Anand Neelakantan's Blog - Posts Tagged "asura"
Interview in Isahithya- About Ramayana, Asura and more
Anand Neelakantan, one of the many Indians doing the ever conventional job of an engineer’ is ready to join the league of Indian English authors in the most unconventional manner, with his first novel Asura-The tale of the vanquished.
Born and brought up in a medium class family of Cochin, the city famous for its 100 odd temples. This set up was enough to fascinate the ever inquisitive mind of this man to write his first innovation.
Asura-The tale of the vanquished is an enthralling story of victory and defeat, a story which is told innumerable times but never in a manner like this before. It surrounds our very own “Ramayana” in a very unexpected way. It is a version of the evil demon of darkness, whose death is cherished by every Indian, every year, the version of ‘Ravana’, whom the author also calls the “Ravanayana”. This book is extremely fresh and gives a new edge to the Indian literature and mythology. A must read for all!
Here in A special Interview , Anand Neelakantan discussed various things related to his new book , about the story , characters , about Indian Mythology and other interesting things. Read a very interesting conversastion with Anand Neelakantan.
(Interviewed by Chaynika Digwa)
Qus. From being an engineer, to an author, the journey has been long. Who inspired you to be an author?
Anand - Like most persons born in seventies, my career choice was only either becoming a Doctor or an Engineer. I became an Engineer due to peer pressure and not due to any passion. And I continue to work as an Engineer for putting food on the dining table.
My passion always has been on the creative side. I am an avid reader and authors are my heroes. I have been inspired by lots of great writers and master story tellers of all times. I had started with reading great writers of Malayalam literature like S K Pottekad, M T Vasudevan Nair, Basheer, Thakazhi etc and still continue to enjoy their works.
The giants of international literature, both classical and modern and Indian English writers like R K Narayan and later Indian English writers like Rushdie, Rohinton Mistry, Amitav Ghosh etc has inspired me in pursuing my passion.
But, it was the learning of Sanskrit in school and discovery of Bhasa, the greatest story teller who ever lived after Veda Vysa that changed my thinking pattern itself. Bhasa had travelled through paths that modern writers have not even thought about. The Oorubhanga of Bhasa, where the great dramatist portrays Duryodhana as the main protagonist is what made me think about Ravana in another light. ASURA- Tale of the vanquished owes a lot to so many people, but if you ask me what the main inspiration is, I will only point out to Bhasa
Qus - Tell us about your book “Asura Tale of the vanquished”. It is unique in much sense. From its intro and theme it looks very interesting. Is it somehow a graphic novel?
Anand - Asura- Tale of the Vanquished travels in the Asura world of Ramayana. Rama does not even make an appearance until the middle of the book. It deals with the struggles of Ravana and his child hood, how the Asuras were fighting a losing war with the ever expanding Deva Empire and how Ravana raises himself from abject poverty to the emperor of Asuras, smashing the Deva Empire. For these I have used the conventional mythology sources itself, but I have attempted to give it a modern feel and logical reasoning, instead of describing spectacular things like one thousand year tapasya for getting a boon and such things.
However, where I have differed from traditional retelling is in the creation of a fictitious character called Bhadra. He plays an equally important part. He is the voice of common Asura. The story is told as alternating chapters where Ravana tells his story and Bhadra his. Bhadra is a common soldier who lost his family to Deva raid during a Deva Asura war and thirsts for revenge against Devas. He, like many young Asuras sees Ravana as their savior and joins the charismatic young leader to fight against Devas.
With an indomitable will and inspiring leadership Ravana leads Asuras from victory to victory and establishes a grand Asura empire. Common men like Bhadra believe that a better world awaits them under Ravana and blindly follows the leader. However, as the time goes, the poor among Asuras find that nothing much has changed for them under Ravana. Asura is very much the story of great heroes like Ravana and Rama as much as it is that of common and insignificant men like Bhadra.
Other characters like Vidyutjihva, the brother in law of Ravana and the leader of a revolutionary army who leads a rebellion against Ravana promising the common men a world of equality, idealistic ministers like Prahastha who stand steadfast in their ideals, and other stock characters of Ramayana like Mandodari, Soorpanakha, Maricha etc also play their roles.
Where Asura differs is in the perspective. The conventional view is turned upside down from the traditional Ramayana. It is the story of a people who are facing an invasion from an alien kingdom. It deals with the travails and fears of the other side, the side usually branded as demons and villains. Asura is all about seeing the enemy’s view point. Basically it underlines the inherent humanity in all human beings and how the same gets crushed by conventions. It also shows how the victor can write history and how it would differ if the vanquished is given a chance to write it.
Answering your question of whether it is a graphical novel- It is not, though I have tried to describe things as graphically as possible. Whether I have succeeded in engaging the reader is something only the reader can answer. There are six beautiful illustrations done by artist Ashok which again is a deviation from modern novel. Illustrations in Novel went out of fashion except in children’s book some 100 years back. But then Asura is all about being unconventional
Qus. Apart from your birth place, Cochin and the numerable temples which trickled your mind to write this book, what else triggered you to write on such an unconventional mythological character, despite of the thousand conventional characters Indian mythology has? Why Ravana?
Anand - Asura is an attempt to get into the mind of the so called villain of Ramayana. I have heard Ramayana in various versions, told by story tellers of differing caliber and passion. Most of what I heard was oral. Being born in a conservative Brahmin family, the Ramayana I was taught was the sanitized version where characters are all in black and white. This is the story where Rama is the avatar and Ravana, the devil incarnate. Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayana that we grew up with played the part of strengthening such beliefs.
However, as I grew up and escaped the conservative environs of my childhood, I came face to face with various other folk renditions of Ramayana. There are more versions of Ramayana than any other story. It will not be an exaggeration to say that every tribe, every language, every era has their own version of Ramayana. They all differ significantly from one another. That is how great stories survive. It is co creation that makes things great. In modern world, it is the social media that co creates and make stories grow, evolve and become popular. In the traditional world, it is such retellings and co creations that make myths survive and grow. This co creation of Ramayana across Asia for the past thousands of years is what has made it the most endearing epic of human kind. Take any Indian language and we can find that the greatest of its writers have used themes from Ramayana or Mahabharatha to create classics in their own language. The epics of India are still growing and evolving. Asura is a small attempt in doing the same in Indian English writing. A time will come, when like other Indian languages, Indian English will also mature to produce writers of caliber who can deal with the complexities of Indian mythology and produce great works in Indian English, for an Indian audience.
I have used the south Indian folk lore of Ramayana in Asura. The story that Sita is the daughter of Ravana is prevalent in many south Indian folk traditions. Once Sita is accepted as the daughter of Ravana, then the whole abduction of Sita takes a different angle. When you add this up with the humiliation faced by Soorpanakha at the hands of Lakshmana, the perspective starts changing. There are innumerable folk songs that deal with the humiliation faced by the Asura princess.
Ravana as a protagonist offers immense possibilities. His life itself is an inspiration, among all the conventional Indian mythological character. Apart from Duryodhana, who is far less complicated, a few characters in Indian Mythology offers so much challenge. Who was Ravana? He is not the run of the mill villain. He is a ruler about whom Rama talks in glowing terms. Rama tells Lakshmana to learn the art of governing from Ravana, when Ravana is in his last moments. There is another folk story where it is told that Rama needed the most scholarly Brahmin priest to conduct a yajna before commencing the war. When he enquires, everyone tells that the most scholarly Brahmin alive is none other than Ravana. Rama sends an invitation to Ravana to come and conduct the Yajna to defeat Ravana. Ravana arrives at Rameshwara and conducts the Yajna and blesses Rama before war for his success. I have not used this story in Asura, but such stories are not told about any other mythological characters. A consummate Veena player, an astrologer, scientist, authority on medicine, musician, artist, warrior, great administrator- I do not think any villain has been portrayed with so many qualities in any story. It is such a villain that Indian folk traditions have been celebrating for the past thousands of years. I think that answers your question of why Ravan sufficiently.
