Anand Neelakantan's Blog - Posts Tagged "ravanayan"

‘Ravana’ The Unsung Hero
Posted on August 1, 2012 by crosswordbookstores

Hello & Welcome Back Geeks to your dose of Bookipedia.

We know all the story of The Great Rama and his epic victory on Lanka. The Tale of how the Prince of Ayodhya conquered the greatest evil Ravana is a legendary one. Ramayana has been narrated to us throughout ages and Rama the avatar of Vishnu is worshipped by all Indians.

But there’s a twist in the Tale…..

What if Ravana was not the Villian?

What if Ravana turned against the gods to save a dying race?

What if Ravana was just a hero as Rama for Ayodha for the people of Asura?

Well these questions will certainly make you curious..

There is a new Book Our Bestseller Charts Titled Asura: Tale of The Vanquished. It is the story of Ravana and his people which has never been told by anyone.

We got candid with the author Anand Neelakantan who hails from a small village near Cochin and spends his free times cartooning and on oil paintings. He has grown on these stories and since the last 6 years had nightmares of Ravana pleading to tell his side of the story to the world.

He says very modestly that he works at an MNC just to put food on his dining table but he definitely enjoys writing to the fullest.

Here are the excerpts of his Interview.

1. Do you feel after your story of Ravan can he be looked in a different light by the people who have always out casted him as a villain in the Ramayana?

Though Ravana was considered as evil incarnate, there always was some admiration lurching behind the hatred. Ravana was never an ordinary Villain. Accomplished Scholar, great musician, pious Bhaktha of Shiva- India has celebrated this most infamous villain in various ways over the last three thousand years or more. The heroism of the hero is proportional to the greatness of the villain. Ramayana works in the classic formula of an ordinary man challenging the might of a great emperor and winning against all odds. The God and Devil angle might have developed later.

What I have attempted is to reverse the gaze. Here an ordinary person is fighting his war against all odds, against the god incarnate and his mighty army. More than this war with others, he has to fight a war within himself, with his conscience, with his values and with his dreams. I have also tried to view Ramayana, through the eyes of an ordinary and poor Asura- Bhadra, who adds another perspective to the story. Usually, epics are the stories of great men and their deeds. In the cacophony of heroism, divinity, demons, right, wrong, white, dark etc, the voice of the common man remains silent in any epic. But if we listen carefully, a faint voice can be heard. My Bhadra is the magnification of that feeble voice of such insignificant men.

I have tried to give more importance to humanity than divinity. My attempt is to view the events in this great epic rationally. Putting simply, Asura is the child of the thought-‘Why it could not have happened like this?’. A mark of a great literature is its power to change perceptions and thinking. Every author thinks that his piece of literature is a good one. I am no exception to it. However, it is in the hands of time to prove me right or wrong.

2. How important was for you to tell this story?

It was that important for making me toil six long years in writing it. It was that important for me to challenge every belief I have grown up with. It was that important for me to spend sleepless nights thinking like the Asura emperor or the poor Bhadra. Asura, I believe is as ancient as humanity and at the same time, it is as modern as possible. Writing is a painful process. But it is a pain that I enjoy. I write only when my thoughts become so painful that, unless I put it into words I will get choked.

3. What are some of the unique characteristics of Ravana Outlined by you in the book?

Ravana is neither the demon as portrayed in the traditional Ramayanas nor is he the great hero who could do no wrong, as some Dravidian movements had tried to portray him a few decades back. In Asura, Ravana is man who lifts himself from abject poverty to become spectacularly successful through his determination, hard work and his strong sense of destiny. He starts of an idealistic youth, but gets lost in the labyrinth of power, and desperately tries to reclaim his ideals when it is too late. He is shown as an ordinary man who succeeds extraordinarily, but who gets corrupted by power. Despite this he manages to retain some shred of humanity till the last. On his positive sites, he is determined, intelligent, learned, brave, idealistic and passionate about life. On his negative side, he is a megalomaniac, arrogant, proud, and sometimes very naïve. History abounds with such characters like Napoleon, Alexander, Raja Chola etc.

4. What are some of the interesting comments you have got from your readers?

As it can be seen in various websites and reviews, mostly the comments have been positive. People have commented that the story has the power to change perception. I was also delighted to hear a few of the critical comments that said that though I have forgotten what Ramayana actually means and the story is based on my wrong understanding of the great epic, my narration skills are excellent and the book is a great read. One reader had written to me saying though he does not agree with even a single sentence in the book, he wanted to congratulate me for the good narrative and the logical arguments challenging the traditional Ramayana.

