Asura. Tale of the vanquished. The story of Ravana and his people.

Author – Anand Neelakantan

Genre – Historical fiction

Publisher – Platinum series

Rating – 4/5

I bought this book with loads of expectations and curiosity. I had always wanted to know the ten headed monster’s story.  The one overwhelming emotion in the entire book is ANGER. There is pent up anger of a civilization being destroyed by invading barbarians and being labelled demons for living according to their culture and striking back at the invading hordes.

Ravana, the first son of a Brahmin and a tribal woman is passionate, arrogant and brilliant. Leaving Lanka to seek their fortune, the brothers Ravana,  Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana learn under Brahma, the scion of the Brahma family specialising in arts, crafts and music under the protection of Mahabali,  the once powerful king of the Asuras now hiding in the jungles in Central India. In his last lesson Mahabali attempts to instil values of self control and sacrifice in Ravana who mocks these and proclaims his preference for the base emotions which make a MAN rather than the higher values which make a GOD. Ravana then returns to Lanka with high ideals of returning the Asura empire and civilisation to its former glory.

While the book is not named after Bhadra, an asura commoner, he is one of the main protagonists of the story. A sword of rage and revenge against the marauding conquerors who proclaim themselves Gods and seek not only to conquer lands and allegiances but destroy an entire people and their culture.

Ravana the king and Bhadra the commoner make a formidable team as they establish the Asura kingdom in Central and South India with their Golden capital in Sri Lanka.

Then comes the nemesis of the mighty Asura empire – Sita or rather is brought in by Ravana himself.  Ravana claims that Sita is his long lost daughter who he brought back to protect her from the male dominated barbaric Deva culture. In war Ravana’s actions are very much like so many mighty kings who believed themselves invincible. Rama’s actions very like a commander directing his band of soldiers in guerrilla warfare.  There is the constant theme of Rama’s double standards – he does not hesitate to strike from behind or use guile while portraying himself as the epitome of Dharma. He constantly plays into the hands of Brahmins to prove himself a righteous king.

While soldiers view the actions of the other army as despicable and not in accordance with the honoured rules of warfare, war has it’s atrocities, atrocities which have not changed over the ages. So comes the fall of the last bastion of the great Asura empire and the winner takes the spoils including history and culture.

However personal loss follows Rama even in his victory. Questioned by a citizen of his kingdom on accepting Sita as his wife and queen after she has been in Lanka for so long, Rama decides to banish Sita from his side even though she had undergone the “Agnipariksha” – test by fire at Lanka before the victorious soldiers to prove her chastity. Even when Ram is re-united with Sita after twelve long years through the valor of his twin sons Luv and Kush, Ram again asks Sita to go through a test of fire to prove her chastity. Tired by the constant demands to prove her virtue by her husband, Sita enters the Earth. While Ram returns with his sons to Ayodhya to a just rule. However, Ram is never happy and at last enters the river Sarayu and gives up his life.

“Asura” personifies two opposing  cultures into the person of Ram and Ravana. While both cultures had a social pecking order as per economic status, the vedic culture introduced the concept of birth linked with a man’s profession. Resulting in generations staying in the same social class. While Ravana had the courage to accept Mandodari as his wife and queen even after she was gangraped by the Vanara soilders, Rama repeatedly asks Sita to prove her chastity and banishes a chaste and pregnant Sita from his side.  While one culture was about doing one’s duty the other was hedonistic.

By raising these differences, Neelakantan questions why an entire civilization and it’s king was termed demonic and another culture and it’s king in-spite of prejudices and shortcoming applauded as Dharma and Lord.