Qus- Tell us about the other characters in “Asura” . How do you characterize Ravana in your epic tale?
Anand - I have not portrayed Ravana as the hero without any flaws. My Ravana is neither devil nor God. He is an ordinary human being, who with a burning ambition and a grand dream decides to live life fully. He has his faults. He is not infallible and does many wrong things. I have not tried to white wash Ravana. I have used the traditional Ramayana, without resorting to super naturals to portray Ravana. So he does not have ten heads and twenty arms and is not a demon who keeps laughing hysterically after every dialogue, like they portray in television serials. He is as human as you and me. He starts with an idealistic vision, but Asura deals with how power corrupts human minds and how the lives of little people are crumbled when great men march towards their destiny.
Bhadra, the other hero, is the representative of any common Indian. Totally amoral, self- centered, naïve, opportunistic, cynical, invisible, insignificant Indian- that sums up my other Hero. He gets swayed by great words of leaders and commits many crimes for them, to be dumped and trampled up on again and again. He rises from each set back with a resilience that will help him survive the spectacular. Bhadra is the victory of mundane over spectacular.
Qus. Even before hitting the stands, “Asura” has made to the ‘Top 10 online ported books’, how does it feel? Do you find your theme controversial?
Anand - For any author, seeing the book in top 10 is a dream and I am living it now. However, the test will be when the book is available in book shops by first week of June 2012 and when the reviews and criticisms will start coming.
Asura is as ancient as a story can be, yet it is as modern as possible. I hope the reader finds parallel with the current situation in India with the society described in Asura. I believe the reader will associate the characters to modern era leaders. I also hope my message resonates with readers instead of me pointing it out. Only then, I will consider the book to have succeeded.
Qus- Ashok Banker, the re- teller of the epics had published his first Re-Ramayana years back. Do you draw any comparisons/ inspiration between/with his writings?
Anand - Ashok Banker and Romesh Menon are two great writers who have effectively retold the epic and created a niche for themselves. It will be ridiculous to compare a debutant author like me with established writers who keep improving with their each rendition.
I am always inspired by successful writers and Banker and Menon are there at the top of my list for inspiration. However, my attempt is not re telling an epic, but to create a counter telling. My intention is to tell a story from the other side. Indian mythology is not subjected to counter telling often, and I am attempting to create a new genre in my own small way.
Qus. Devdutt Pattnaik, known for his extensive work on Indian Mythology draws a relation between mythology with matter s of leadership, banking, etc. Do you also draw any such relations between your book and other arenas of life?
Anand - Indians are great story tellers. Story telling was the most important medium of education for common folks, once upon a time. These stories are practical and can be applied to any situation in life. Panchatantra was created to educate princes to govern. That is the power of a good story told well.
Devadut Pattnaik is the modern Vishnu Sharma. He is training modern corporate executives through stories. He has brought the great Indian story telling tradition from the charpoy put under the village Banyan tree to the air conditioned corporate training halls and corporate rooms. Stories are powerful mediums to drive home business points.
If Asura is as good a story as I think it is, then someday, the excerpts from it will be told again and again and will be used in life. That is every author’s dream.
Qus- Has writing been a childhood passion for you? How did Indian Mythology affected your real life and your writing?
Anand - Story telling has been a child hood passion for me, along with cartooning and oil painting. I have published a few short stories, mostly satirical ones in local Malayalam weeklies. Asura took almost six years to write as I was mostly an undisciplined writer and there were many long gaps when I did not write even a single page. But I keep telling stories to my children, to my colleagues, to my friends and to anyone who is willing to listen. So more than writing, it is story telling that I am passionate about. Regarding mythology, it has always affected every living moment of my life. My family lives and breathes mythology and there are many heated discussions about philosophy and mythology in any family gatherings.
Qus- Do you feel that International recognition is important for a writer? Especially when you are writing on mythological theme, because international recognition directly – indirectly helps you to spread Indian mythology and it strengthen our culture, heritage and tradition. Your Views?
Anand - Any recognition is important for writer. I have been getting mails from some readers saying that they enjoyed my book. The satisfaction and pleasure that gives is reward enough. I take care to answer each and every letter written to me. That is because I crave for recognition like any other writer who dares to put his thoughts on paper and get it published
International recognition is important because that helps us to put the spot light back on Indian culture. Indian stories like Ramayana, Mahabharatha , Katha Saritha Sagara, Panchatantra etc have inspired and contributed to great works of art not only in literature, but also in other art fields like sculpture, painting, music, drama, folk lore and philosophical thoughts across Asia. We have a great tradition of thinking freely and tolerantly and the variety of Indian mythological themes and philosophical thoughts are proof enough for that. In a world that is becoming increasingly intolerant towards the people who differ, the spread of Indian values would act like a balm that would sooth the ruffled nerves. We have thought the world that there are many paths that lead to the truth and all can happily co-exist and prosper. My dream is to see Hollywood films of Benhur mold on Ramayana, Mahabharatha and various Indian stories.
Qus. Which author and book has been your personal favourite and inspires you at the same time?
Anand - Other than Bhasa and Veda Vyasa, I do not have a personal favorite among writers. I love good stories irrespective of the stature of the author. India has so many master story tellers in various languages that it would be unfair to point out one single person as inspiration. The book I am inspired by is always Mahabharatha and Vyasa has claimed it right- There is nothing in the world that is not in it.
Qus. Do you like to write for young age readers? If “Asura” is considered only as a children’s book, how will you react?
Anand - Writing for young readers is the toughest of all writings. I know it by experience as both my children, who are eight and five are tougher to please than my editor. I know only one writer whose writing can be enjoyed at any age- R K Narayan. When I can write like him, so lucidly and simply, I will consider myself a writer. Until then I am just a striver.
My daughter is pressurizing me to write about a funny donkey character called Dimman that I have created and whose adventure my kids enjoy hearing about for the last two years every night. I am yet to gain confidence to write for children. May be, once I finish my second novel on which I am working now, I will dare to attempt the near impossible task of creating a quality children’s novel.
Asura can never be considered as a children’s book. It needs more finesse and requires me to improve further as a writer to create an Asura for children.
Qus- Mythology is the power of Indian Culture, and it should be celebrated in every form. But until now we only relate it to religion. Sometimes writer can heart feelings, some sentiments, so what is the author’s responsibility to tackle this issue related? We are very sensitive related to religion, so how do you see the relationship in future between books/novels and Indian Mythology subject?
Anand - Mythology is the power of Indian Culture – You rightly said it. Religion has used mythology to grow and then hold the society to ransom. We should be proud that we were the most tolerant culture in the world. I said, ‘were’ because the recent developments prove otherwise. We have grown into a society that no longer tolerates anything other than what is narrowly defined by a bunch of self-proclaimed protectors of culture. This is true about all religions including Marxism in India. So great painters get thrown out of the country, booker prize winning authors live in exile, long dead great cartoonists create nightmares for parliamentarians who apologize for 50 year old cartoons, but do not find anything wrong with the corruption that has gripped the country. The farce of ‘ my sentiment is hurt’ is getting played again and again like a broken record. There are so many languages, so many sub cultures and so many castes and sub castes in our great country that, even if one sneezes, we have to be careful now because someone will claim that has hurt his sentiments.
