cool and abducts her - in her own best interests, mind you - because the Aryan society mistreats women and Ravana doesn’t want that for his daughter. So in keeping with the high moral principles of the Asuras, he kidnaps her and keeps her captive against her will - way to treat them equal, eh?
Rama launches an attack and as usual (but not before Lakshman disfigures and rapes Ravana’s sister, provoking the now pacifist Asura king), the lack of unity is the undoing of the Asuras - Ravana’s own brother plots to dethrone him.
Eventually Rama triumphs and then institutes the caste system, Sati system and every known evil - all dictated by the Brahmans. India degenerates into all sorts of chaos and loses her position as a moral force and a political force in the world. The dark ages descend and Rama was the initiator, Ravana was the last hope for the Tamils - the golden age was lost forever.
Now the funny thing is that the whole novel is written at a time when the whole Aryan Invasion theory has been thrown out of the window, more or less. It was part of the ‘divide & rule’ policy and this author wants to bring back those heydays of old. It is politically motivated twisting of facts. There is hardly any justification for the inventions that the author has indulged himself in.
Facts:
1. Ravana’s father was Visravas - Ravana was an aryan himself in all likelihood. (+ He is known to have followed the Vedic rituals that are so derided in this book - and technically that was the criteria for Aryanhood, just as Vibhishan in this book does)
2. Ravana was a North Indian himself too, before traveling down south and capturing the kingdom that belonged to Kubera (who is himself supposed to be Ravana’s brother - an earlier wave then?). So if anything, he must have been one branch of the Aryan Invasion that spread across India (as per that theory)
3. Dark skin is not a characteristic of Non-Aryan, nor is white skin a characteristic of Aryan:
- Rama was himself dark-skinned.
- So was Krishna, later (and Arjuna, for good measure).
- So was Vishnu himself, the supposed god of the ‘white-skinned’ Aryan race (btw, Shivites Vs Vishnavites is another virulent theme of this book - Vishnu worshipers are shown as the uncouth Aryan stock while Shiva worshippers are the Dravidian stock, according to the author.)
4. Sita is Ravana’s daughter purely because she is dark-skinned? By that logic, Rama too could have been an Asura prince? What, if any, racial conflict is the Ramayana supposed to portray then?
5. Plenty of Rakshasas were fair skinned and hence cannot be a simplistic racial characterization.
6. Dravidians are not always dark-skinned - stereotypes are for idiots, surely?
7. Recent genetic studies have shown the racial stocks to be hopelessly intermingled throughout India and gives no evidence of any distinct racial divide between North and the South.
8. Except for the language, not much divides the so called Aryan and Dravidian culturally, genetically, religiously or historically. Even the linguistic divide shows the potential for being bridged as a common ancestor for proto-Tamil and Sanskrit is investigated.
9. One more thing, the book boasts of being 'Ravanayana.' The name 'Ramayana' is formed from 'Rama' and 'ayana', translating to "Rama's Journey," not "Rama's Story." Shows the level of knowledge that was brought into this 'rewriting' of Ravana's (and his people's) story.
A Note to the Readers
Dear Readers, the author is clearly misguided and the book is clearly a fanatic’s attempt to rekindle old hatreds. Please do not take it literally. Take it as an inventive, if extremely badly written, exercise in reversing the so called historical bias of victors, and leave it at that. It merits no historical discussion, and is definitely of no political relevance.
This book is a blatant attempt to fan anti-brahminism, North-Indian hatred, and basically blame every ill of society on this ‘historical injustice’. It does have a call for caste-solidarity, but even that is not a noble call, considering that it is caste and not class that is being called to unite.
For me, the scary thing about this is that such sentiments are already high in many cities. So many North Indian friends of mine complain about the increasing xenophobia towards them in South India, even in metropolitan cities like Bangalore. Speaking in Hindi in Chennai is a sure fire way of being discriminated against. Similarly, the North Indian cities too are treating the South Indians in a derogatory manner and treating them as encroachers.
The stereotypes that are popular about ‘Tam-Brahms’, ‘Mallu accent’, ‘the gali-speaking Delhiite’, ‘chinkis’, ‘Yuck, South Indian idli-dosa??’, ‘the uncouth Bihari’ etc., are all manifestations of this. Not to mention the crudeness of delusional movies like Chennai Express: Ayyo, Rama, what’s aappening?
This mutual alienation is very dangerous and could easily be the cause for major riots in our densely packed cities. This sort of fanatical historical narratives only add fuel to this fire and should not be encouraged.
Instead of banning books that ‘offend’ religious and racial sentiments, we should be more careful of such works which provoke those sentiments and tries to convert them into blind hatred. Those are the dangerous ones.
Links:
Come south, young man, but here be dragons
The Great North-South debate rages
Labels and stereotypes - Do the roots of racism lie in the stereotypes we create?
Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines - would be a nice corrective (as a modern, opposing conspiracy theory, but perhaps closer to the mark).
Sometimes the only force that can take you through tabductso the end of a book this bad is the sweet thought of revenge: of how you are so going to maul the author in your review once the book is done and dusted.
This is a book that is so painfully badly written (500+ pages of tripe!) that ordinarily it should not merit much thought, but the fact that it tells a story that so many would want to hear, and might believe too easily, makes it dangerous nevertheless, and worth discrediting.
Also, the idea of giving voice to the victims, of inverting the historical bias of “history is written by the victors” is quite interesting. This was the reason I could not resist picking up the book.
The Tale Of The Vanquished: The story of the Ravanayana has never been told. Asura is the epic tale of the vanquished Asura people, a story that has been cherished by the oppressed castes of India for 3000 years. Until now, no Asura has dared to tell the tale. But perhaps the time has come for the dead and the defeated to speak.
Written through a distorted prism of historical victimization, this book is simplistic beyond imagination, is replete with misprisions, and makes no attempt either to capture the poetry of the original epic or show any sort of fidelity to its philosophy. Instead it mangles every aspect of it.
The author is clearly a Dravidian fanatic and tries every angle to work his fever-pitch hatred into the epic and its ‘historical atrocities’.
