BOOK REVIEW: SITA- AN ILLUSTRATED RETELLING OF THE RAMAYANA

Released in October, 2013, this is yet another masterpiece from Devdutt Pattanaik. The illustrations are simple yet brilliant, the research is in depth and the narration is the most unbiased version of the epic to be told yet.

The author’s note- ‘WHAT SHIVA TOLD SHAKTI’ is an interesting start to the story but it is the prologue that sets up things brilliantly. The seven chapters and the epilogue are equally well written and moving through the pages doesn’t take too much effort.

But what really makes the book stand out from the rest is the snippets of information given in the gray box at the end of each sub-chapter. It takes a break from the story-like narrative, sometimes offering us variations of the same event as told in different geographic regions or as told by different authors and sometimes offering us an interpretation of the Ramayana from a point of view that is more intuitive than religious.

The Mahabharata and the Ramayana are supreme examples of the advanced Indic thought process. Some look at it as history, some consider it mythology. But ideally, it is a complexly layered masterpiece that is more about the nuances within rather than the characters themselves. Choose not to politicize it, seek instead to understand it. With this book, Devdutt Pattanaik has encouraged people to do just that. In one word, this book is:

Excerpts from the book. . .  

Shakti, who is Goddess, asks Shiva, who is God, to narrate a tale that will comfort all in turbulent times. Shiva narrates the Ramayana, the story of Sita and Ram. . . . . .

A curious crow called Kakabhusandi overhears this narration and shares what he can remember with Narada, the travelling sage who loves to gossip and exchange ideas between heaven and Earth. Narada narrates what he recollects to Valmiki who turns the story into a song and teaches it to the twins Luv and Kush.

Luv and Kush sing it before the king of Ayodhya, not realizing that he is the protagonist of the tale and their father. Ram does not recognize his sons either and finds it hard to believe that the song they sing so beautifully is all about him. The Ram they describe is so perfect. The Sita he remembers is even better. But the song is incomplete. There is more to the story.

The song of Luv and Kush is Purva-Ramayana, the early section. It ends happily after six chapters with the triumph of Ram over the rakshasa king Ravana and his eventual coronation as king of Ayodhya with his wife Sita by his side.

But the tale continues into Uttara-Ramayana, the latter section, with the seventh chapter describing the separation of Sita and Ram, the fight between father and sons, the reconciliation ending with her disappearing into the earth and with him walking into the river Sarayu, never to rise again.

So where does the Ramayana actually end, with the happy sixth or the unhappy seventh?

Neither says the sage Vyasa for after shedding the the body that was Ram, Vishnu ascends to Vaikuntha and then returns as Krishna who is very different from Ram. His story is told in the Mahabharata. That makes the Mahabharata an extension of the Ramayana.

Does the Mahabharata thus mark the end of the story that begins as Ramayana?

Not quite. In the chronicles known as the Puranas, we are informed that after Krishna, Vishnu takes many more forms before descending as Kalki, who herals Pralaya, the end of society as we know it.

Is Pralaya the end of the Ramayana?

 No, for just when the sea is about to rise and submerge all the lands, Vishnu takes the form of a small fish and begs humanity to save him from bigger fish. The man who responds to his cries becomes Manu, the founder of a new social order, for he demonstrates the uniquely human potential to help the helpless, defying nature.

Vishnu then turns into a turtle and helps churn Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth, out of the ocean of milk. He then turns into a boar and raises the earth from under the sea upon which humans can establish society.

As Vamana and Parashurama he supports the yagna, as Ram and Krishna he questions the yagna, as Buddha and Kalki he withdraws from the yagna.  .  . This Vishnu does again and again, in era after era, from pralaya to pralaya, in a cycle of life that knows neither beginning nor end.

Thus the Ramayana is a segment of a vast cyclical tale, one piece of a complex jigsaw puzzle. Events in the tale are a consequence of the past and the cause of the future. It cannot be seen in isolation. To do so is to see the stars and miss the sky.

Until next time

Keep smiling,

Adios!