Ask the Author: Sathyajith Panachikal
Answered Questions (4)
Sathyajith Panachikal
Thanks for the compliment, Bhuvan
While writing the novel, I let my narrator do all the talking, never interfering with the tenor of the tale. All I had to do was to journal his everyday musings and experiences besides keeping track of the actions unfolding against the backdrop.
Unlike in other literary streams, a historical fiction writer has to work within certain ambit. There is a limit to how much a dark character could be vilified and a protagonist would be glorified, because the facts are still fresh in public memory. Any alterations from the existing narrative should be adequately substantiated and must be prepared to stand academic scrutiny.
One of the advantages of employing first person POV is that all the criticisms and observations in the novel are those of the narrator. To some extend ,this implicit disclaimer sort of absolves the writer ( in an ideal world) of any possible sacrilegious or blasphemous act he is purported to have committed.
There is often only a thin line that separates villainy from heroism. The characters in all the Epics and Sagas , as in real life, are imbued with both Rajo guna and Tamo guna / yin and Yang and ,at times, it is difficult to hold any particular character responsible for the tragic turn history has taken.
I would liken the process of writing with objectivity to playing a game of chess with yourself. When you know the moves of both players you cannot take sides with either of them.
While writing the novel, I let my narrator do all the talking, never interfering with the tenor of the tale. All I had to do was to journal his everyday musings and experiences besides keeping track of the actions unfolding against the backdrop.
Unlike in other literary streams, a historical fiction writer has to work within certain ambit. There is a limit to how much a dark character could be vilified and a protagonist would be glorified, because the facts are still fresh in public memory. Any alterations from the existing narrative should be adequately substantiated and must be prepared to stand academic scrutiny.
One of the advantages of employing first person POV is that all the criticisms and observations in the novel are those of the narrator. To some extend ,this implicit disclaimer sort of absolves the writer ( in an ideal world) of any possible sacrilegious or blasphemous act he is purported to have committed.
There is often only a thin line that separates villainy from heroism. The characters in all the Epics and Sagas , as in real life, are imbued with both Rajo guna and Tamo guna / yin and Yang and ,at times, it is difficult to hold any particular character responsible for the tragic turn history has taken.
I would liken the process of writing with objectivity to playing a game of chess with yourself. When you know the moves of both players you cannot take sides with either of them.
Sathyajith Panachikal
Circe by Madeline Miller
Sathyajith Panachikal
Hello Marya,
Thanks for the question.
As I have mentioned in the forward to the novel, it was my chance encounter with Jivaka, almost midway through the narrative, that prompted me to dig deeper to find out if this particular character had any significant locus standi on the vast canvas of the picture I was going to depict. To my surprise, he had a fascinating story and a voice of of his own and a stellar role to play, which more often were drowned out and dwarfed by the voices and acts of other dominant players of the theatre.
Jivaka, the narrator of the novel ‘Stela of the Sinner’ was not only the most revered physician of the period but was an active member of the Magadhan administrative machinery as well. His royal lineage coupled with his impeccable medical background made him an indispensable person not just in Magadha but also in hostile territories.
In Sangha and Jaina chronicles, Jivaka has been shown to have conducted a successful cranial surgery, an astonishing feat even by today’s standards. Although opening the skull and conducting an invasive neurosurgery was nothing new to the ancient world, it was for the first time that a specific individual was historically attested to have performed the complex procedure. While we might wonder how he performed brain surgery without anaesthesia, one should be equally inquisitive ,if not suspicious, about the records that say Caesarean section predated Julius Caesar and that the ancient Egyptians performed complex dental implants and even brain surgery. More recently, it has come to light that Mayans and Incas of Mesoamerica had a near 90% success rate - a claim that needs to be taken with a pinch of salt- with trepanations( skull surgery), centuries before the advent of modern medicine.
Add to this the fact that it was also a time when India’s indigenous system of medicine ,Ayurveda ,was at its prime , with the introduction of manuals and pharmacopoeias made by stalwarts like Sushruta and Athreya revolutionising the medical science like never before.