In effect, the author wants to fan the North-South Divide (the Aryan Vs Dravidian political flame) and the caste divide, and is extremely vitriolic in his language throughout. The hatred is obvious in every page.
The two main threads running through this atrocious and fanatical novel are:
1. Hate the North Indians, they brought all evils into society.
2. Our only weakness is our lack of unity, let us band together, Brothers, we are the original rulers of India before these intruders came into our lands.
The basic thesis is this:
India was originally ruled by the Asura kings and Tamil was their language and it was high culture and complete equality and what not - a la Mahabali’s paradise - celebrated through the Onam festival of Kerala - the book assumes that fable to be the default condition of India. In a classic nostalgic narrative, this Mahabali’s India is evoked throughout as the Golden Age of India. According to the author, then the ‘Aryan Invaders', a bunch of uncouth barbarians came and overthrew the Asura kings (all due to their own lack of unity) and established an uncultured primitive society throughout India. Yes, the barbarians not only won every war but they conquered the whole of the sub-continent - and this is in spite of the fact that the Asuras were so advanced in technology that they even had flying chariots (the Pushpaka Vimana) and stuff. Go figure.
Then the main narrative takes over - Ravana, an ambitious youth, rebuilds some semblance of the original glory of the Asura’s and eventually starts capturing back the mainland from his base off it - in Sri Lanka. During one of his conquests, he fathers a girl child who was abandoned and then adopted by the king of Mithila - yep, Sita is Ravana’s daughter in this narrative - can’t have the good guy indulging in random abductions, can we?
Then Ravan watches with great sadness as Sita marries Rama later in life and decides one day that her life with Rama will never be really cool and abducts her - in her own best interests, mind you - because the Aryan society mistreats women and Ravana doesn’t want that for his daughter. So in keeping with the high moral principles of the Asuras, he kidnaps her and keeps her captive against her will - way to treat them equal, eh?
Rama launches an attack and as usual (but not before Lakshman disfigures and rapes Ravana’s sister, provoking the now pacifist Asura king), the lack of unity is the undoing of the Asuras - Ravana’s own brother plots to dethrone him.
Eventually Rama triumphs and then institutes the caste system, Sati system and every known evil - all dictated by the Brahmans. India degenerates into all sorts of chaos and loses her position as a moral force and a political force in the world. The dark ages descend and Rama was the initiator, Ravana was the last hope for the Tamils - the golden age was lost forever.
Now the funny thing is that the whole novel is written at a time when the whole Aryan Invasion theory has been thrown out of the window, more or less. It was part of the ‘divide & rule’ policy and this author wants to bring back those heydays of old. It is politically motivated twisting of facts. There is hardly any justification for the inventions that the author has indulged himself in.
Facts:
1. Ravana’s father was Visravas - Ravana was an aryan himself in all likelihood. (+ He is known to have followed the Vedic rituals that are so derided in this book - and technically that was the criteria for Aryanhood, just as Vibhishan in this book does)
2. Ravana was a North Indian himself too, before traveling down south and capturing the kingdom that belonged to Kubera (who is himself supposed to be Ravana’s brother - an earlier wave then?). So if anything, he must have been one branch of the Aryan Invasion that spread across India (as per that theory)
3. Dark skin is not a characteristic of Non-Aryan, nor is white skin a characteristic of Aryan:
- Rama was himself dark-skinned.
- So was Krishna, later (and Arjuna, for good measure).
- So was Vishnu himself, the supposed god of the ‘white-skinned’ Aryan race (btw, Shivites Vs Vishnavites is another virulent theme of this book - Vishnu worshipers are shown as the uncouth Aryan stock while Shiva worshippers are the Dravidian stock, according to the author.)
4. Sita is Ravana’s daughter purely because she is dark-skinned? By that logic, Rama too could have been an Asura prince? What, if any, racial conflict is the Ramayana supposed to portray then?
5. Plenty of Rakshasas were fair skinned and hence cannot be a simplistic racial characterization.
6. Dravidians are not always dark-skinned - stereotypes are for idiots, surely?
7. Recent genetic studies have shown the racial stocks to be hopelessly intermingled throughout India and gives no evidence of any distinct racial divide between North and the South.
8. Except for the language, not much divides the so called Aryan and Dravidian culturally, genetically, religiously or historically. Even the linguistic divide shows the potential for being bridged as a common ancestor for proto-Tamil and Sanskrit is investigated.
9. One more thing, the book boasts of being 'Ravanayana.' The name 'Ramayana' is formed from 'Rama' and 'ayana', translating to "Rama's Journey," not "Rama's Story." Shows the level of knowledge that was brought into this 'rewriting' of Ravana's (and his people's) story.
A Note to the Readers
Dear Readers, the author is clearly misguided and the book is clearly a fanatic’s attempt to rekindle old hatreds. Please do not take it literally. Take it as an inventive, if extremely badly written, exercise in reversing the so called historical bias of victors, and leave it at that. It merits no historical discussion, and is definitely of no political relevance.
This book is a blatant attempt to fan anti-brahminism, North-Indian hatred, and basically blame every ill of society on this ‘historical injustice’. It does have a call for caste-solidarity, but even that is not a noble call, considering that it is caste and not class that is being called to unite.
For me, the scary thing about this is that such sentiments are already high in many cities. So many North Indian friends of mine complain about the increasing xenophobia towards them in South India, even in metropolitan cities like Bangalore. Speaking in Hindi in Chennai is a sure fire way of being discriminated against. Similarly, the North Indian cities too are treating the South Indians in a derogatory manner and treating them as encroachers.
The stereotypes that are popular about ‘Tam-Brahms’, ‘Mallu accent’, ‘the gali-speaking Delhiite’, ‘chinkis’, ‘Yuck, South Indian idli-dosa??’, ‘the uncouth Bihari’ etc., are all manifestations of this. Not to mention the crudeness of delusional movies like Chennai Express: Ayyo, Rama, what’s aappening?