I was apprehensive that a bulky book of 500 pages, that deals with Ramayana, a story that has been told innumerable times will not find much favour with the young crowd who enjoy the light reads that gets mass produced these days. However, the response have been so overwhelming that the book is in third reprint now with more than 15000 copies sold so far in seven weeks.

5. A para or a verse that you would like to quote from your book?

It is not the Gods or God men that my country lacks. It only lacks real men.

6. Your views on your book being on Our Crossword Bestseller charts?

It is a special feeling which is difficult to express in words. I will try to tell you why this is so special. Crossword has always been in the front of encouraging good writing in India. The Crossword award is proof enough for that. The customers, who frequent crossword and I am one among them, are very discerning and choosy. Mostly the purchase decisions from the bookshops are made after lot of thoughts. It is rarely an impulse purchase over the click of a mouse. You have to really love books to drive in the pounding monsoon, visit the shop, and stand in the queue and crowd. You have to be passionate about the smell of the books. If someone who spends time in sampling the blurb and a few pages of the book, and then again spend more time to compare them with other books in the shelf and then finally decide to purchase it, she should have liked what she could sample. So every purchase from crossword is special, in a way that could never be said about other modes of purchase.

It is such discerning customers of crossword have made my book Asura a best seller. I feel it is as special as any literary award and a great encouragement for debut writer like me. I would not mind spending many more sleepless nights for such success.

7. Do you plan on sticking to the Mythological genre?

My publisher, Leadstart publishing Ltd is publishing my second book by this time, next year. It is on the next great epic and needless to say, I will be trying to view it from the other side. I do not have any plans to stick on to one particular genre, though I am passionate about mythology. I would love to write a satirical version on Indian Politics after my second book and another one spanning five generation, a semi-autobiographical one, that will portray my city of Cochin. Cochin is a city having a colourful history of many centuries and it will be fun writing about it in a wide panoramic background of my main story. Finally, when I am confident enough, I will pen down a children’s book. I believe, writing a quality children’s novel is the most difficult of all writings. Whenever I tend to forget this theory, my daughter and son are there to remind me this quite forcefully. Most nights, when I sit down to tell stories to them, I find them to be more difficult to please than my strict editor or even the most critical reader-s.

Publisher :Leadstart publishing

Price: Rs 250



Signing off for Now..



Until Next Time



Happy Reading!



Crossword BookstoresAsura- Tale of The Vanquished

Dussehra is all about celebrating the victory of Dharma over Adharma. It is on this day that the evil demon Ravana was slain by Sri Rama, the avatar of Lord Vishnu. Rama is considered as the epitome of virtue — the Maryada Purushottama, whereas Ravana is often portrayed as the devil incarnate.

Ravana’s death is the most celebrated death in the history of mankind. Year after year, Ravana keeps dying spectacularly in every nook and corner of India during Dussehra.
Sri Rama represents an idea of how to lead a life. Most saints have called it an ideal way of living and most Indians do believe it to be so. The unapologetic spiritual quest of Indian philosophy, which sees everything materialistic with derision, has not always gone unchallenged. In Ramayana itself we can find thinkers who have put materialistic pleasures over abstract ideals.

SCHOLAR & SENSUALIST
Valmiki Ramayana speaks about a materialistic philosopher Jabali, who tried to stop Lord Rama from going to his fourteen years of exile, with his rational arguments. Jabali was a pioneer in the philosophy of “Lokayata Darshana”, which gave importance to man’s materialistic pursuit over vague concepts of spiritualism. Different Ramayanas give varying versions of how Rama had reacted to these arguments. But most agree that Lord Rama lost his cool and a terrified Jabali meekly withdrew fearing for his life.
Ravana lived his life according to the tenets of Jabali. Though a devout Shiva Bhakta, he never tried to imitate the ascetic lifestyle of his favourite God. He grabbed life with his twenty arms and drank the nectar of pleasure with his ten mouths. Ravana was someone who lived life fully. Unlike Sri Rama, he had no reverence for his parents. Though a Brahmin, he did not offer any special privileges for Brahmins in his kingdom.
He was considered the greatest Vedic scholar of his times, yet his followers were always disrupting yajnas and it fell upon Sri Rama to protect such religious sacrifices. While Rama was willing to forgo his kingship for the sake of his half-brother Bharata, Ravana grabbed Lanka from his half-brother Kubera through deceit and cunning.

