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Scion of Ikshvaku (Ram Chandra, #1)

Amish Tripathi

Start date: August 1, 2015

Finish date: August 31, 2015

Discussion: Monthly Read-Alongs

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What Members Thought

Jun 26, 2015 Nivedita rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites, 2015, favourite-author, fantasy, indian-author, indian-mythology, series, set-in-south-asia

First of all, I am going to take a moment to shamelessly praise Amish for his immense amount of imagination and the way he brings his imagination to perfection. When I read the Shiva trilogy, I was stumped by the way Lord Shiva was portrayed and I couldn't stop myself from reading them.
This book is based on Lord Ram of Ayodhya, who believes in a perfect idealistic society where people follow all the rules and keeps crime and corruption out of it.
But Ram cannot achieve a perfect society due to ...more

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Sep 09, 2015 Parwati Singari rated it it was ok

Shelves: indian-authors, indian-mythology, westland

Publisher Westland Limited.
ISBN 9789385152146
Genre fiction
I did wonder what would be the genre that the publisher would cast this book on.
The story of the prince of Ajodhya is much told and he is the icon people rally around before socio- political changes. From Valmiki’s Ramayana to Tulasidas's Ramcharita manas to Ramanand sagar each story teller has dispensed their ideology through the vehicle of the journey of the prince of Ayodhya to becoming an Icon and finally God;
Well Amish retells this Publisher Westland Limited.
ISBN 9789385152146
Genre fiction
I did wonder what would be the genre that the publisher would cast this book on.
The story of the prince of Ajodhya is much told and he is the icon people rally around before socio- political changes. From Valmiki’s Ramayana to Tulasidas's Ramcharita manas to Ramanand sagar each story teller has dispensed their ideology through the vehicle of the journey of the prince of Ayodhya to becoming an Icon and finally God;
Well Amish retells this sacred lore through the grid that he has created in the Shiva Trilogy, the Mahadeva’s, the Vishnu’s, like in the Shiva Trilogy and the various story tellers before him, he has modified the characters. Hanuman becomes a Naga... that is a physical deviant instead of the Monkey-man as narrated traditionally. So do Kumbhakarna. I wonder what he will do with Maricha.
Tripathi’s Rama typical contemporary kids, growing up with personal issues he has self esteem issues, he is suppressed, oppressed Dasharath has parenting issues. Kausalya the traditionally butter does not melt in mouth becomes the simpering cowering victim of a abusive husband, of course the abuse is not physical or verbal but it is behavioural, then the placid Sumitra becomes a manipulative mother, Kaikeyi becomes the power behind e
Manthara Kaikeyi’s wet nurse becomes is business woman, who is part of a greater conspiracy. Vishwamitra and Vashsista are also not presented in their traditional forms.
I do agree that Tulasidas and other story tellers and added their interpretations, their voices to the story but the basic story line has been the same. The characters manifest basic prototype which Amish has totally altered. I really wonder why Hindutva crowd that goes berserk with things have let Amish alone maybe they consider him an irrelevant author.
Site from being the agricultural goddess has morphed into a warrior. All through Shiva trilogy and now through this I get feeling that Amish has learnt his corporate thinking through Sun Tzu and has now translated to Indian Mythology he does have issues in accepting the ethno-agrigarian roots of these sacred lore’s....Sorry if I sound judgemental.
The story opens at Dandakaranya, with Jatayu is a naga, the visual of naga for all AmaraChitraKatha nourished Indians, is not a snake man, but a human with physical defects. Amish begins his deviation right here instead of the traditional Jatayu guiding Rama in the Sundarakanda, he arrives right the kidnapping.
The story is then rendered in a flashback. The author through the narration maintains a disdain for Vaishyas, his Brahmana’s are also warrior like.
Then there is an episode of manthara’s daughter being gang-raped the plot, the language could all be borrowed from Arnab Goswami’s dealing of the Nirbhaya case the only addendum by the author is how to deal with the underaged perpetuator who has got away with murder. With all his contemporary intellectualization the author is still not able to give up the prototype of giant clumsy appearance of the asuras.
Ashwapathi the Kaikeya that is father of kaikeyi gets acknowledged by the author as a friend of Dasharath. Unlike the description given in other texts where Kaikeya was a ganrajya and Ashwapathi was the ganadipathi. Traditionally men and women of Kaikeya were trained warriors. But Amish stays true to his cowbelt roots, he adds the flavour of Ashwapthi’s disdain for a daughter who excelled over his sons.
The author shares an interesting concept of the same of an individual representing their swadharma, which could be a great way to analyse myths. He immediately trips up with Shatrughna read books, shatrughna was learned in shastra’s but Ramayana was the period of shruti’s or oral texts. The belief was writing the shruti’s limited their growth.
There are lot things that jar, like the geographic references to Gujarat, and Konkani. The time line of Dwaraka submerging. The conflict of Monotheisms, and others, the parallel of the asura behaviour to contemporary Islamic behaviour.
Overall an average book. The novelty of thought and style has gone. All the same a great read for readers who would like to progress from the Ravindra Singh’s and Chetan Bhagats.

...more

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Jul 30, 2015 Denim Datta rated it really liked it

Shelves: adventure, fiction, novel, mythology

"Scion of Ikshvaku" is the first book from Ram Chandra series. This series is a prequel to Amish's "Shiva Trilogy".
As it was with the "Shiva Trilogy", Ramayana is retold here with discarding the God factors.
The first instalment is really good, though I felt it has some downfalls

Goods(+):
- Awesome imagination
- Joining Shiva Trilogy and Ram Chandra series.

Bads(-):
- Merging Sita's swayambar storyline with Draupadi's swayambar
- Creating Nirbhaya case.

But overall, if we can avoid comparing this stor ...more

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Aug 08, 2015 Jigar Doshi rated it liked it

Disappointed will be the word if one were to ask me to describe how I felt after reading the book in a word.
No, it has got nothing to do with Scion of Ikshvaku but everything to do with the Shiva trilogy.
Some magics can never be recreated. Some expectations cannot be met.

Everybody knows that this book is based on the life of Lord Ram, so there is nothing to tell about the story.

While Scion of Ikshvaku is a wonderful read in itself, a lot of it is just a fictionalized mixture of Ramayana and Maha ...more

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Jun 26, 2015 beautywithbooks rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, philosopy, fantasy, religion, mythology, epic, series, culture, books-i-own

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Read the review in the blog

Scion of Ikshvaku was the most awaited book of 2015 in India. After the success of The Siva Trilogy, Amish is back with his first installment of the Ram Chandra Series. This book will keep you occupied and the characters will come alive. Amish has got a great talent of combining mythology and fiction perfectly. His imagination is beyond imagination. The thing I like about his book is reader does not need to know the complete Ramayan to understand it. He has put his i ...more

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