This mutual alienation is very dangerous and could easily be the cause for major riots in our densely packed cities. This sort of fanatical historical narratives only add fuel to this fire and should not be encouraged.
Instead of banning books that ‘offend’ religious and racial sentiments, we should be more careful of such works which provoke those sentiments and tries to convert them into blind hatred. Those are the dangerous ones.
Links:
Come south, young man, but here be dragons
The Great North-South debate rages
Labels and stereotypes - Do the roots of racism lie in the stereotypes we create?
Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines - would be a nice corrective (as a modern, opposing conspiracy theory, but perhaps closer to the mark).
May 15, 2020
I call such authors cowards who hide behind the glimmer of fiction and don't have the courage to own their text. Anand Neelakantan, otherwise, might have been a wonderful author who could have impressed me with his vision and work. However, with this novel, Asura: Tale of the Vanquished, the author has lost his fictional reputation, for me. I am being highly subjective here. I will call out some flaws in the text and you can decide for yourself.
1. The book is a work of fiction but it contains many subjective opinions that you will find highly offensive, ridiculous and absurd. So, why don't the author have the courage to admit that he is trying an alternative version of Ramayan? Why he disowns his own thoughts with a disclaimer but propagate everywhere else that it is a work inspired by or based on Ramayan? Hypocrite of the first rank!
2. The book has many illogical analogies, equivalence and also many ambiguities because of the selective collection of facts by the author. For example, at once place, the author criticises Devtas and especially Vishnu's Vamana Avtara for 'acting like missionaries and propagating his religion' but he hails Ravan as a hero for doing the same thing - getting his guys together and attacking people for nothing. So, what's right for you will be wrong if I do so - what a vision!
3. The book is an outright slur on Brahmins, Hindus and all the devotees of Lord Ram. Had it been a work of pure fiction, the author might not have brought such cowardice accusations that he has included in the storyline. Why this veil, Anand?
You can read a detailed review that has been published on Indian Book Critics to know more: Asura: Tale of the Vanquished
1. The book is a work of fiction but it contains many subjective opinions that you will find highly offensive, ridiculous and absurd. So, why don't the author have the courage to admit that he is trying an alternative version of Ramayan? Why he disowns his own thoughts with a disclaimer but propagate everywhere else that it is a work inspired by or based on Ramayan? Hypocrite of the first rank!
2. The book has many illogical analogies, equivalence and also many ambiguities because of the selective collection of facts by the author. For example, at once place, the author criticises Devtas and especially Vishnu's Vamana Avtara for 'acting like missionaries and propagating his religion' but he hails Ravan as a hero for doing the same thing - getting his guys together and attacking people for nothing. So, what's right for you will be wrong if I do so - what a vision!
3. The book is an outright slur on Brahmins, Hindus and all the devotees of Lord Ram. Had it been a work of pure fiction, the author might not have brought such cowardice accusations that he has included in the storyline. Why this veil, Anand?
You can read a detailed review that has been published on Indian Book Critics to know more: Asura: Tale of the Vanquished
May 15, 2020
This is the worst literary creation by any fiction writer. I have read many pathetic books but this one will surely top that list. I have read the novel and found it full of utter garbage and punctured narrative full of self-imposed assumptions of the author that shows hehhas come far away from reality. The book is a work of fiction but it has done everything to mislead the readers in every possible way.
I strongly recommend everyone not to read this work.
I strongly recommend everyone not to read this work.
September 5, 2013
Very disappointing book. The premise was very interesting - writing Ravana's version of events. But the writing was simply terrible.
To start with, the editor on this book did a pretty shoddy job. There were multiple errors of spelling and grammar. Also, this is supposedly a historical/ mythological piece so it should reflect the period. I found many of the phrases and analogies were quite anachronistic. For an example, terms like 'an efficient time manager' and 'useless jargon and mumbo jumbo' are very 21st century phrases and it jarred me to hear them in a book set in the ancient times, especially since the narrators were characters and not the author himself. It greatly detracted from the authenticity of the book.
The literary style itself was very slow and repetitive. I lost count, early on in the book, of the number of the times the same arguments about the caste system were hashed and rehashed.
Character development was also an issue. I expected to end this book either hating or loving Ravana as represented on the pages. All I felt was indifference and supreme relief at having finished the ordeal of reading this book. Even events like the death of children that typically tug at the heartsrings were written in a manner that excited no emotion in me.
I also found the voice of Ravana bordering on schizophrenic. Within the space of a paragraph, he would contradict himself. An example: "I wanted to hug Prahastha's still body and tell him that, more than anyone else, I had respected and loved him. I also wanted to tell him that he had always got on my nerves with his unwarranted advise* and talk about Asura dharma. Suddenly I hated him from deep within." (Pg. 396) - From love to hate in three sentences!
To me this book represents the fact that a good idea is not enough and how bad writing can demolish even the best of ideas. I would not recommend this book to any reader with some discretion
* erroneously spelled in the book
To start with, the editor on this book did a pretty shoddy job. There were multiple errors of spelling and grammar. Also, this is supposedly a historical/ mythological piece so it should reflect the period. I found many of the phrases and analogies were quite anachronistic. For an example, terms like 'an efficient time manager' and 'useless jargon and mumbo jumbo' are very 21st century phrases and it jarred me to hear them in a book set in the ancient times, especially since the narrators were characters and not the author himself. It greatly detracted from the authenticity of the book.
The literary style itself was very slow and repetitive. I lost count, early on in the book, of the number of the times the same arguments about the caste system were hashed and rehashed.
Character development was also an issue. I expected to end this book either hating or loving Ravana as represented on the pages. All I felt was indifference and supreme relief at having finished the ordeal of reading this book. Even events like the death of children that typically tug at the heartsrings were written in a manner that excited no emotion in me.
I also found the voice of Ravana bordering on schizophrenic. Within the space of a paragraph, he would contradict himself. An example: "I wanted to hug Prahastha's still body and tell him that, more than anyone else, I had respected and loved him. I also wanted to tell him that he had always got on my nerves with his unwarranted advise* and talk about Asura dharma. Suddenly I hated him from deep within." (Pg. 396) - From love to hate in three sentences!
