FICTION
Fitting finale
R. KRITHIKA
|
A different approach to the battle for Lanka.
|
King of Ayodhya; Ashok Banker, Penguin, Rs. 350.
FINALLY, Ashok Banker's Ramayana series comes to an end. Like the previous five books, King of Ayodhya also gives the reader a new look at the battle for Lanka. Rama's bridge building activities are interrupted by a tsunami, courtesy Ravana's order to Varuna. The wanton destruction of lives finally sees Rama's control snap and he uses the divine bow of Vishnu and the arrow of Shiva (which make a guest appearance in Demons of Chitrakut) to make the lord of waters help him cross the sea — no man-made bridges for Banker; Rama and his armies use the backs of whales (I presume since the book only refers to "grey backs") to get to Lanka's shores.
Much of the fighting focuses not on Rama and Lakshmana as one might expect but on the strategies adopted by the vanars and bears. Though very effective, this takes up much of the book with the result that the end seems kind of rushed. Indrajit, whose encounter with Lakshmana is traditionally quite a long story, is despatched by Rama in a few words. A pity, since the original tale seems so much juicier at least in this instance.
Element of surprise
And Ravana's character goes through so many shifts that you're left wondering if it is the same character. Beginning as one getting ready to fight the invasion, Ravana metamorphoses from leading from the front to resignation.
Banker, however, introduces an element of surprise in Ravana's statement to Mandodhari that Rama and he were once friends. Ravana's conversation with Rama before he is killed raises questions. When Rama threatens to "take a thousand births to rid the world of evil", Ravana tells him he has to do so only three more times.
Does this refer to the legend of Vishnu's guards, Jai and Vijay, being cursed to be born as Asuras thrice? Remember in Siege of Mithila, Surpanakha calls Ravana "Vijay" much to his anger? And why three more times - Jai and Vijay were born as Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu during the Varaha avatar, Ravana and Kumbhakarna in the Rama avatar and Shishupala and Dantavaktara, in the Mahabharata, during the Krishna avatar. The reader is left to puzzle through this; the author offers no answers.
Another unanswered question relates to Surpanakha. Banker embellishes the "Maya Sita" story so that Ravana has his shape-shifting cousin don Sita's appearance and kills her in the battlefield. Later he tells Mandodhari that all his powers are gone after he killed Surpanakha. In fact the narration in the latter half gives the impression that the whole story is Ravana's grand plan to die at Rama's hands.
And that brings us to the final battle. Even assuming that Ravana wanted Rama to finish him off, couldn't he have put up some fight? You can't help feeling that Mandodhari is right when she accuses Rama of having murdered her husband. Rama is also strangely unsatisfactory. Except for taking the initiative against Varuna, he remains strangely passive through the rest of the book. Ravana practically forces his hand in the final battle; the agni parikhsa is instigated by Lakshmana ... There seems to be more action when Rama is not around.
Though it leaves the reader with quite a few unanswered questions, King of Ayodhya is a fitting finale to the series.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Literary Review