We are not sensitive to religion. If we were sensitive to religion, we would have been much better citizens, much better human beings. If a book can destroy five thousand year old culture and religion, then the religion is not worth preserving. Books will come and books will go, but religion will live on. The threat to any religion is not from any book, but from the narrowing minds of its followers. If three thousand and more varieties of Ramayana has been tolerated and admired by billions of Indians for the past four thousand years, why should another book written by an insignificant author in a language barely understood by two percent of the population and read by less than two percent of that be a threat to a culture that has withstood repeated attacks from ravaging hordes over the millennium.
Until now, in the entire history of mankind, differing views have not killed people. It is the people who have killed people. Stories will be told and re told, notwithstanding the noise created by some fringe groups. Such retelling is common in Indian languages. Remember Michael Madhu Sudhan Dutt, remember M T Vasudevan Nair, remember scores of great writers in various languages who have used Indian mythology to make great works of literature in their own languages. Indian English is coming of age. Baring a few writers, it is yet to reach the heights already reached by other Indian languages like Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Tamil, Assamese, Gujarathi, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil etc as far as literature is concerned. This is an evolutionary process and using mythology for writing is the part and parcel of its growth. Some may be great works of art, some may be pedestrian. But that is how the language grows. We can expect more writers who will use Indian Mythology in Indian English in the future.
Qus- One More thing, how important is for a writer to understand and respect Indian Mythology before he/she is writing about it. May be there are some publishers/writers who are only interested in cashing the interest of people but manipulate the Mythology. Your Suggestions to Young writers who want to write on epic tales, also your advice to readers?
Anand - Indian mythology is such a vast subject and should be approached with caution. It is easy to get lost in the labyrinth that it is. It is a collection of stories made by various story tellers over last four or five thousand years. They are told differently in different sub cultures of our country. My advice would be to stick to what you have heard. Hear more of the oral tradition- the folk songs, the folk tales rather that doing research on internet or library.
Regarding using controversy to sell books, I would only say that Publishing is a serious business. My experience with my editor was that they are more sensitive than me about the possible criticism about hurting the religious sentiments. Only a foolish publisher or an author would try to rake controversy and earn money. That will always backfire. Readers are intelligent and serious people and any book that does not recognize that will fall flat. If any author tries to fool people by just being controversial to sell, and he does not have anything worthwhile to tell, the book will end up where it deserves to be- the dust bin. My editor has used a very sharp knife to cut away any portions that could have possibly ruffled a few feathers.
I do not claim any historical or scriptural authority for my book. I am not a researcher and I do not have much knowledge in scriptures. Besides, mythology is difficult to prove this way or the other. My request to the reader is that, she should see this purely as a work of fiction. She should try to understand that it is Ravana who is telling the story and naturally, he would justify his actions. The book can never be used as an authority. It is just an addition to the thousands of books on Ramayana and should be considered only as another folk tale. The story is just an attempt to in counter telling of a great epic- a child of the thought-‘ Why it could not have happened like this?”. Nothing less, nothing more.
Qus . Asura, what is next for us?
Anand - I am working on Mahabharatha, from the Kaurava’s perspective. Then there are so many stories in my great country and my culture that I can keep telling them till I am tired- or the reader is tired of me and migrates to better writers
Thank You Asura- Tale of The Vanquished
Born and brought up in a medium class family of Cochin, the city famous for its 100 odd temples. This set up was enough to fascinate the ever inquisitive mind of this man to write his first innovation.
Asura-The tale of the vanquished is an enthralling story of victory and defeat, a story which is told innumerable times but never in a manner like this before. It surrounds our very own “Ramayana” in a very unexpected way. It is a version of the evil demon of darkness, whose death is cherished by every Indian, every year, the version of ‘Ravana’, whom the author also calls the “Ravanayana”. This book is extremely fresh and gives a new edge to the Indian literature and mythology. A must read for all!
Here in A special Interview , Anand Neelakantan discussed various things related to his new book , about the story , characters , about Indian Mythology and other interesting things. Read a very interesting conversastion with Anand Neelakantan.
(Interviewed by Chaynika Digwa)
Qus. From being an engineer, to an author, the journey has been long. Who inspired you to be an author?
Anand - Like most persons born in seventies, my career choice was only either becoming a Doctor or an Engineer. I became an Engineer due to peer pressure and not due to any passion. And I continue to work as an Engineer for putting food on the dining table.
My passion always has been on the creative side. I am an avid reader and authors are my heroes. I have been inspired by lots of great writers and master story tellers of all times. I had started with reading great writers of Malayalam literature like S K Pottekad, M T Vasudevan Nair, Basheer, Thakazhi etc and still continue to enjoy their works.
The giants of international literature, both classical and modern and Indian English writers like R K Narayan and later Indian English writers like Rushdie, Rohinton Mistry, Amitav Ghosh etc has inspired me in pursuing my passion.
But, it was the learning of Sanskrit in school and discovery of Bhasa, the greatest story teller who ever lived after Veda Vysa that changed my thinking pattern itself. Bhasa had travelled through paths that modern writers have not even thought about. The Oorubhanga of Bhasa, where the great dramatist portrays Duryodhana as the main protagonist is what made me think about Ravana in another light. ASURA- Tale of the vanquished owes a lot to so many people, but if you ask me what the main inspiration is, I will only point out to Bhasa
Qus - Tell us about your book “Asura Tale of the vanquished”. It is unique in much sense. From its intro and theme it looks very interesting. Is it somehow a graphic novel?
Anand - Asura- Tale of the Vanquished travels in the Asura world of Ramayana. Rama does not even make an appearance until the middle of the book. It deals with the struggles of Ravana and his child hood, how the Asuras were fighting a losing war with the ever expanding Deva Empire and how Ravana raises himself from abject poverty to the emperor of Asuras, smashing the Deva Empire. For these I have used the conventional mythology sources itself, but I have attempted to give it a modern feel and logical reasoning, instead of describing spectacular things like one thousand year tapasya for getting a boon and such things.
However, where I have differed from traditional retelling is in the creation of a fictitious character called Bhadra. He plays an equally important part. He is the voice of common Asura. The story is told as alternating chapters where Ravana tells his story and Bhadra his. Bhadra is a common soldier who lost his family to Deva raid during a Deva Asura war and thirsts for revenge against Devas. He, like many young Asuras sees Ravana as their savior and joins the charismatic young leader to fight against Devas.
With an indomitable will and inspiring leadership Ravana leads Asuras from victory to victory and establishes a grand Asura empire. Common men like Bhadra believe that a better world awaits them under Ravana and blindly follows the leader. However, as the time goes, the poor among Asuras find that nothing much has changed for them under Ravana. Asura is very much the story of great heroes like Ravana and Rama as much as it is that of common and insignificant men like Bhadra.
Other characters like Vidyutjihva, the brother in law of Ravana and the leader of a revolutionary army who leads a rebellion against Ravana promising the common men a world of equality, idealistic ministers like Prahastha who stand steadfast in their ideals, and other stock characters of Ramayana like Mandodari, Soorpanakha, Maricha etc also play their roles.