To me this book represents the fact that a good idea is not enough and how bad writing can demolish even the best of ideas. I would not recommend this book to any reader with some discretion
* erroneously spelled in the book
April 11, 2013
Half way through, the book seems like a scientific explanation of a myth, with a strong anti North and anti Brahmin slant. But that maybe because I am reading the unmodified, raw version that is too hard hitting to be printed because it could get banned or at least get shouted at.
By the end of the book however, two things become clear. One, that all myths are machinations of ancient politicians and people came to believe what they found convenient. Two, that while there is no concept of a codified list of sins in Hinduism, almost anything that seems like a deviation from the norm can be construed as evil in our land.
The author does a good job at presenting the grey areas in our belief systems, which are largely shaped by what we believe were black and white since time immemorial. While criticisms of Maryada Purshottam Rama have been around since the Valmiki Ramayan, this one is different because it combines class struggle from Bhadra's perspective with the story of a war supposedly fought for righteousness. The power of the first person narrative works wonders for the book, as both Ravana and Bhadra speak from their hearts.
On the flip side of the coin, there is no character with any human kindness or any positive virtues in the book. This makes for a very pessimistic outlook of humankind and Hindu religious texts. For all the anarchistic suggestions in the book, none of the characters seem to be likeable or inspiring or funny. The sarcasm is caustic and it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. I found myself speed reading and wanting to forget what I had read.
By the end of the book however, two things become clear. One, that all myths are machinations of ancient politicians and people came to believe what they found convenient. Two, that while there is no concept of a codified list of sins in Hinduism, almost anything that seems like a deviation from the norm can be construed as evil in our land.
The author does a good job at presenting the grey areas in our belief systems, which are largely shaped by what we believe were black and white since time immemorial. While criticisms of Maryada Purshottam Rama have been around since the Valmiki Ramayan, this one is different because it combines class struggle from Bhadra's perspective with the story of a war supposedly fought for righteousness. The power of the first person narrative works wonders for the book, as both Ravana and Bhadra speak from their hearts.
On the flip side of the coin, there is no character with any human kindness or any positive virtues in the book. This makes for a very pessimistic outlook of humankind and Hindu religious texts. For all the anarchistic suggestions in the book, none of the characters seem to be likeable or inspiring or funny. The sarcasm is caustic and it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. I found myself speed reading and wanting to forget what I had read.
July 9, 2020
The book doesn't make any sense to me. It's like forcefully injecting something into a source that does not approve of it... psychological blunder, if people claim it to be a psychological novel.
July 12, 2020
I don't want to read this book beyond first few pages... it is depressing and entirely unhappening of the writing profession!
July 13, 2020
I would certainly say all the sensible readers to avoid this book which is already deconstructionist in a devastating way! Avoid it!
November 4, 2017
Before I start my review please allow me to tell you about the Ramayana. It will help you get the context.
Let me also clarify that I only have a superficial knowledge about Ramayana. Mostly gleaned from a children’s abridged edition they taught us in school, what my elders told me and popular culture.
The Ramayana meaning Journey of Ram is an ancient India epic about Lord Ram. He is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu (one of the principal Hindu Gods) and regarded as Maryada Purushottam – the perfect man/being. The epic states that Ravana, the mighty king of Lanka would abduct Shri Ram’s wife Sita & Ram would invade the island, kill Ravana and rescue Sita. Scholars will tell you that the characters in the epic are metaphors for various qualities: Ram represents the soul, Ravana stands for ego and so on. The epic is more than a narrative of war & revenge but is about ancient Indian philosophy told as a story.
In mainstream (for lack of a better word) versions of the epic – Ram is the hero while Ravana is the villain. Ram is worshipped as a God while Ravana is often vilified as a demon king. In Ramayana, Ravana though a villain was also portrayed as a courageous warrior, a great king, a learned scholar & a great Shiva (one of the principal Hindu Gods) devotee.
However, there are a few versions where Ram & Ravana exchange their status. Anand Neelakantan’s Asura Tale of the Vanquished portrays Ravana as a misunderstood hero, Ram as a righteous man strait- jacketed by the scheming Brahmins and all the virtuous characters in the mainstream Ramayana now have shades of grey.
Ravana in popular culture is often depicted as having ten heads. I was told that ten heads signified ten brains – high intellect & knowledge. In this book, the author clarifies that Ravana is depicted as a ten-faced character as along with intellect he also embraced the nine base emotions of anger, pride, jealousy, happiness, sadness, fear, selfishness, passion & ambition. He did not want to be a God; Ravana wanted to be a complete man.
The author also portrays the Asuras and Devas were two distinct races of people: Asuras were the original natives of India while the Devas came from outside. Ravana was an Asura while Ram was a Deva.
Anyways, let us come to the book.
The narrative alternates between Ravana & Bhadra.
Ravana is shown as the poor boy with the dreams of building a great Asura Empire. I enjoyed the adventures of Ravana & how he would ultimately become the mighty king of Lanka. But the burden of kingship would start taking its toll and the character would change over time. Just like an ordinary human Ravana would start misbehaving & suspecting his senior advisors, be cruel towards his subjects and even humiliate his mother & siblings in public. Ravana himself was aware of how he had changed and in the end he would realize how he had placed his trust in the wrong people.
The most tragic character of the story is Bhadra: a common man whose family had been brutalized by the Devas. He would believe in Ravana’s dream of building a great Asura Empire where laws would be just and every individual would have the opportunity to rise above his station in life by hard work and a bit of luck. Bhadra would faithfully serve Ravana as a soldier – risking his life multiple times. In fact he would make it possible for Ravana to be a king, do all the dirty work for him. But, Bhadra would be rewarded with suspicion and contempt. Ravana’s folly and the ensuing war with Ram’s forces would ultimately lead to the destruction of everything he had fought for. He represents the exploited, humiliated masses who have been down-trodden for millennia.
