Asura – Tale of the Vanquished

Asura – Tale of the Vanquished

-        Anand Neelakantan

History is written by the victorious - which has an inherent implication that the victor would be glorified and the defeated, condemned. But what if the legend we have always believed in, is not really the truth, at least not the complete truth. That is why a story from the perspective of Ravana, one of the most vilified creatures in Indian mythology, offers a great promise. The author has stripped off the divine or supernatural manifestations, and presented a rational interpretation for the myth, though from the perspective of the other side. Thus, devas, asuras, gods, vanaras, are all humans, with very human emotions, motives, ambitions, conflicts. The book is composed of a series of chapters, each in the voice of Ravana, or of Bhadra, his servant and a member of the most marginalized class of people. Together they bring out a broader picture of the society, demonstrating the dreams, ambitions, needs, dejection, despair of the different classes.

The story starts at the point when Ravana is lying defeated and approaching death in the battlefield, reflecting back on the journey of his life - the story of the rise of Ravana, from an impoverished, down-trodden, almost-an-orphan boy, to a mighty king, and his downfall, due to his own faults and mistakes. He aspires to live as a complete human being, holding onto all the ten emotions (or bear the ten facets  – hence the name dashanana), with no ambition towards godliness. I appreciated the fact that though in relating Ravana’s story, the author has presented a justification of several of his actions, but has not glorified him entirely. He has his faults and weaknesses, including mis-perception of his own greatness. Despite his better intentions, he is not benevolent or fair, and suffers from a blind ambition and insatiable ego. I ended up feeling both dislike and sympathy towards him. Ravana’s thoughts or dialogs to himself at many places are quite thought provoking and poignant, for example, "I didn't know then, but I had been born to fulfill someone else's destiny. To allow someone else to become God."

Creating the character of Bhadra serves as a great device to expose the true character of Ravana (as opposed to how he perceives himself), and contrast the rise of the mighty ruler, and the rich and powerful, with the life of the common man, whose ambitions are forever thwarted, and whose life never change for better, irrespective of who is in the power. Bhadra appears as a single, identified character, whom coincidence brings an important role in every significant event in Ravana’s life. But he represents the countless faceless, expendable people, who suffer so that the great can earn their glory. There is nothing but pity you can offer Bhadra, for his suffering, as well as his blind devotion towards an undeserving leader.

Even though Ravana’s character is grey, the devas, including Rama, and especially Indra, are painted in a rather deep shade of black. I myself have never found devas and Indra quite redeemable, as they appear in the mythology. Rama may have been a just and kind ruler (though this book suggests otherwise), but I do not agree with the tag of Maryada Purushottam. So, I do not have a particular objection to the negative portrayal, but perhaps they could have been shown to have some positive qualities as well. The author has highlighted the issues of strong caste system that was prevalent in the deva society that he has sketched, and we know how our society has indeed suffered, and still does, due to the caste system. While the social evils of the deva society are quite easy to believe, I am not so sure about the idealism of the asura society, especially in its great past.

The book is based on a vastly interesting premise, and is worth reading and pondering with an open mind, without prejudiced notions. However, it is not without its share of faults, rather I think that it has more than its share of them.

One of the problems is poor editing. There are simply too many spelling and grammatical mistakes, and at places there are words missing from sentences. In this respect, it’s quite a pain to read through. 

Several phrases, ideas, arguments have been repeated over and over again, that it had me silently screaming in frustration. The book was a little too big, and I am sure that avoiding these repetitions and observing brevity (with discretion of course), would have made it much more fascinating.

Another complaint I have is that the author contradicts himself often. For example, he starts a paragraph where he states that asuras’ was a casteless society, and after a few sentences he mentions that Ravana’s mother hailed from an elite tribe. He states that asuras were a democratic society, governed by a council rather than a king; and a short while later speaks of great asura kings of the past. For a few chapters, he keeps up how Ravana is disenchanted by his to-be-wife Mandodari, and how Mandodari is indifferent to him after marriage and does not allow intimacy. Then all of a sudden, comes up the mention of a child born to them and Ravana’s love and fascination towards his wife.

I also had a big issue with the language. It has an over-abundance of modern day terminology and phrases, some of them rather clichéd, which don’t suit the time in which the story is set, and which feel out of context and quite jarring.

Overall, I appreciated the author’s courage in challenging the belief that has been deemed sacred for centuries, and much of the rationale he has put forth can be believable and provides a food for thought. I thought it rather unfortunate that almost half of the criticism it received was solely due to the fact that it questioned this belief. The narrative was wonderful and kept pace, and I could not put it down, despite the flaws. However, these flaws were big enough to prevent it from being the great book it could have been.

I have read a lot of mythological fiction recently, and irrespective of whether I liked or agreed or not, it has definitely intrigued me. However well you might know (or think you know) the story, there are always interesting new stories to be found. In “Asura” I learnt of the legends of Vedavathi and Shambuka, of which I was not aware, or could not remember.