Where Asura differs is in the perspective. The conventional view is turned upside down from the traditional Ramayana. It is the story of a people who are facing an invasion from an alien kingdom. It deals with the travails and fears of the other side, the side usually branded as demons and villains. Asura is all about seeing the enemy’s view point. Basically it underlines the inherent humanity in all human beings and how the same gets crushed by conventions. It also shows how the victor can write history and how it would differ if the vanquished is given a chance to write it.
Answering your question of whether it is a graphical novel- It is not, though I have tried to describe things as graphically as possible. Whether I have succeeded in engaging the reader is something only the reader can answer. There are six beautiful illustrations done by artist Ashok which again is a deviation from modern novel. Illustrations in Novel went out of fashion except in children’s book some 100 years back. But then Asura is all about being unconventional
Qus. Apart from your birth place, Cochin and the numerable temples which trickled your mind to write this book, what else triggered you to write on such an unconventional mythological character, despite of the thousand conventional characters Indian mythology has? Why Ravana?
Anand - Asura is an attempt to get into the mind of the so called villain of Ramayana. I have heard Ramayana in various versions, told by story tellers of differing caliber and passion. Most of what I heard was oral. Being born in a conservative Brahmin family, the Ramayana I was taught was the sanitized version where characters are all in black and white. This is the story where Rama is the avatar and Ravana, the devil incarnate. Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayana that we grew up with played the part of strengthening such beliefs.
However, as I grew up and escaped the conservative environs of my childhood, I came face to face with various other folk renditions of Ramayana. There are more versions of Ramayana than any other story. It will not be an exaggeration to say that every tribe, every language, every era has their own version of Ramayana. They all differ significantly from one another. That is how great stories survive. It is co creation that makes things great. In modern world, it is the social media that co creates and make stories grow, evolve and become popular. In the traditional world, it is such retellings and co creations that make myths survive and grow. This co creation of Ramayana across Asia for the past thousands of years is what has made it the most endearing epic of human kind. Take any Indian language and we can find that the greatest of its writers have used themes from Ramayana or Mahabharatha to create classics in their own language. The epics of India are still growing and evolving. Asura is a small attempt in doing the same in Indian English writing. A time will come, when like other Indian languages, Indian English will also mature to produce writers of caliber who can deal with the complexities of Indian mythology and produce great works in Indian English, for an Indian audience.
I have used the south Indian folk lore of Ramayana in Asura. The story that Sita is the daughter of Ravana is prevalent in many south Indian folk traditions. Once Sita is accepted as the daughter of Ravana, then the whole abduction of Sita takes a different angle. When you add this up with the humiliation faced by Soorpanakha at the hands of Lakshmana, the perspective starts changing. There are innumerable folk songs that deal with the humiliation faced by the Asura princess.
Ravana as a protagonist offers immense possibilities. His life itself is an inspiration, among all the conventional Indian mythological character. Apart from Duryodhana, who is far less complicated, a few characters in Indian Mythology offers so much challenge. Who was Ravana? He is not the run of the mill villain. He is a ruler about whom Rama talks in glowing terms. Rama tells Lakshmana to learn the art of governing from Ravana, when Ravana is in his last moments. There is another folk story where it is told that Rama needed the most scholarly Brahmin priest to conduct a yajna before commencing the war. When he enquires, everyone tells that the most scholarly Brahmin alive is none other than Ravana. Rama sends an invitation to Ravana to come and conduct the Yajna to defeat Ravana. Ravana arrives at Rameshwara and conducts the Yajna and blesses Rama before war for his success. I have not used this story in Asura, but such stories are not told about any other mythological characters. A consummate Veena player, an astrologer, scientist, authority on medicine, musician, artist, warrior, great administrator- I do not think any villain has been portrayed with so many qualities in any story. It is such a villain that Indian folk traditions have been celebrating for the past thousands of years. I think that answers your question of why Ravan sufficiently.
Qus- Tell us about the other characters in “Asura” . How do you characterize Ravana in your epic tale?
Anand - I have not portrayed Ravana as the hero without any flaws. My Ravana is neither devil nor God. He is an ordinary human being, who with a burning ambition and a grand dream decides to live life fully. He has his faults. He is not infallible and does many wrong things. I have not tried to white wash Ravana. I have used the traditional Ramayana, without resorting to super naturals to portray Ravana. So he does not have ten heads and twenty arms and is not a demon who keeps laughing hysterically after every dialogue, like they portray in television serials. He is as human as you and me. He starts with an idealistic vision, but Asura deals with how power corrupts human minds and how the lives of little people are crumbled when great men march towards their destiny.
Bhadra, the other hero, is the representative of any common Indian. Totally amoral, self- centered, naïve, opportunistic, cynical, invisible, insignificant Indian- that sums up my other Hero. He gets swayed by great words of leaders and commits many crimes for them, to be dumped and trampled up on again and again. He rises from each set back with a resilience that will help him survive the spectacular. Bhadra is the victory of mundane over spectacular.
Qus. Even before hitting the stands, “Asura” has made to the ‘Top 10 online ported books’, how does it feel? Do you find your theme controversial?
Anand - For any author, seeing the book in top 10 is a dream and I am living it now. However, the test will be when the book is available in book shops by first week of June 2012 and when the reviews and criticisms will start coming.
Asura is as ancient as a story can be, yet it is as modern as possible. I hope the reader finds parallel with the current situation in India with the society described in Asura. I believe the reader will associate the characters to modern era leaders. I also hope my message resonates with readers instead of me pointing it out. Only then, I will consider the book to have succeeded.
Qus- Ashok Banker, the re- teller of the epics had published his first Re-Ramayana years back. Do you draw any comparisons/ inspiration between/with his writings?
Anand - Ashok Banker and Romesh Menon are two great writers who have effectively retold the epic and created a niche for themselves. It will be ridiculous to compare a debutant author like me with established writers who keep improving with their each rendition.
I am always inspired by successful writers and Banker and Menon are there at the top of my list for inspiration. However, my attempt is not re telling an epic, but to create a counter telling. My intention is to tell a story from the other side. Indian mythology is not subjected to counter telling often, and I am attempting to create a new genre in my own small way.
Qus. Devdutt Pattnaik, known for his extensive work on Indian Mythology draws a relation between mythology with matter s of leadership, banking, etc. Do you also draw any such relations between your book and other arenas of life?
Anand - Indians are great story tellers. Story telling was the most important medium of education for common folks, once upon a time. These stories are practical and can be applied to any situation in life. Panchatantra was created to educate princes to govern. That is the power of a good story told well.
Devadut Pattnaik is the modern Vishnu Sharma. He is training modern corporate executives through stories. He has brought the great Indian story telling tradition from the charpoy put under the village Banyan tree to the air conditioned corporate training halls and corporate rooms. Stories are powerful mediums to drive home business points.
If Asura is as good a story as I think it is, then someday, the excerpts from it will be told again and again and will be used in life. That is every author’s dream.
Qus- Has writing been a childhood passion for you? How did Indian Mythology affected your real life and your writing?
Anand - Story telling has been a child hood passion for me, along with cartooning and oil painting. I have published a few short stories, mostly satirical ones in local Malayalam weeklies. Asura took almost six years to write as I was mostly an undisciplined writer and there were many long gaps when I did not write even a single page. But I keep telling stories to my children, to my colleagues, to my friends and to anyone who is willing to listen. So more than writing, it is story telling that I am passionate about. Regarding mythology, it has always affected every living moment of my life. My family lives and breathes mythology and there are many heated discussions about philosophy and mythology in any family gatherings.
Qus- Do you feel that International recognition is important for a writer? Especially when you are writing on mythological theme, because international recognition directly – indirectly helps you to spread Indian mythology and it strengthen our culture, heritage and tradition. Your Views?