The biggest villain in the book is the Deva Brahmin. The Brahmins are the ones who devised a rigid social order where a person’s birth decided his/her entire life, the women were suppressed and treated as commodities and the Brahmins manipulated everyone including Ram to do their bidding.
I agree that the rigid caste system was a social evil indeed. But, the constant vilification of the Brahmins was a bit too much at times.
I had started the book with very high expectations. The premise was interesting and given the success of the book I was expecting something fantastic. However, what I got somewhat fell short of my expectations. I am not saying that it was bad but somewhere I felt it lacked the wow factor.
Let me also clarify that I only have a superficial knowledge about Ramayana. Mostly gleaned from a children’s abridged edition they taught us in school, what my elders told me and popular culture.
The Ramayana meaning Journey of Ram is an ancient India epic about Lord Ram. He is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu (one of the principal Hindu Gods) and regarded as Maryada Purushottam – the perfect man/being. The epic states that Ravana, the mighty king of Lanka would abduct Shri Ram’s wife Sita & Ram would invade the island, kill Ravana and rescue Sita. Scholars will tell you that the characters in the epic are metaphors for various qualities: Ram represents the soul, Ravana stands for ego and so on. The epic is more than a narrative of war & revenge but is about ancient Indian philosophy told as a story.
In mainstream (for lack of a better word) versions of the epic – Ram is the hero while Ravana is the villain. Ram is worshipped as a God while Ravana is often vilified as a demon king. In Ramayana, Ravana though a villain was also portrayed as a courageous warrior, a great king, a learned scholar & a great Shiva (one of the principal Hindu Gods) devotee.
However, there are a few versions where Ram & Ravana exchange their status. Anand Neelakantan’s Asura Tale of the Vanquished portrays Ravana as a misunderstood hero, Ram as a righteous man strait- jacketed by the scheming Brahmins and all the virtuous characters in the mainstream Ramayana now have shades of grey.
Ravana in popular culture is often depicted as having ten heads. I was told that ten heads signified ten brains – high intellect & knowledge. In this book, the author clarifies that Ravana is depicted as a ten-faced character as along with intellect he also embraced the nine base emotions of anger, pride, jealousy, happiness, sadness, fear, selfishness, passion & ambition. He did not want to be a God; Ravana wanted to be a complete man.
The author also portrays the Asuras and Devas were two distinct races of people: Asuras were the original natives of India while the Devas came from outside. Ravana was an Asura while Ram was a Deva.
Anyways, let us come to the book.
The narrative alternates between Ravana & Bhadra.
Ravana is shown as the poor boy with the dreams of building a great Asura Empire. I enjoyed the adventures of Ravana & how he would ultimately become the mighty king of Lanka. But the burden of kingship would start taking its toll and the character would change over time. Just like an ordinary human Ravana would start misbehaving & suspecting his senior advisors, be cruel towards his subjects and even humiliate his mother & siblings in public. Ravana himself was aware of how he had changed and in the end he would realize how he had placed his trust in the wrong people.
The most tragic character of the story is Bhadra: a common man whose family had been brutalized by the Devas. He would believe in Ravana’s dream of building a great Asura Empire where laws would be just and every individual would have the opportunity to rise above his station in life by hard work and a bit of luck. Bhadra would faithfully serve Ravana as a soldier – risking his life multiple times. In fact he would make it possible for Ravana to be a king, do all the dirty work for him. But, Bhadra would be rewarded with suspicion and contempt. Ravana’s folly and the ensuing war with Ram’s forces would ultimately lead to the destruction of everything he had fought for. He represents the exploited, humiliated masses who have been down-trodden for millennia.
The biggest villain in the book is the Deva Brahmin. The Brahmins are the ones who devised a rigid social order where a person’s birth decided his/her entire life, the women were suppressed and treated as commodities and the Brahmins manipulated everyone including Ram to do their bidding.
I agree that the rigid caste system was a social evil indeed. But, the constant vilification of the Brahmins was a bit too much at times.
I had started the book with very high expectations. The premise was interesting and given the success of the book I was expecting something fantastic. However, what I got somewhat fell short of my expectations. I am not saying that it was bad but somewhere I felt it lacked the wow factor.
July 13, 2020
The books becomes depressing and confusing just after the very first chapter. Avoid it. It is Ramayan of Ravan with propaganda.
January 4, 2013
The book didn't seem as author s debut. Truly astounding flow with powerful language.Author seems to be a very capable writer.
But it was very disappointing to see such a capable person twisting the original Ramayana and have compromised too much on the facts. This may be about Ravana's perspective, but it doesn't demand the twisting of Ramayana facts.
For instance Rama's life as per Ramayana is 11000 years. But the author has portrayed the incidents sprawling across a period of 70+ years.Now, if the question is around if human life can be that long , then more research should be done on what evolution could have done rather than changing the timeline to some believable number the author pleases. The war scene is highly compromised to put Rama in bad light and Ravana in good.Many other facts are comfortably ignored to put Ravana in good light.This reaches a wider audience than the original Valmiki's scripture. There is a good chance of people believing the author's "pure imagination" as fact just because it is more believable than the original scripture or this is more reachable than the original scripture.
Many myths can be twisted as we like,but Ramayana is not a myth. It is a scripted epic which has too many myths surrounding. Even considering, the epic to be just a fiction and not a real happening , still we don't have the right to twist the tale as we please.
If the author had a fair eye to understand the script of Valmiki as it is, and then made the story with Ravana's perspective-it would have been the truly Asura story.With that kind of expectation, I picked the book, but was disappointed.
I don't think talking from Ravana's perspective is wrong, but twisting the facts as we would like to hear so there are some anti-brahmin , anti-ramayana arguments is not acceptable.
Such a capable author could have more moral responsibility of researching more before taking his story to the world.
But this inspires me to understand 24000 slokas of Ramayana in more detail before judging more about the book.
Nevertheless, the language and story telling is truly enjoyable.
But it was very disappointing to see such a capable person twisting the original Ramayana and have compromised too much on the facts. This may be about Ravana's perspective, but it doesn't demand the twisting of Ramayana facts.