STEADFAST SPOUSE
It will be interesting to ask this simple question. Had Ravana won the final war instead of Rama, would our concept of right and wrong have undergone any change?
Maybe, the poets would have told us that Ravana followed the Dharma to the last word. History is always written by the victors. His abduction of Sita might have been justified as a revenge for mutilation of his sister by Lakshmana. When Rama could not accept his wife without a test of purity by fire, Ravana had stood by his wife in a much more serious circumstance.
Valmiki Ramayana speaks about an incident when Angada and other vanaras entered Ravana’s harem and molested Mandodari. This was done as a war strategy to prevent Ravana from completing his prayer that might have made him invincible. However, Ravana accepted his wife even after the incident and was not worried about what the world would think about her. There was no Agnipariksha for Mandodari.
This may earn him lots of fans from the modern day feminists, but a deeper reading of the epic will make them understand that while Ravana could charm any number of ladies to his bed, he was not above using force whenever he felt necessary.

OWN CODE OF ETHICS
He lived by his own code of ethics. Unlike his foe who is Dharma incarnate, Ravana is a mixture of good and the bad, the magnificent and the mundane. He is great and mean at the same time. Even if he had won the decisive battle with Rama, he would have never become a God like what Rama became in later years. Ravana had his flaws that made him too humane to be a God.
The followers of Jabali might even now argue that it was Ravana who won the war ultimately. They might point out that while Sri Rama for all his virtues led a miserable life, it was Ravana who was successful as per their tenets.
Lord Rama suffered an exile of fourteen long years, his wife was abducted by a powerful man and he had to struggle hard to reclaim her. He was forced to kill Bali against his conscience. After his victory, he had to order his wife for a test of purity just to satisfy the society. Even after regaining his kingdom and ruling exemplarily, happiness eluded him. He was forced to abandon his beloved wife fearing slander and his sons were born away from him. When he was reunited with his family, it was not the happiness of a reunion that awaited him. It was the grief of losing his wife forever when he ordered her a second Agnipariksha.
Rama’s uncompromising sense of Dharma also claimed the life of his faithful brother, Lakshmana. Yama had extracted a promise from Rama that whoever disturbs their meeting shall be put to death. Durvasa, the short-tempered ascetic, needed an audience with Rama at the same time and threatened to curse the entire country if he was made to wait. Rendered helpless, Lakshmana disturbed the fateful meeting. Rama, to keep his promise, had to order the death of Lakhshmana. Rama’s end also was quite undeserving for a great warrior like him.

Life philosophy
The Jabalists may argue that, in contrast, the materialistic Ravana lived his life in his own terms, ruled a huge empire, wallowed in luxury, stood by his wife when required and died a warrior’s death in his old age. The arguments the conventional society will offer them, like Rama’s life shows how one has to be steadfast in one’s Dharma irrespective of the consequences, will only invite their derision. Justifications such as a better afterlife or the attainment of Moksha also will not have any meaning for Jabalists as they do not believe in the unknown. They will just point out the contrasting life and death of the Dharmic Rama as against that of the materialistic Ravana for supporting their argument.
The Jabalists may even say that, people may be worshipping Sri Rama as God, but they follow Ravana in practice. The mad rush towards the materialistic pleasure that marks the modern lifestyle shows that people have embraced Ravana’s life philosophy of enjoying life at any cost rather than the self- sacrificing Dharma of Rama.
Like so many Dussehras of past three thousand years or more, Ravana will get burst into a million pieces in every street of India this Dussehra too. The Asura king will be roaring with laughter at the irony of it, for he knows that despite the deification of his foe, it is his life philosophy that has finally won out among the people.
In ultimate reckoning, the great materialist philosopher has the last laugh, for he has achieved what the great avatars, prophets, saints, Mahatmas, Bodhisattvas and sons of God have collectively failed to achieve despite all their preachings, holy books, efforts and sacrifices since the dawn of civilisation. Going up in flames a million times over and over is a small price to pay for the universal practice, if not acceptance, of one’s life philosophy.Asura- Tale of The Vanquished