Amidst court intrigues and gory betrayals, Jivaka’s voice remained unusually sane, his integrity unwavering and his mind stoical.He was a healer through and through.He cured the royals and commoners of their afflictions, both physical and mental. With the good of the empire at heart,he often risked his life to intervene in circumstances where the situation demanded it. The thrones changed hands , but the royal physician always lived another day to tell the tale, not because of his cunning or power but because he made himself unassailable through intellect ,knowledge and skill.
Jivaka was as a doctor , an administrator, a strategist and most importantly, a thinker, all rolled into one.He served Magadha during the reigns of three of its great monarchs.And he provided succour to great men and women in their hours of need, all the while forgetting to live a life of his own.
What better narrator to chronicle the history of Magadha than a sagely figure who considered himself a loyal servant to the King Bimbisara and a doctor who was destined to treat none other than the Buddha?
Thanks for the question.
As I have mentioned in the forward to the novel, it was my chance encounter with Jivaka, almost midway through the narrative, that prompted me to dig deeper to find out if this particular character had any significant locus standi on the vast canvas of the picture I was going to depict. To my surprise, he had a fascinating story and a voice of of his own and a stellar role to play, which more often were drowned out and dwarfed by the voices and acts of other dominant players of the theatre.
Jivaka, the narrator of the novel ‘Stela of the Sinner’ was not only the most revered physician of the period but was an active member of the Magadhan administrative machinery as well. His royal lineage coupled with his impeccable medical background made him an indispensable person not just in Magadha but also in hostile territories.
In Sangha and Jaina chronicles, Jivaka has been shown to have conducted a successful cranial surgery, an astonishing feat even by today’s standards. Although opening the skull and conducting an invasive neurosurgery was nothing new to the ancient world, it was for the first time that a specific individual was historically attested to have performed the complex procedure. While we might wonder how he performed brain surgery without anaesthesia, one should be equally inquisitive ,if not suspicious, about the records that say Caesarean section predated Julius Caesar and that the ancient Egyptians performed complex dental implants and even brain surgery. More recently, it has come to light that Mayans and Incas of Mesoamerica had a near 90% success rate - a claim that needs to be taken with a pinch of salt- with trepanations( skull surgery), centuries before the advent of modern medicine.
Add to this the fact that it was also a time when India’s indigenous system of medicine ,Ayurveda ,was at its prime , with the introduction of manuals and pharmacopoeias made by stalwarts like Sushruta and Athreya revolutionising the medical science like never before.
Amidst court intrigues and gory betrayals, Jivaka’s voice remained unusually sane, his integrity unwavering and his mind stoical.He was a healer through and through.He cured the royals and commoners of their afflictions, both physical and mental. With the good of the empire at heart,he often risked his life to intervene in circumstances where the situation demanded it. The thrones changed hands , but the royal physician always lived another day to tell the tale, not because of his cunning or power but because he made himself unassailable through intellect ,knowledge and skill.
Jivaka was as a doctor , an administrator, a strategist and most importantly, a thinker, all rolled into one.He served Magadha during the reigns of three of its great monarchs.And he provided succour to great men and women in their hours of need, all the while forgetting to live a life of his own.
What better narrator to chronicle the history of Magadha than a sagely figure who considered himself a loyal servant to the King Bimbisara and a doctor who was destined to treat none other than the Buddha?
Sathyajith Panachikal
Hello Ganesh,
Thanks for the question.
I was always a history aficionado.
When I participated in a short story contest organised by our local Library, I wrote a tale based on a minor historical incident , about Harsha Vardhana and his sister Rajyashri who was abducted by a rival king. One of the judges later asked me if I had plagiarised the story from somewhere. I replied that I just elaborated on a single sentence in a book that caught my attention. Although I did not win the prize , that set me thinking; my story,perhaps, appeared to have been written by a good writer.The judges could not believe that it was I who wrote it.A fifteen year old boy cannot write such things- that’s what the judge’s question implied.
However , it emboldened me to focus on historical anecdotes which most people did not take seriously.And I was really yearning to write a historical novel. But first of all,I needed to hone my skills and I began scribbling short stories and Flash fictions . I pored over books and articles on writing , plot and craft and joined online creative writing courses whenever I had some free time.