For instance Rama's life as per Ramayana is 11000 years. But the author has portrayed the incidents sprawling across a period of 70+ years.Now, if the question is around if human life can be that long , then more research should be done on what evolution could have done rather than changing the timeline to some believable number the author pleases. The war scene is highly compromised to put Rama in bad light and Ravana in good.Many other facts are comfortably ignored to put Ravana in good light.This reaches a wider audience than the original Valmiki's scripture. There is a good chance of people believing the author's "pure imagination" as fact just because it is more believable than the original scripture or this is more reachable than the original scripture.
Many myths can be twisted as we like,but Ramayana is not a myth. It is a scripted epic which has too many myths surrounding. Even considering, the epic to be just a fiction and not a real happening , still we don't have the right to twist the tale as we please.
If the author had a fair eye to understand the script of Valmiki as it is, and then made the story with Ravana's perspective-it would have been the truly Asura story.With that kind of expectation, I picked the book, but was disappointed.
I don't think talking from Ravana's perspective is wrong, but twisting the facts as we would like to hear so there are some anti-brahmin , anti-ramayana arguments is not acceptable.
Such a capable author could have more moral responsibility of researching more before taking his story to the world.
But this inspires me to understand 24000 slokas of Ramayana in more detail before judging more about the book.
Nevertheless, the language and story telling is truly enjoyable.
July 19, 2020
I don't recommend this piece to anyone. This is depressing and poorly written. Without logic.
July 30, 2020
This is again a non-sense that I read and continued reading with hope of something valid and logical. But the author has just vented out his own disgust and nothing substantial has been presented in the novel.
July 24, 2020
The author has mostly seemed a person on bewildering weed who is not sure of what he is writing. He has contradicted his own claims on many occasions in this novel. Absurd to the core!
July 15, 2020
The book is a literal waste of time... I could not go beyond the first chapter because the author has done a literal con job.
July 20, 2020
This is a book which is written with lopsided mentality and it might not make any sense to the readers of fiction who have even a basic understanding of decent fiction.
May 15, 2020
What a ridiculous novel! I am ashamed that I picked it up with high hopes. This is plainly devilish and absurd. Don't read it.
January 10, 2022
I simply cannot understand why this author had to hide behind his lofty text. He could simply have said that he does not want to see people living together. He wants to connote or rather state that North Indians, the so-called mythical Aryans, are oppressors and have taken over India. Hell! Rubbish!
August 23, 2020
A book that I could not go ahead with after reading the very first chapter. This is a covert operation of somekind that forces you to change your belief and think about delusional things which are not there. Claims to be inspired by the Ramayana but tries to portray a version which might not possible in any distant imagination.
December 20, 2013
Before proceeding any further with review let me tell the reader that Ramayana has always been an inspiration for me and I indeed worship and look up to Lord Shri Ram and his ayana ( ayana means moving, we can say walking in one sense, so Ramasya ayana is Ramayana. ShrimadRamayana for all of us). Having read the blurb and my inclination towards ShrimadRamayana it is up to you to read further or leave it here.
After reading the blurb I honestly felt that this book is going to give us a different perspective of Ravana and we could see the things as visualized by him. However, after reading the first few pages I started searching for appendix and references if there were any, for the start of the book itself was completely different from the Ramayana I read. Leaving Ravana’s body to Jackals and other animals to prey is a blatant lie and was not told any where before. I realized that this is pure fiction when I read the author’s note and realized that the author is taking his own liberties.
Ravana and Bhadra narrate the story in the book and they speak about themselves and the way they see the world. Ravana speaks for himself while and his actions while Bhadra is the guy who loathes Ravana, Devas ,Rama ,Brahmins etc . While there is enough rant against Lord Rama, Ravana is also vilified quite a bit. In his no holes barred attack, the author vilifies Lakshmana, Vibhishana, Hanuman….. name a character that looks positive in Ramayana and you see him/her getting vilified here. Then the potshots on Dharma, vedic rituals and Brahmins are also there. Well if he comes up with the depictions in mythology and argued on the basis of things presented there , it would have been good. Hurling baseless accusations is not correct from any standpoint.
I think the author subscribes to the Aryan-Dravidian conflict theory , which was a very intelligent ploy of the west to divide India. Many historians have junked the theory already; however there are a few who still subscribe to the idea and create further divisions in the already divided lot of the nation. Coming back to the book, the author brings this theory up in a different way where he says that devas on horsebacks came and destroyed what was supposed to be a grand Asura empire that was widely spread all over India. Then the book also has a very strong anti-brahmin rant. I was feeling disgusted after a certain point of time and was wondering like…. “what makes the author loath Brahmins so much ? ” Any Brahmin reading the book would feel bad about the depiction of Brahmins in the book . Anything that comes from north and has got to do with Brahmins is scorned at.
The author has taken a lot of liberties in churning out his ideologies, eulogizing Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipa, calling Prahlada a weak king, then making Ravan a pupil of Mahabali, calling Sita ma as the daughter of Ravana. Calling Shiva as the Asura God and Brahma the Asura teacher and then calling Vishnu the commander-in-chief of Deva army. My goodness, any one with any knowledge on mythology would desist this extremely outlandish stuff. One need not go to the extremes to prove a point.
The author is gifted with great capabilities of writing good fiction. His description of the emotions in the early parts of the book was nice. He gives vivid descriptions of the scenes and tries to recreate the scene as much as possible and helps the reader visualize it. However, I believe that this is not the good way of using the rare talent God has bestowed on him. Blaming both Rama and Ravana and then showing that Ravana was slightly better than Rama as Rama was too adherent to the brahminical laws might be good placate the egos of the Hindu-haters, however, I donot know if this would do any good to the society.
Ramayana gives us a message that even if one has a Golden City like Lanka, one is bound to perish if he misbehaves with a woman. It tells us like how being wedded Truth and Dharma will elevate a human being and bestows him/her with eternal glory. In this book I find a total distortion of facts and a blatant attempt at vilifying everything that was considered good by generations and generations of Hindus. Well its fictitious stuff as per the author himself, so what can we say.