Anand - Any recognition is important for writer. I have been getting mails from some readers saying that they enjoyed my book. The satisfaction and pleasure that gives is reward enough. I take care to answer each and every letter written to me. That is because I crave for recognition like any other writer who dares to put his thoughts on paper and get it published
International recognition is important because that helps us to put the spot light back on Indian culture. Indian stories like Ramayana, Mahabharatha , Katha Saritha Sagara, Panchatantra etc have inspired and contributed to great works of art not only in literature, but also in other art fields like sculpture, painting, music, drama, folk lore and philosophical thoughts across Asia. We have a great tradition of thinking freely and tolerantly and the variety of Indian mythological themes and philosophical thoughts are proof enough for that. In a world that is becoming increasingly intolerant towards the people who differ, the spread of Indian values would act like a balm that would sooth the ruffled nerves. We have thought the world that there are many paths that lead to the truth and all can happily co-exist and prosper. My dream is to see Hollywood films of Benhur mold on Ramayana, Mahabharatha and various Indian stories.
Qus. Which author and book has been your personal favourite and inspires you at the same time?
Anand - Other than Bhasa and Veda Vyasa, I do not have a personal favorite among writers. I love good stories irrespective of the stature of the author. India has so many master story tellers in various languages that it would be unfair to point out one single person as inspiration. The book I am inspired by is always Mahabharatha and Vyasa has claimed it right- There is nothing in the world that is not in it.
Qus. Do you like to write for young age readers? If “Asura” is considered only as a children’s book, how will you react?
Anand - Writing for young readers is the toughest of all writings. I know it by experience as both my children, who are eight and five are tougher to please than my editor. I know only one writer whose writing can be enjoyed at any age- R K Narayan. When I can write like him, so lucidly and simply, I will consider myself a writer. Until then I am just a striver.
My daughter is pressurizing me to write about a funny donkey character called Dimman that I have created and whose adventure my kids enjoy hearing about for the last two years every night. I am yet to gain confidence to write for children. May be, once I finish my second novel on which I am working now, I will dare to attempt the near impossible task of creating a quality children’s novel.
Asura can never be considered as a children’s book. It needs more finesse and requires me to improve further as a writer to create an Asura for children.
Qus- Mythology is the power of Indian Culture, and it should be celebrated in every form. But until now we only relate it to religion. Sometimes writer can heart feelings, some sentiments, so what is the author’s responsibility to tackle this issue related? We are very sensitive related to religion, so how do you see the relationship in future between books/novels and Indian Mythology subject?
Anand - Mythology is the power of Indian Culture – You rightly said it. Religion has used mythology to grow and then hold the society to ransom. We should be proud that we were the most tolerant culture in the world. I said, ‘were’ because the recent developments prove otherwise. We have grown into a society that no longer tolerates anything other than what is narrowly defined by a bunch of self-proclaimed protectors of culture. This is true about all religions including Marxism in India. So great painters get thrown out of the country, booker prize winning authors live in exile, long dead great cartoonists create nightmares for parliamentarians who apologize for 50 year old cartoons, but do not find anything wrong with the corruption that has gripped the country. The farce of ‘ my sentiment is hurt’ is getting played again and again like a broken record. There are so many languages, so many sub cultures and so many castes and sub castes in our great country that, even if one sneezes, we have to be careful now because someone will claim that has hurt his sentiments.
We are not sensitive to religion. If we were sensitive to religion, we would have been much better citizens, much better human beings. If a book can destroy five thousand year old culture and religion, then the religion is not worth preserving. Books will come and books will go, but religion will live on. The threat to any religion is not from any book, but from the narrowing minds of its followers. If three thousand and more varieties of Ramayana has been tolerated and admired by billions of Indians for the past four thousand years, why should another book written by an insignificant author in a language barely understood by two percent of the population and read by less than two percent of that be a threat to a culture that has withstood repeated attacks from ravaging hordes over the millennium.
Until now, in the entire history of mankind, differing views have not killed people. It is the people who have killed people. Stories will be told and re told, notwithstanding the noise created by some fringe groups. Such retelling is common in Indian languages. Remember Michael Madhu Sudhan Dutt, remember M T Vasudevan Nair, remember scores of great writers in various languages who have used Indian mythology to make great works of literature in their own languages. Indian English is coming of age. Baring a few writers, it is yet to reach the heights already reached by other Indian languages like Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Tamil, Assamese, Gujarathi, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil etc as far as literature is concerned. This is an evolutionary process and using mythology for writing is the part and parcel of its growth. Some may be great works of art, some may be pedestrian. But that is how the language grows. We can expect more writers who will use Indian Mythology in Indian English in the future.
Qus- One More thing, how important is for a writer to understand and respect Indian Mythology before he/she is writing about it. May be there are some publishers/writers who are only interested in cashing the interest of people but manipulate the Mythology. Your Suggestions to Young writers who want to write on epic tales, also your advice to readers?
Anand - Indian mythology is such a vast subject and should be approached with caution. It is easy to get lost in the labyrinth that it is. It is a collection of stories made by various story tellers over last four or five thousand years. They are told differently in different sub cultures of our country. My advice would be to stick to what you have heard. Hear more of the oral tradition- the folk songs, the folk tales rather that doing research on internet or library.
Regarding using controversy to sell books, I would only say that Publishing is a serious business. My experience with my editor was that they are more sensitive than me about the possible criticism about hurting the religious sentiments. Only a foolish publisher or an author would try to rake controversy and earn money. That will always backfire. Readers are intelligent and serious people and any book that does not recognize that will fall flat. If any author tries to fool people by just being controversial to sell, and he does not have anything worthwhile to tell, the book will end up where it deserves to be- the dust bin. My editor has used a very sharp knife to cut away any portions that could have possibly ruffled a few feathers.
I do not claim any historical or scriptural authority for my book. I am not a researcher and I do not have much knowledge in scriptures. Besides, mythology is difficult to prove this way or the other. My request to the reader is that, she should see this purely as a work of fiction. She should try to understand that it is Ravana who is telling the story and naturally, he would justify his actions. The book can never be used as an authority. It is just an addition to the thousands of books on Ramayana and should be considered only as another folk tale. The story is just an attempt to in counter telling of a great epic- a child of the thought-‘ Why it could not have happened like this?”. Nothing less, nothing more.
Qus . Asura, what is next for us?
Anand - I am working on Mahabharatha, from the Kaurava’s perspective. Then there are so many stories in my great country and my culture that I can keep telling them till I am tired- or the reader is tired of me and migrates to better writers
Thank You Asura- Tale of The Vanquished
Asura in Gulf news review
An epic tale of the other
‘The Ramayana’ told from Ravan’s point of view, treated here as a fallen hero rather than as the villain
Reviewed by Somshankar Bandyopadhyay Staff Writer
Published: 21:30 September 6, 2012
Gulf News
Share on twitter Share on facebook Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 2
Image Credit: Luis Vazquez/©Gulf News
ASURA: Tale of the Vanquished
By Anand Neelakantan,
Leadstart Publishing, 504 pages, $12
“Hegel’s ideas are standing on their head,” Karl Marx once famously wrote in a critique of the German philosopher. “My idea is to set them on their feet.”
Indeed, this is the first reaction that comes to mind when reading “ASURA: Tale of the Vanquished”, Anand Neelakantan’s debut novel, in which he tells us the story of the war between Ram and Ravan, immortalised in India’s oldest epic, “The Ramayana”. The twist in the tale, however, is that the story is told from Ravan’s point of view — the story of the fallen, the vanquished.