The story of Bimbisara and Ajathasatru intrigued me the moment I read it, thanks to Amar Chitra Katha.While there is little dispute that Chandragupta Maurya does qualify as the greatest emperor India ever had, historians tend to ignore the fact that Bimbisara was equally strong and was instrumental in safeguarding the country from such formidable foes as Cyrus the Great and Darius. Compare this to Chandragupta’s subjugation of Seleucus Nicator.Although Bimbisara did not have a showdown with Cyrus or Darius, he effectively thwarted their designs to invade India in the great period of churn known as the Axial Age.He and later his son Ajathasatru laid the foundations for Pataliputra thereby the redeeming the glory of the erstwhile Magadhan Empire of the Vedic age. All that the Nandas, Mauryas and Guptas needed to do was to build on that momentum.
This King, Bimbisara, who was the first ruler to have a standing army, first to introduce tax collection , the only king destined to have extended patronage to the likes of Buddha and Mahaveera and nurtured an egalitarian society, in my view, called for more respect and admiration.
And the abominable story of Ajathasatru, who seeks redemption from the sins of patricide,and who too would eventually face the same fate as his father,required a retelling.
So did Jivaka the protagonist and narrator of this chronicle who , despite being the most celebrated physician of his time, was conveniently sidelined by historians, relegating him to the obscure corners of the past.
Furthermore, I wished to highlight the fact , at the risk of being labelled jingoistic, that ancient India was an unbelievably prosperous, culturally vibrant , intellectually superior landscape which was too scientifically advanced for its time.
Ancient India and its people, collectively, was a supercomputer that churned out inventions after inventions, provided solutions and discoveries.
It thought for the world.
Thanks for the question.
I was always a history aficionado.
When I participated in a short story contest organised by our local Library, I wrote a tale based on a minor historical incident , about Harsha Vardhana and his sister Rajyashri who was abducted by a rival king. One of the judges later asked me if I had plagiarised the story from somewhere. I replied that I just elaborated on a single sentence in a book that caught my attention. Although I did not win the prize , that set me thinking; my story,perhaps, appeared to have been written by a good writer.The judges could not believe that it was I who wrote it.A fifteen year old boy cannot write such things- that’s what the judge’s question implied.
However , it emboldened me to focus on historical anecdotes which most people did not take seriously.And I was really yearning to write a historical novel. But first of all,I needed to hone my skills and I began scribbling short stories and Flash fictions . I pored over books and articles on writing , plot and craft and joined online creative writing courses whenever I had some free time.
The story of Bimbisara and Ajathasatru intrigued me the moment I read it, thanks to Amar Chitra Katha.While there is little dispute that Chandragupta Maurya does qualify as the greatest emperor India ever had, historians tend to ignore the fact that Bimbisara was equally strong and was instrumental in safeguarding the country from such formidable foes as Cyrus the Great and Darius. Compare this to Chandragupta’s subjugation of Seleucus Nicator.Although Bimbisara did not have a showdown with Cyrus or Darius, he effectively thwarted their designs to invade India in the great period of churn known as the Axial Age.He and later his son Ajathasatru laid the foundations for Pataliputra thereby the redeeming the glory of the erstwhile Magadhan Empire of the Vedic age. All that the Nandas, Mauryas and Guptas needed to do was to build on that momentum.
This King, Bimbisara, who was the first ruler to have a standing army, first to introduce tax collection , the only king destined to have extended patronage to the likes of Buddha and Mahaveera and nurtured an egalitarian society, in my view, called for more respect and admiration.
And the abominable story of Ajathasatru, who seeks redemption from the sins of patricide,and who too would eventually face the same fate as his father,required a retelling.
So did Jivaka the protagonist and narrator of this chronicle who , despite being the most celebrated physician of his time, was conveniently sidelined by historians, relegating him to the obscure corners of the past.
Furthermore, I wished to highlight the fact , at the risk of being labelled jingoistic, that ancient India was an unbelievably prosperous, culturally vibrant , intellectually superior landscape which was too scientifically advanced for its time.
Ancient India and its people, collectively, was a supercomputer that churned out inventions after inventions, provided solutions and discoveries.
It thought for the world.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more
May 28, 2025 05:37AM · flag