Of late, vilifying Sri Rama and showing hindu faith in poor light is a fad in this nation, some feminists did it, some communists did it, some people who call themselves the protectors of the oppressed sections of the society did it( in fact some of them do it even now) and now this book also does it. However, Lord Sri Rama still continues to inspire millions and millions of people all over the world.
To conclude, I did not find much but vilification of people in the book. Then a lot of lies and misguided zeal to prove a point. I am totally disappointed. “If the author had to write a fictitious account, then why play with Ramayana and hurt the sentiments of millions of people in the nation ???” He has the capabilities to produce good fiction and if he can use it to produce something that teaches people a virtue or two , that would be great. For, Lord Sri Rama lived His life on this earth and He does not need a character certificate from people like us. It is upto us, if we can learn a thing or two from His life, it will help us . If not, we are all free to choose our own paths. As for me Lord Sri Rama is the truth, Lord Sri Rama is the ligh
After reading the blurb I honestly felt that this book is going to give us a different perspective of Ravana and we could see the things as visualized by him. However, after reading the first few pages I started searching for appendix and references if there were any, for the start of the book itself was completely different from the Ramayana I read. Leaving Ravana’s body to Jackals and other animals to prey is a blatant lie and was not told any where before. I realized that this is pure fiction when I read the author’s note and realized that the author is taking his own liberties.
Ravana and Bhadra narrate the story in the book and they speak about themselves and the way they see the world. Ravana speaks for himself while and his actions while Bhadra is the guy who loathes Ravana, Devas ,Rama ,Brahmins etc . While there is enough rant against Lord Rama, Ravana is also vilified quite a bit. In his no holes barred attack, the author vilifies Lakshmana, Vibhishana, Hanuman….. name a character that looks positive in Ramayana and you see him/her getting vilified here. Then the potshots on Dharma, vedic rituals and Brahmins are also there. Well if he comes up with the depictions in mythology and argued on the basis of things presented there , it would have been good. Hurling baseless accusations is not correct from any standpoint.
I think the author subscribes to the Aryan-Dravidian conflict theory , which was a very intelligent ploy of the west to divide India. Many historians have junked the theory already; however there are a few who still subscribe to the idea and create further divisions in the already divided lot of the nation. Coming back to the book, the author brings this theory up in a different way where he says that devas on horsebacks came and destroyed what was supposed to be a grand Asura empire that was widely spread all over India. Then the book also has a very strong anti-brahmin rant. I was feeling disgusted after a certain point of time and was wondering like…. “what makes the author loath Brahmins so much ? ” Any Brahmin reading the book would feel bad about the depiction of Brahmins in the book . Anything that comes from north and has got to do with Brahmins is scorned at.
The author has taken a lot of liberties in churning out his ideologies, eulogizing Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipa, calling Prahlada a weak king, then making Ravan a pupil of Mahabali, calling Sita ma as the daughter of Ravana. Calling Shiva as the Asura God and Brahma the Asura teacher and then calling Vishnu the commander-in-chief of Deva army. My goodness, any one with any knowledge on mythology would desist this extremely outlandish stuff. One need not go to the extremes to prove a point.
The author is gifted with great capabilities of writing good fiction. His description of the emotions in the early parts of the book was nice. He gives vivid descriptions of the scenes and tries to recreate the scene as much as possible and helps the reader visualize it. However, I believe that this is not the good way of using the rare talent God has bestowed on him. Blaming both Rama and Ravana and then showing that Ravana was slightly better than Rama as Rama was too adherent to the brahminical laws might be good placate the egos of the Hindu-haters, however, I donot know if this would do any good to the society.
Ramayana gives us a message that even if one has a Golden City like Lanka, one is bound to perish if he misbehaves with a woman. It tells us like how being wedded Truth and Dharma will elevate a human being and bestows him/her with eternal glory. In this book I find a total distortion of facts and a blatant attempt at vilifying everything that was considered good by generations and generations of Hindus. Well its fictitious stuff as per the author himself, so what can we say.
Of late, vilifying Sri Rama and showing hindu faith in poor light is a fad in this nation, some feminists did it, some communists did it, some people who call themselves the protectors of the oppressed sections of the society did it( in fact some of them do it even now) and now this book also does it. However, Lord Sri Rama still continues to inspire millions and millions of people all over the world.
To conclude, I did not find much but vilification of people in the book. Then a lot of lies and misguided zeal to prove a point. I am totally disappointed. “If the author had to write a fictitious account, then why play with Ramayana and hurt the sentiments of millions of people in the nation ???” He has the capabilities to produce good fiction and if he can use it to produce something that teaches people a virtue or two , that would be great. For, Lord Sri Rama lived His life on this earth and He does not need a character certificate from people like us. It is upto us, if we can learn a thing or two from His life, it will help us . If not, we are all free to choose our own paths. As for me Lord Sri Rama is the truth, Lord Sri Rama is the ligh
August 4, 2020
This is not the proper way to tell a story in the name of fiction. It is totally misleading can create a lot of misconceptions in the mind of readers. It has a very pathetic story to tell that is grounded on the realities. The author has just gone too far and said everything that came in his mind. It was a boring read for me and I don't recommend books like this to anyone. It will hijack your intellect with lots of false imagination.
September 6, 2020
I could not pass beyond the first chapter itself. The book takes the readers into a very dark direction which goes beyond the legitimacy of fiction...
November 12, 2020
I am not very much worried about the author's perverted perception of an ancient tale and (almost) scientifically proved by the magical American's ego calling a setu as Adam's Bridge... I am much worried about the editorial policies of the publisher who published this uncouth novel with not only derivative errors but also mini mistakes which even a child does not make! Waste of time and I decided to shut it down just after 3 chapters.
November 13, 2020
Asura... maybe it is the one book that I misplaced on my bookshelf. I wanted to read it and I tried to continue beyond the very first chapter, sincerely! However, I just could not because the book is not only dark, it's dull as well. It has no direction at all.