History, it is said, has always been the story of the victors. Could “The Ramayana”, where the asuras are “demonised”, be reinterpreted if viewed from the losers’ point of view? This is what Neelakantan attempts in “ASURA”.
For Indians, the story of “The Ramayana” is well known. For those who don’t, roughly, the story runs like this: Dasaratha, king of the northern Indian kingdom of Ayodhya, prays to the gods for a son. He is blessed with four, and the eldest among them is Ram, considered to be an avatar (incarnation) of Vishnu, one of the three main deities of the Hindu pantheon, who has taken an earthly form to rid the world of the asuras, demons whose misdeeds have been growing. Ram marries Sita, daughter of King Janaka of neighbouring Mithila, and all seems to be going well until Kaikeyi, Dasaratha’s second queen, wants her son Bharat on the throne, and Ram, Sita and Lakshman, Ram’s younger brother, are banished to the forest. During their wanderings in the forest, Sita is abducted by Ravan, the ten-headed king of the demons. Ram defeats Ravan with the help of an army of monkeys and returns to rule Ayodhya, as Bharat renounces the throne.
So goes the popular tale. However, several versions of it persist: It is estimated that more than 300 versions of the story exist in Indian and South East Asian literature. Historians have roughly placed the writing of the original story around the 4th or the 5th century BC, and the part where Ram and Lakshman wander the forest in search of Sita is viewed as the spread of the Aryan civilisation through the central-southern parts of the subcontinent as these areas progressively came under Hinduism.
Thus, it is hardly surprising that in several tribal versions of the story Ravan is treated as a fallen hero rather than as the villain, a refrain Neelakantan draws upon in his work.
The author strips “ASURA” of all divinity, and while Ravan is depicted as the king of the asuras, the term here refers not to demons but to a tribe. Ram is also depicted here as prince of the Deva tribe, with no allusions to his divine links as in the more popular versions of the epic. Sita in the tale is Ravan’s daughter, who as an infant is cast into a marsh to die as it is foretold that she would be the cause of the downfall of the Asura race. She is picked up and raised by Janaka. Neelakantan draws on several tribal versions of the epic for this reference to Sita’s antecedents. The first mention of such a background is to be found in Sanghadasa’s Jain version of “The Ramayana” of the 5th century BC, which is echoed in several folk tales in southern India. In fact, there is a Kannada version of the story in which Ravan is depicted as Sita’s mother.
Outside India, “The Ramakien”, which is considered the national epic of Thailand, also refers to Ravan as Sita’s father, probably drawn from versions which reached South East Asian shores during the maritime activities of the Chola kings of southern India.
The most interesting part of Neelakantan’s “ASURA”, however, is the interpretation of Ravan’s ten heads. While the original story uses this to highlight the demon-king’s fierceness, Neelakantan views it as a depiction of the ten principal emotions of man — anger, pride, jealousy, happiness, sadness, fear, selfishness, passion, ambition and, supreme among them all, intellect. Traditional Indian wisdom places importance on the control of one’s emotions and projects the intellect alone as supreme. “Indian spiritual gurus have always stressed the need to overcome the self and considered these emotions detrimental to the elevation of the soul,” Neelakantan writes. However, Ravan shunned this traditional thought, stating that a combination of all the ten emotions makes one a complete human being.
“ASURA” has created quite a stir in India, appearing on several bestseller lists, and it is easy to understand why as one reads the book. Neelakantan tells his story in a very matter-of-fact way, keeping the language simple and straightforward. He introduces a new character in the drama, called Bhadra, and the story is told in first person by Ravan and Bhadra.
Ravan talks of himself and his exploits, highlighting his struggles as a half-breed (his father is a Brahmin of the highest caste and his mother an Asura woman), rising from poverty to becoming ruler of a kingdom which spanned the entire country.
However, Bhadra’s account is more heart-rending — it tells us of a people who led simple lives and how ordinary people’s lives were ravaged by war in which they had no stake (a fact that remains true to this day). Neelakantan highlights how the advent of the Aryan civilisation led to the introduction of the caste system in the interiors of the country — a scourge which continues to plague society today.
Perhaps, if answers are to be found to the myriad problems facing India today, especially the rising gap between rich and poor in the face of the onslaught of the liberal economy, the country’s leaders need to return to their roots to find answers. India cannot hope to find respect in the international seat of nations unless 5,000 years of exploitation of society’s lower rungs are addressed. That is the central message Neelakantan tries to convey through “ASURA”.
‘The Ramayana’ told from Ravan’s point of view, treated here as a fallen hero rather than as the villain
Reviewed by Somshankar Bandyopadhyay Staff Writer
Published: 21:30 September 6, 2012
Gulf News
Share on twitter Share on facebook Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 2
Image Credit: Luis Vazquez/©Gulf News
ASURA: Tale of the Vanquished
By Anand Neelakantan,
Leadstart Publishing, 504 pages, $12
“Hegel’s ideas are standing on their head,” Karl Marx once famously wrote in a critique of the German philosopher. “My idea is to set them on their feet.”
Indeed, this is the first reaction that comes to mind when reading “ASURA: Tale of the Vanquished”, Anand Neelakantan’s debut novel, in which he tells us the story of the war between Ram and Ravan, immortalised in India’s oldest epic, “The Ramayana”. The twist in the tale, however, is that the story is told from Ravan’s point of view — the story of the fallen, the vanquished.
History, it is said, has always been the story of the victors. Could “The Ramayana”, where the asuras are “demonised”, be reinterpreted if viewed from the losers’ point of view? This is what Neelakantan attempts in “ASURA”.
For Indians, the story of “The Ramayana” is well known. For those who don’t, roughly, the story runs like this: Dasaratha, king of the northern Indian kingdom of Ayodhya, prays to the gods for a son. He is blessed with four, and the eldest among them is Ram, considered to be an avatar (incarnation) of Vishnu, one of the three main deities of the Hindu pantheon, who has taken an earthly form to rid the world of the asuras, demons whose misdeeds have been growing. Ram marries Sita, daughter of King Janaka of neighbouring Mithila, and all seems to be going well until Kaikeyi, Dasaratha’s second queen, wants her son Bharat on the throne, and Ram, Sita and Lakshman, Ram’s younger brother, are banished to the forest. During their wanderings in the forest, Sita is abducted by Ravan, the ten-headed king of the demons. Ram defeats Ravan with the help of an army of monkeys and returns to rule Ayodhya, as Bharat renounces the throne.
So goes the popular tale. However, several versions of it persist: It is estimated that more than 300 versions of the story exist in Indian and South East Asian literature. Historians have roughly placed the writing of the original story around the 4th or the 5th century BC, and the part where Ram and Lakshman wander the forest in search of Sita is viewed as the spread of the Aryan civilisation through the central-southern parts of the subcontinent as these areas progressively came under Hinduism.
Thus, it is hardly surprising that in several tribal versions of the story Ravan is treated as a fallen hero rather than as the villain, a refrain Neelakantan draws upon in his work.
The author strips “ASURA” of all divinity, and while Ravan is depicted as the king of the asuras, the term here refers not to demons but to a tribe. Ram is also depicted here as prince of the Deva tribe, with no allusions to his divine links as in the more popular versions of the epic. Sita in the tale is Ravan’s daughter, who as an infant is cast into a marsh to die as it is foretold that she would be the cause of the downfall of the Asura race. She is picked up and raised by Janaka. Neelakantan draws on several tribal versions of the epic for this reference to Sita’s antecedents. The first mention of such a background is to be found in Sanghadasa’s Jain version of “The Ramayana” of the 5th century BC, which is echoed in several folk tales in southern India. In fact, there is a Kannada version of the story in which Ravan is depicted as Sita’s mother.
