Asura-Tale of the Vanquished

     The story of Ravana and his People

        Author- Anand Neelakantan

        A review by Rajesh Chandra

The 503 page book by the Keralite author is a tale of the vanquished, a voice to the voiceless of the faded ones in the annals of the epic, myth, history of ancient India. The underlying principle being-   “ The Hunted may have a different tale of bravery; the Lion may have a different tale to tell which may be different from the hunters, if at all allowed to.” Histories and epics are written by victors for the victors and to eulogize their victories. Beneath the iceberg of this victory, is often hidden the vast expanse of bravery, chivalry, rectitude, and the aspiration of the vanquished.

While Ramayana is the story of Lord Rama who won over the tyrant Lankan demon King Ravana, who is burnt and killed in effigy every year, in every village in India , year after year, every year, since he was slayed thousands of years; ‘Asura’, is a welcome swerve and presents a different perspective from Ravanas side.

Here we see an assorted line of characters that we miss in the Ramayana, whose role has been derided and relegated to that in the local folklore and has refused to die down through thousands of years. Some of the chief characters in this tale are- Emperor Mahabali the patriarch and  epitome of Asura civilization, Emperor Ravana- the savior and pride of the Asura race, Bhadra- the common lowly Asura , who shares the vision of his saviour King, Kumbakarna, Vibhishana, Mandodari, Prahastha, Meghanad ,Athikaya, Mayan, Jambumali, Varuna-the pirate, Surpanaka, Rudraka,Mala, Kubera etc from the Lankan camp.

           Those from the Deva camp are Rama- the prince of Ayodhya, Lakshmana, Sita- Ravana’s daughter, Vanaras-Bali, Hanuman, Sugreeva, Angad.

The story-line revolves around the Ramayana, with imports from epic  folklores from various parts of India and a mish mash of fiction often surprisingly magnifying and modifying the original characters in the Ramayana.The tale delves into the clash of civilizations of Asuras, Devas and Vanaras. Ravana, the mascot of Asuras, fight for his race, civilization and equality of humanity in the footsteps of his mentor, Mahabali, the great. He fights for the pride of his nation, to consolidate the Asura empire, to avenge atrocities on his sister, to save his daughter Sita from the clutches of the barbarian Devas, whose culture was infamous for poor women’s rights and their suppression, to keep Brahminical ideas of casteism at bay and above all to be the next Mahabali of the Asuras.

While common Asuras like Bhadra, the black, short, common Asura shares Ravana's vision and fight for survival, country, race and pride; war and  loss of loved ones forces one to retract, ponder and wonder, whose war is it anyway.

The story brings forth a clash in ideology of dharma, brahminism, casteism and all the malaise in vogue within the  society .The backdrop of a war with clash of race, a fathers pride and love to the extreme extent of sacrificing his family, country and power, yet, to be demonised across the religious world for eternity as a perennial symbol of demon with exaggerated ten heads. The war is of the Kings. They lose and die; or win and savour it. The common folk  of all ilk suffer pillage, plunder and rape in war and peace alike, though varying in degrees. They live and die for the dreams of the nobles. They sacrifice their life for the ideologies they seldom have an inkling about. The dirt poor are always the losers but they have the unique knack of surviving past the high and mighty of the world. 

 The Emperors, countries and culture are vanquished and fade into the shadows of past and survive in name, inscriptions and symbols but it the likes of the lowest of Asura whose eyes survive to see the high and mighty rise and fall. They sell their dreams for the high and mighty and what they get in favour is apathy. Ravana and Bhadra's thought process is very well depicted and scores well and stand as independent characters, often contrary and questioning the conscience. The book is thrilling with lot of surprises and has made good use of resurrecting the forgotten little characters who walked the sideways of alleys of the grand epic.

A must read to explore the other side of fence and to mitigate the prejudice mounted over the Asuras since time immemorial. Enjoy reading..........

 *** RAJESH CHANDRA ***