March 4, 2022
Could not finish it... too pedantic and too superficial to be fiction. Subtle and rather suggestive. Avoid if you are into reading fiction. This reads like a pamphlet.
August 21, 2020
Propaganda disguised in a sophisticated attire so that you cannot directly raise your doubts... poor fiction, even at fictional scale... avoid and be happy!
March 17, 2014
Never having been a "fan" of Ram, when a friend's hubby told me about Asura, I immediately downloaded it on my Kindle wanting to read it after the current one I was reading. I expected a fairly good novel – the Ramayana retold it in the words and from the perspective of Ravan. What I didn't expect was a story that completely took me over and in its entirety – with its rage and rawness and all emotions…
It starts with Ravan lying on the battle fields – his life slowly oozing away – his blood drenching the grounds he lies on.
It tells the story of the Ramayana through the eyes of Ravana and Bhadra – both surprising characters. Ravana's childhood as a half-asura, yet on the harsh roads with his Asura mother and siblings while his Brahmin father lives a fulfilling life away from sorrow and poverty. Young Ravana's anger that lies dormant and his insecurity being a half-bred is poignantly told. We learn how the Asuras mastered the arts and architecture and the sciences. Maya is an Asura – the chief constructor – the best that our Indian mythology knows (he also built the legendary palace of illusions for the Pandavas in Hastinapur). On the other side, completely irrelevant as it first seems, we read how the Devas rampage Asura villages, rape, kill and destroy. Among them is Bhadra – who sees his baby daughter killed and his wife molested and then killed and can do nothing to stop this calamity while he too is left to die.
It is a story of these two men, who build a contrast, that couldn't be greater. The protagonists meet every now and then - Bhadra, a cowering piece of flesh, Ravana, a King. As the book enfolds, the emotions are varied and extreme. It depicts Ravana as a learned man. He tries to bring his fellow Asuras together and to lead them. It is the story of a leader whose pride gets in the way of listening to those who are loyal to him. It is also the memoirs of a leader whose love for the family makes him take regrettable decisions. And yet, it is also the story of Sita, who brings about a chain of events that then lead to the mighty and unfair war between Ram and Ravana. Only at the end do we realise the importance of Bhadra, who till then is a mere onlooker, like a disturbing wart who is always on the side of Ravana – somehow always is in the picture… It is difficult not to hate and pity Bhadra and it is equally difficult not to sympathise with Ravana's thoughts when he attempts to be a good leader.
It is a beautiful book in all its brutality. It is poignant in its relationships. The language used has its own melody and poetry. A very good and gripping read for those who care to look a little further into the whys and hows of the Hindu mythological psyche.
It starts with Ravan lying on the battle fields – his life slowly oozing away – his blood drenching the grounds he lies on.
It tells the story of the Ramayana through the eyes of Ravana and Bhadra – both surprising characters. Ravana's childhood as a half-asura, yet on the harsh roads with his Asura mother and siblings while his Brahmin father lives a fulfilling life away from sorrow and poverty. Young Ravana's anger that lies dormant and his insecurity being a half-bred is poignantly told. We learn how the Asuras mastered the arts and architecture and the sciences. Maya is an Asura – the chief constructor – the best that our Indian mythology knows (he also built the legendary palace of illusions for the Pandavas in Hastinapur). On the other side, completely irrelevant as it first seems, we read how the Devas rampage Asura villages, rape, kill and destroy. Among them is Bhadra – who sees his baby daughter killed and his wife molested and then killed and can do nothing to stop this calamity while he too is left to die.
It is a story of these two men, who build a contrast, that couldn't be greater. The protagonists meet every now and then - Bhadra, a cowering piece of flesh, Ravana, a King. As the book enfolds, the emotions are varied and extreme. It depicts Ravana as a learned man. He tries to bring his fellow Asuras together and to lead them. It is the story of a leader whose pride gets in the way of listening to those who are loyal to him. It is also the memoirs of a leader whose love for the family makes him take regrettable decisions. And yet, it is also the story of Sita, who brings about a chain of events that then lead to the mighty and unfair war between Ram and Ravana. Only at the end do we realise the importance of Bhadra, who till then is a mere onlooker, like a disturbing wart who is always on the side of Ravana – somehow always is in the picture… It is difficult not to hate and pity Bhadra and it is equally difficult not to sympathise with Ravana's thoughts when he attempts to be a good leader.
It is a beautiful book in all its brutality. It is poignant in its relationships. The language used has its own melody and poetry. A very good and gripping read for those who care to look a little further into the whys and hows of the Hindu mythological psyche.
August 12, 2012
An amazing stories that shows Anand Neelakantan's genius. Its not just about the book but the way he looked at History, Religion, Mythology and then uses his own mind to write an awesome piece of Fiction.
The thing I admire about the author is that in this country infested by religions, he thinks rationally and pours out his heart which breaths life into his Novel.
This novel by Anand makes more sense to me than Ramayana.
The thing I admire about the author is that in this country infested by religions, he thinks rationally and pours out his heart which breaths life into his Novel.
This novel by Anand makes more sense to me than Ramayana.
November 27, 2020
The novelist seems to have no clue about whether he is writing his novel based on historical events of just a myth. He picks his cherries very carefully and this is what makes the work too obvious to be something that is based on ego and whims rather than solid grounds of a compelling fiction.
February 5, 2022
I am fascinated with mythology and the retellings and how if one thing changed, how it will change everything else and what not. So I always look forward to reading retellings. I was promised an alternate/mythology woven story that I was very excited to read but what I got was something that didn't even resemble the Hindu mythology this is based on.
This book was so hard to get through, not just because of the stupid plot or the hateful and racial and discriminatory slurs but also because I couldn't understand what the author was going on about. I had never read anything else from Anand Neelakantan prior to this but I also don't plan to. It was a complete mess.
0 stars
This book was so hard to get through, not just because of the stupid plot or the hateful and racial and discriminatory slurs but also because I couldn't understand what the author was going on about. I had never read anything else from Anand Neelakantan prior to this but I also don't plan to. It was a complete mess.
0 stars
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