Outside India, “The Ramakien”, which is considered the national epic of Thailand, also refers to Ravan as Sita’s father, probably drawn from versions which reached South East Asian shores during the maritime activities of the Chola kings of southern India.
The most interesting part of Neelakantan’s “ASURA”, however, is the interpretation of Ravan’s ten heads. While the original story uses this to highlight the demon-king’s fierceness, Neelakantan views it as a depiction of the ten principal emotions of man — anger, pride, jealousy, happiness, sadness, fear, selfishness, passion, ambition and, supreme among them all, intellect. Traditional Indian wisdom places importance on the control of one’s emotions and projects the intellect alone as supreme. “Indian spiritual gurus have always stressed the need to overcome the self and considered these emotions detrimental to the elevation of the soul,” Neelakantan writes. However, Ravan shunned this traditional thought, stating that a combination of all the ten emotions makes one a complete human being.
“ASURA” has created quite a stir in India, appearing on several bestseller lists, and it is easy to understand why as one reads the book. Neelakantan tells his story in a very matter-of-fact way, keeping the language simple and straightforward. He introduces a new character in the drama, called Bhadra, and the story is told in first person by Ravan and Bhadra.
Ravan talks of himself and his exploits, highlighting his struggles as a half-breed (his father is a Brahmin of the highest caste and his mother an Asura woman), rising from poverty to becoming ruler of a kingdom which spanned the entire country.
However, Bhadra’s account is more heart-rending — it tells us of a people who led simple lives and how ordinary people’s lives were ravaged by war in which they had no stake (a fact that remains true to this day). Neelakantan highlights how the advent of the Aryan civilisation led to the introduction of the caste system in the interiors of the country — a scourge which continues to plague society today.
Perhaps, if answers are to be found to the myriad problems facing India today, especially the rising gap between rich and poor in the face of the onslaught of the liberal economy, the country’s leaders need to return to their roots to find answers. India cannot hope to find respect in the international seat of nations unless 5,000 years of exploitation of society’s lower rungs are addressed. That is the central message Neelakantan tries to convey through “ASURA”.
My artcile about Onam in Deccan Chronicle
Maybe Onam is a remembrance. Or maybe it is a lament. Or perhaps, it is just a dream that withered away.
Onam is the only festival in India that is celebrated in honour of an Asura. All other festivals like Deepavali or Navarathri belong to the gods.
They celebrate the victory of one god or another over the evil forces of darkness. Whose evil and whose darkness is another moot point.
Festivals are all about victory. Rarely are they about lost dreams. It is not often that ideas get celebrated.
But Onam is an idea that is worth celebrating. In a society that was tied up in convoluted knots of caste hierarchy for centuries, such a thought of equality sprouted in it, is indeed a miracle. Does the hazy legend of Mahabali hide the shame of a subverted race?
Is there something more to be read about the Vamana avatar and Parasurama avatar of Lord Vishnu? What the little dwarf, Vamana asked was for three feet of soil. What was granted was three feet of soil. What got taken away was the entire earth and the sky.
Asuras had nowhere to go, other than under the feet of the dwarf who had by now grown into a giant. The legend of Parasurama, who is the next avatar of Vishnu, also has to be read along with this.
It is said that after his many rounds of regicide that exterminated innumerable rulers, he decided to find a land for Brahmins.
He threw his axe and the god of the sea, Varuna, retreated from Gokarna to Kanyakumari. This is the land that the fifth avatar of Vishnu found for the Brahmins.
If we read both these legends together, some vague pictures of history emerge from the misty folds of myths.
Perhaps, Vamana is a symbolic representation of the first wave of migration of Brahmins to the kingdom of Asuras.
A small group of migrants arrive at the kingdom of a powerful king and asks for asylum. The migrants get a foothold and then they grow so powerful to subvert the king and the entire culture.
The kingdom is weakened within. It is in this weakened kingdom that the Rama with an axe to grind comes to establish his social order.
History is always written by the victor. These legends when stripped of all the contrived dogmas tell a simple tale - a tale of the people who got run over by another culture.
When we think about it in this manner, Onam becomes more than just a harvest festival. It becomes a cry of agony. It becomes a trip of nostalgia to a vague memory, a flight of fantasy to what could have been.
It is a collective sigh of a people who dream about a past that has got coloured and glorified in the hands of time. Not many cultures of antiquity had cherished the ideals of equality of all men.
More than anything, Onam is a tribute to such a culture that had dared to think about all humans being equal when the ideas of conquest, war, caste, slavery etc ruled the world.
In that way, Onam is more about yearning for a future that may never be than the remembrance of a past that never was.
(The writer is the author of the novel ‘Asura- Tale of the Vanquished’)
Onam is the only festival in India that is celebrated in honour of an Asura. All other festivals like Deepavali or Navarathri belong to the gods.
They celebrate the victory of one god or another over the evil forces of darkness. Whose evil and whose darkness is another moot point.
Festivals are all about victory. Rarely are they about lost dreams. It is not often that ideas get celebrated.
But Onam is an idea that is worth celebrating. In a society that was tied up in convoluted knots of caste hierarchy for centuries, such a thought of equality sprouted in it, is indeed a miracle. Does the hazy legend of Mahabali hide the shame of a subverted race?
Is there something more to be read about the Vamana avatar and Parasurama avatar of Lord Vishnu? What the little dwarf, Vamana asked was for three feet of soil. What was granted was three feet of soil. What got taken away was the entire earth and the sky.
Asuras had nowhere to go, other than under the feet of the dwarf who had by now grown into a giant. The legend of Parasurama, who is the next avatar of Vishnu, also has to be read along with this.
It is said that after his many rounds of regicide that exterminated innumerable rulers, he decided to find a land for Brahmins.
He threw his axe and the god of the sea, Varuna, retreated from Gokarna to Kanyakumari. This is the land that the fifth avatar of Vishnu found for the Brahmins.
If we read both these legends together, some vague pictures of history emerge from the misty folds of myths.
Perhaps, Vamana is a symbolic representation of the first wave of migration of Brahmins to the kingdom of Asuras.
A small group of migrants arrive at the kingdom of a powerful king and asks for asylum. The migrants get a foothold and then they grow so powerful to subvert the king and the entire culture.
The kingdom is weakened within. It is in this weakened kingdom that the Rama with an axe to grind comes to establish his social order.
History is always written by the victor. These legends when stripped of all the contrived dogmas tell a simple tale - a tale of the people who got run over by another culture.
When we think about it in this manner, Onam becomes more than just a harvest festival. It becomes a cry of agony. It becomes a trip of nostalgia to a vague memory, a flight of fantasy to what could have been.
It is a collective sigh of a people who dream about a past that has got coloured and glorified in the hands of time. Not many cultures of antiquity had cherished the ideals of equality of all men.
More than anything, Onam is a tribute to such a culture that had dared to think about all humans being equal when the ideas of conquest, war, caste, slavery etc ruled the world.
In that way, Onam is more about yearning for a future that may never be than the remembrance of a past that never was.
