Scion of Ikshvaku - my thoughts

“Ram and Sita are married and they were in forest when villain Ravan took Sita away to his castle. Ram took help from monkey god Hanuman to fight villain Ravan and rescued Sita. Diwali is celebrated when Ram, Sita and Hanuman return to their home”

I was amazed to hear 5-year old Arnav tell the above story. Apparently, his school does such story-telling at time of all major religious festivals to make the kids understand its significance. Isn’t it wonderful?

I felt proud that Arnav knows the gist of one of the most popular mythological character – Lord Shri Ram. Not to sound too old, but my early childhood memories of the television has been Ramayana and then Mahabharata. Later in school days, remember reading C Rajagopalchari’s Ramayan book (I still have the book in my small library at home!). So Lord Shri Ram was one of the first Hindu Gods whose story (as written by Valmiki) I read, so the whole storyline is pretty clear in my head. It was a straightforward story through – a super good hero born in a very happy kingdom, the villain abducts the good heroine and the hero rescues her, everyone happy (except the villain though!!). Not much action or drama when compared to the complicated exciting storyline of Mahabharata.

Having adored the Shiva Trilogy by Amish Tripathi, I was looking forward to his version of Rama story as I wanted to check how he can make this story more exciting. I bought the book quite late since its launch and trust me when I say that life of Amish’s Ram is not as happy as Valmiki’s Ram (or my childhood Ram)!! One would notice this point with a quick glance over the back cover of the book which reads as-

“Ram Rajya, the perfect land. But perfection has a price. He paid that price”.

There are significant deviations to the story line :

-    For starters, Ram is depicted as an unloved prince since birth as his father, king Dashratha considers Ram’s birth as inauspicious and is blamed for his misfortunes.

-     I don’t recollect reading so much stories on Bharat and Shatrughana as in this book. The author has given much interesting reading space for these two characters. Bharat is shown as flamboyant hero and a ladies man while Shatrugana is well versed with all literary database available at his time.

-     There is a whole story built on super-rich Manthara (unlike the poor lady in the mythology) and her daughter Roshni who is a ‘rakhi-sister’ to the four brothers. The author seemed to be inspired by the whole tragic ‘Nirbhaya case’ and the storyline may seem unnecessary.

-     With an idea to remove all ‘magic’ from the storyline, Ravan is made to lose his 9 heads and has to be content with a helmet with two horns!!

-     While Sita has always been known a strong willed woman, in this book, she has been promoted to be the prime minister of Mithila.

-     The author has done a ‘copy-paste’ of the swayamvar challenge from Mahabharata with Ram shooting the eye of the fish on the ceiling, looking at its reflection in a vessel of rippling water in the ground to marry Sita. In Mahabharata, Arjun carries out this task to win Draupadi’s hand.

-     Bharat decides to take Ram’s sandals in the palace itself, instead of going all the way to the forests to collect them!

-     Ravan’s siblings - Vibhishana and Shurpanaka - enjoy a one-night free stay at Ram’s forest camp.

-     The one deviation (or rather addition) which I loved in the book is the reason why Ram decided to go on a 14-year exile. While my childhood memories are only restricted to Kaikeyi’s using her “two lifetime offers” on king Dashratha to send Ram on an exile, here Amish’s Ram insists on being punished for breaking the law on ‘daivi astras’ (divine weapons).

In the whole narrative, the author does not want to make Ram sound God-like, but instead he lives like any normal man of his time. He is not the favourite child in a joint family at home. He goes to boarding school with his brothers, where his teacher puts them on surprise tests occasionally asking questions like ‘what is the origin of our civilisation?’ or ‘what is the ideal way of life?. After studies, he gets passed on for his desired post on account of favouritism (Bharat gets external affairs ministry and Ram is made policeman). He is not an extrovert like Bharat and sticks to a one-life-one-woman rule.

All in all, here is possibly any average man (in 3400 BC or now). The main thing that sets him apart from the average guy is his stance on laws and their importance in society. He is stickler to rules and cannot accept breaking any laws, even if it is detrimental to himself.

The effect of removing the god-worship from the character is that one start understanding the circumstances and gives an opportunity to analyse whether Ram’s action was correct or not. Unlike the original mythology, where the focus was how God destroys evil, here there is an attempt to rationalise the reasons behind every actions – be it of Ram or Ravan or all other characters. Unlike the original where I am not made to challenge a God’s decision, but here I can always question whether any king/prince should have done a particular action – for example, pardoning the rapist because the law prohibits acting against juvenile. The readers can think and debate on whether society structure as perceived by Bharat or Ram is good.

Bharat-
“Expecting people to follow the rules just because they should is being too hopeful. Rules must be designed to dovetail with selfish interest because people are primarily driven by it. They need to be shepherded into good behavior through this proclivity”

Ram –

“Laws are the foundation on which a fulfilling life is built for a community. Laws are the answer…..Freedom is never the ally of law. You can have freedom to choose whether you want to join or leave a society based on the rule of law. But as long as you live in such a society you must obey the law.”

And that’s where Amish Tripathi’s writing style impresses. He has this wonderful gift of keeping the main storyline intact while weaving wildly different sub-plots. He did this earlier in Shiva trilogy set in 1900 BC and now in his Ramchandra series set in 3400 BC. Also this story-telling helps in removing the divinity from the main character and the readers can experience what would have been the life of an ordinary prince in Ayodhya who stood by his principles, irrespective of the numerous challenges/ hardships he would have to face.

