SITA – An
Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana
A fantastic approach to Ramayana by Devdutt
Patnaik
Eventhough we have seen and heard many versions of the
Ramayana, you would be surprised if you open the book, Sita- An illustrated
retelling of the Ramayana.
From the back cover:
The chariot stopped
far from the city in the middle of the forest. Sita alighted, eager to walk
amongst the trees. The charioteer, Lakshman, remained seated. Sensing he had
something to say, Sita paused. Lakshman finally spoke, eyes to the ground,
‘Your husband, my elder brother, Ram, king of Ayodhya, wants you to know that
the streets are full of gossip. Your reputation is in question. The rules are
clear: a king’s wife should be above all doubt. The scionof the Raghu clan has
therefore ordered you to stay away from his person and his place and his city.
You are free to go wherever else you please. But you may not reveal to anyone
that you were once Ram’s queen’
Sita watched
Lakshman’s nostrils flare. She felt his embarrassment and his rage. She wanted
to reach out and reassure him, but she restrained herself.
‘You feel your Ram
has abandoned his Sita, don’t you?’ she asked gently.
‘But he has not. He
cannot. He is God – he abandons no one. And I am Goddess – I cannot be abandoned
by anyone’
A mystified
Lakshman returned to Ayodhya, while Sita smiled in the forest and unbound her
hair.
Book Details:
Book Name : Sita – An illustrated retelling of the
Ramayana
Author: Devdutt Patnaik
Genre: Mythology
Pages: 316
Cost: 499
Publishers: Penguin India
Book Review:
We all have had heard lots of stories about Sita and Ram
from our grandparents. In our childhood, we used to listen in awe to the
stories about how Ram married Sita, and about how cunningly Ram was sent out to
the forest for 14 years and how sita, even though she had no compulsion to
follow her husband, willingly accompanied Ram to be in his presence at both
good times and the bad times. We have also heard about Ravana and how he was
finally defeated.
But, most of us wouldn’t have heard about the rest of the
story.
In his book, the author, Devdutt Patnaik begins the book
as a story told by Shiva to Shakthi. And he goes on to narrate about how the
story reached Lava and Kush, sons of Ram. He goes on to explain about the
aftermath of Ramayana in a brief manner.
The book also has a page with a list of Ramayana stories
written till date right from the 2nd century. It was fascinating to
know about the different versions. The book doesn’t stop with the mere naming
of the different versions; in each and every chapter, the book compares the
story form of different scripts and how each one is different from one another.
The chapters start with Sita’s birth. The birth of the
Goddess has been portrayed in a poetic manner. At the end of the chapter, the author
has given us few snippets of information. It is like reading for extra points,
apart from the required ones. In those he has told about the geography,
philosophy, the attitude of the people of that era and much more.
Totally, it was like reading the epic with lots of notes
and references and the book is one big encyclopaedia.
One more thing to mention about the book is the
illustrations penned down by the author himself which make the book much more
likable.
Even if you are not a very big fan of reading Mythology
books, you will tend to like the book.
And you can’t help but appreciate the amount of effort
put in by the author.
It was one interesting piece of read. It goes beyond the
usual happy ending and it will make you think a lot about those people and
question many of it.
My final rating: 9/10
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