(The writer is the author of the novel ‘Asura- Tale of the Vanquished’)
INDIAN EXPRESS covery story by me for Deepavali
Is Deepavali more than just a festival of lights? Generally, Diwali in the Northern parts of the country is celebrated to commemorate the triumphant arrival of Sri Rama in Ayodhya after vanquishing Ravana. In the south, Deepavali is associated with the killing of Narakasura by Sathyabhama and Krishna. In both cases, it shows the triumph of good over evil, or so we have been taught. Different cultures celebrate the same festival for different reasons.
It is perhaps the only Hindu festival which is celebrated on a new moon day. The new moon day is generally considered inauspicious. It is the day of mourning, a day to remember one’s ancestors. Many Hindus choose this day to make an offering (Tharpanam) to their ancestors. Generally astrologers do not advise the believers to venture upon anything new on Amavasya day. In many parts of South India, Deepavali rituals include the sesame oil bath, the feeding of crows, the distribution of new clothes, the bursting of crackers etc. Ironically, most of these customs also form a part of death rituals among many communities. Are we missing something here?
Do such customs point to some ancient historical event? Did Deepavali in the south start as a remembrance of some illustrious ancestor and later got Sanskritised to its present form? In parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka, the third day of Deepavali is celebrated as Bali Pratipada. The legend is that, Deepavali is the day when emperor Mahabali of Asuras was banished to netherworld by Vamana. A pyramid-shaped image of Bali is made out of clay and is placed over a wooden plank designed with Rangoli decorations and bedecked with flowers and worshipped. The similarities with these customs with the Onam festival of Kerala are hard to miss for anyone who is familiar with Onam. Onam is in remembrance of the same Asura king, Mahabali. Flower mats are made and similar pyramid shaped clay image of Mahabali is worshipped during Onam. The belief that Mahabali’s reign was the most ideal one runs strong in the collective psyche of the people celebrating these two distinct festivals. Though it is believed that Mahabali’s capital was in Kerala, Vamana Purana states that Mahabali was performing Aswamedha Yajna on the banks of the Narmada, when Vamana approached him with the request for three paces of land.
It may not be a coincidence that people in and around Narmada celebrate the Asura emperor’s memory in an almost similar fashion in which it is being done in far away Kerala. Like their cousins in distant Kerala during Onam, the common rural folks of Maharashtra and North Karnataka celebrate the memory of a shared dream during Deepavali. Unlike the North Indian Diwali where homecoming of Rama is celebrated, it is the memory of a vanquished Asura king that gives life to the celebration of the rural folks of Deccan. They do not yearn for Rama Rajya, but for the ideal kingdom of Bali. They mourn the fact that three little steps of a dwarf grew big enough to crush their entire world and dreams. An ideal world lay shattered on the altar of jealousy; the jealousy of Gods towards an Asura ruler who brought peace, prosperity and equality to his people. The people of this country, then as it is now, do not deserve anything better, or so it is willed by the Gods. But such precious dreams of men do not wither away at the will of the Gods.
The differences between Onam and Deepavali disappear in this collective yearning for an ideal world. Now the strange customs of Deepavali that resembles many death rituals start making sense. The reason for the most important of all festivals being celebrated on an Amavasya day becomes clearer. The rituals of Deepavali are a part of “Bali Tharpan”, the homage to an Asura emperor who gave up his life for upholding the truth and Dharma. Like any death in rural South India, this day also gets celebrated with the same exuberance of life. In its bursting of crackers, in its feasting, in its new clothes, in its ritual bath with sesame oil, the bitterness of the death goes hand in hand with the life and its sweetness. The agony of a lost past mixes with the hope of a better future. Thus, Deepavali is a tribute to the spirit of our people who keep dreaming about an ideal rule. It may be as Ramarajya in the north or as Bali Rajya in the south, but the yearning remains the same. Such optimism is indeed remarkable when we consider how our Rulers and our Gods have short-changed us for so long. Yet we refuse to stop dreaming. And in such dreams lie our hope and salvation.
Anand Neelakantan is the author of Asura — Tale Of The Vanquished, The Story Of Ravana And His People
Asura- Tale of The Vanquished
It is perhaps the only Hindu festival which is celebrated on a new moon day. The new moon day is generally considered inauspicious. It is the day of mourning, a day to remember one’s ancestors. Many Hindus choose this day to make an offering (Tharpanam) to their ancestors. Generally astrologers do not advise the believers to venture upon anything new on Amavasya day. In many parts of South India, Deepavali rituals include the sesame oil bath, the feeding of crows, the distribution of new clothes, the bursting of crackers etc. Ironically, most of these customs also form a part of death rituals among many communities. Are we missing something here?
Do such customs point to some ancient historical event? Did Deepavali in the south start as a remembrance of some illustrious ancestor and later got Sanskritised to its present form? In parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka, the third day of Deepavali is celebrated as Bali Pratipada. The legend is that, Deepavali is the day when emperor Mahabali of Asuras was banished to netherworld by Vamana. A pyramid-shaped image of Bali is made out of clay and is placed over a wooden plank designed with Rangoli decorations and bedecked with flowers and worshipped. The similarities with these customs with the Onam festival of Kerala are hard to miss for anyone who is familiar with Onam. Onam is in remembrance of the same Asura king, Mahabali. Flower mats are made and similar pyramid shaped clay image of Mahabali is worshipped during Onam. The belief that Mahabali’s reign was the most ideal one runs strong in the collective psyche of the people celebrating these two distinct festivals. Though it is believed that Mahabali’s capital was in Kerala, Vamana Purana states that Mahabali was performing Aswamedha Yajna on the banks of the Narmada, when Vamana approached him with the request for three paces of land.
It may not be a coincidence that people in and around Narmada celebrate the Asura emperor’s memory in an almost similar fashion in which it is being done in far away Kerala. Like their cousins in distant Kerala during Onam, the common rural folks of Maharashtra and North Karnataka celebrate the memory of a shared dream during Deepavali. Unlike the North Indian Diwali where homecoming of Rama is celebrated, it is the memory of a vanquished Asura king that gives life to the celebration of the rural folks of Deccan. They do not yearn for Rama Rajya, but for the ideal kingdom of Bali. They mourn the fact that three little steps of a dwarf grew big enough to crush their entire world and dreams. An ideal world lay shattered on the altar of jealousy; the jealousy of Gods towards an Asura ruler who brought peace, prosperity and equality to his people. The people of this country, then as it is now, do not deserve anything better, or so it is willed by the Gods. But such precious dreams of men do not wither away at the will of the Gods.
The differences between Onam and Deepavali disappear in this collective yearning for an ideal world. Now the strange customs of Deepavali that resembles many death rituals start making sense. The reason for the most important of all festivals being celebrated on an Amavasya day becomes clearer. The rituals of Deepavali are a part of “Bali Tharpan”, the homage to an Asura emperor who gave up his life for upholding the truth and Dharma. Like any death in rural South India, this day also gets celebrated with the same exuberance of life. In its bursting of crackers, in its feasting, in its new clothes, in its ritual bath with sesame oil, the bitterness of the death goes hand in hand with the life and its sweetness. The agony of a lost past mixes with the hope of a better future. Thus, Deepavali is a tribute to the spirit of our people who keep dreaming about an ideal rule. It may be as Ramarajya in the north or as Bali Rajya in the south, but the yearning remains the same. Such optimism is indeed remarkable when we consider how our Rulers and our Gods have short-changed us for so long. Yet we refuse to stop dreaming. And in such dreams lie our hope and salvation.
Anand Neelakantan is the author of Asura — Tale Of The Vanquished, The Story Of Ravana And His People
Asura- Tale of The Vanquished