In essence, isn’t that exactly what Valmiki’s Ramayana also conveys – Lord Rama as the ‘Maryada-purshottam’?

The author also successfully creates strong personas to the other characters in the story :

-  Ravan is a very successful business tycoon and shown as hated by common man, though there are portions in the book which suggests that he is loved at his country where he ensures that every citizen is taken care of.  

-   Both the gurus – Guru Vashishta and Guru Vishwamitra – are shown as energetic and strong-willed. There are loose ends in their story, which I am sure would be tackled in the next book(s)

-   Manthara is depicted as a powerful merchant and her actions in getting justice for her daughter’s murder and her hate for Ram seems justified

-  The political games played between rival wives Kaushalya and Kaikeyi is interesting read, as is the shrewdness of the third wife Sumitra who ensures atleast one of her sons (Laxman or Shatrugana) gets a good life by making them back each of the other 2 big brothers – Ram and Bharat respectively

-   King Dashrath’s successes, resultant high-headness and his subsequent fall from grace due to losing war with Ravan is nicely written.

I enjoyed reading this book, just as much as the Shiva trilogy. Towards the end, the author seemed to be in a hurry to get through the entire exile. There are very small special appearances of Jatayu (who has a very small book life in the series) and Hanuman – both categorized as Nagas i.e the people with deformities as mentioned in the earlier Shiva trilogy.

The book ends with Sita’s abduction in the ‘Pushpak Vimaan’ – Ravan’s hitech flying machine. I look forward to getting the next book of the series.

**************************************************

Few good quotes from the book captures the essence of the ‘ideal society’ that Ram/Sita dreamt of and we may be able to relate to the flaws in today’s society through these quotes :

On Leadership

“A real leader doesn’t choose to lead only the deserving. He will, instead, inspire his people into becoming the best that they are capable of.”

“people have their limitations. A leader should not expect more from them than what they are capable of. If you stretch them beyond their capacity, they will break.”

“Even honourable men sometimes prove to be terrible leaders. Conversely, men of questionable character can occasionally be exactly what a nation requires.”

“Sita took a deep breath and continued. ‘Sometimes, to create a perfect world, a leader has to do what is necessary at the time; even if it may not appear to be the “right” thing to do in the short term. In the long run, a leader who has the capacity to uplift the masses must not deny himself that opportunity. He has a duty to not make himself unavailable. A true leader will even take a sin upon his soul for the good of his people.”

“Asuras are not bad people; they just have an understanding of dharma that is not valid for today’s world. Sometimes, the followers are good but the leaders let them down.”

On Society, corruption and need for laws

“We criticise corruption in others, but are blind to our own dishonesty. We hate others who do wrong and commit crimes, blithely ignoring our own misdeeds, big and small. We vehemently blame Raavan for all our ills, refusing to acknowledge that we created the mess we find ourselves in.” 

“of the things that differentiates us from animals is that we do not kill our weak. But if the government interferes to such an extent that the weak thrive and the strong are oppressed, society itself will collapse over time. A society should not forget that it thrives on the ideas and performance of the talented among its citizens. If you compromise the prospects of the strong, and lean too much towards the interests of the weak, then your society itself goes into decline.”

“We need to be harsh to destroy this birth-based caste system,’ said Sita. ‘It has weakened our dharma and our country. It must be destroyed for the good of India. If we don’t destroy the caste system as it exists today, we will open ourselves to attacks from foreigners. They will use our divisions to conquer us”

“….. the apogee of the feminine way of life - of freedom, passion, beauty. At its best, it is compassionate, creative and especially nurturing towards the weak. But as feminine civilisations decline, they tend to become corrupt, irresponsible and decadent. The masculine way of life is defined by truth, duty and honour. At its peak, masculine civilisations are efficient, just and egalitarian. But as they decline, they become fanatical, rigid and especially harsh towards the weak.”

“Every emotion in the universe exists for a purpose; nothing is superfluous in nature’s design. Every emotion also has an opposite: like anger and calm. Society ultimately needs balance.”

On human behaviour

“If karma is giving you a negative signal repeatedly, then it is not testing you, it is trying to teach you.”

“When the axe entered the forest, the trees said to each other: do not worry, the handle in that axe is one of us”

“As it often happens, the very reason for your success, over a prolonged period of time, can lead to your downfall.”

“The Naga laughed softly, 'There's a thin line that separates courage from stupidity.'

'And that line is only visible in retrospect, my friend. If I'm successful, people will call me brave. If I fail, I will be called foolish. Let me do what I think is right. I'll leave the verdict to the future.”

On God

“fundamental misunderstanding between our world of forms, and the Ekam’s formless world, makes them believe in the lie that my God is the true God and your God is a false God. Just like a wise human will have no preference for his kidneys over his liver, the One God will not pick one group over another. It’s stupid to even think otherwise.’ ‘Exactly!’ said Ram. ‘If He is my God, if He picks my side over someone else’s, He is not the One God. The only true One God is the one who picks no sides, who belongs to everything, who doesn’t demand loyalty or fear;"