Asura: Tale Of The Vanquished, The Story of Ravana and His People by Anand Neelakantan

Asura: Tale Of The Vanquished, The Story of Ravana and His People Reviews

• 
  Riku Sayuj

  How to Define Dangerous Books
  
  
  Sometimes the only force that can take you through tabductso the end of a book this bad is the sweet thought of revenge: of how you are so going to maul the author in your review once the book is done and dusted.
  
  This is a book that is so painfully badly written (500+ pages of tripe!) that ordinarily it should not merit much thought, but the fact that it tells a story that so many would want to hear, and might believe too easily, makes it dangerous nevertheless, and worth discrediting.
  
  Also, the idea of giving voice to the victims, of inverting the historical bias of “history is written by the victors” is quite interesting. This was the reason I could not resist picking up the book.
  

  The Tale Of The Vanquished: The story of the Ravanayana has never been told. Asura is the epic tale of the vanquished Asura people, a story that has been cherished by the oppressed castes of India for 3000 years. Until now, no Asura has dared to tell the tale. But perhaps the time has come for the dead and the defeated to speak.

  
  
  Written through a distorted prism of historical victimization, this book is simplistic beyond imagination, is replete with misprisions, and makes no attempt either to capture the poetry of the original epic or show any sort of fidelity to its philosophy. Instead it mangles every aspect of it.
  
  The author is clearly a Dravidian fanatic and tries every angle to work his fever-pitch hatred into the epic and its ‘historical atrocities’.
  
  In effect, the author wants to fan the North-South Divide (the Aryan Vs Dravidian political flame) and the caste divide, and is extremely vitriolic in his language throughout. The hatred is obvious in every page.
  
  The two main threads running through this atrocious and fanatical novel are:
  
  1. Hate the North Indians, they brought all evils into society.
  
  2. Our only weakness is our lack of unity, let us band together, Brothers, we are the original rulers of India before these intruders came into our lands.
  
  The basic thesis is this:
  
  India was originally ruled by the Asura kings and Tamil was their language and it was high culture and complete equality and what not - a la Mahabali’s paradise - celebrated through the Onam festival of Kerala - the book assumes that fable to be the default condition of India. In a classic nostalgic narrative, this Mahabali’s India is evoked throughout as the Golden Age of India. According to the author, then the ‘Aryan Invaders', a bunch of uncouth barbarians came and overthrew the Asura kings (all due to their own lack of unity) and established an uncultured primitive society throughout India. Yes, the barbarians not only won every war but they conquered the whole of the sub-continent - and this is in spite of the fact that the Asuras were so advanced in technology that they even had flying chariots (the Pushpaka Vimana) and stuff. Go figure.
  
  
  
  Then the main narrative takes over - Ravana, an ambitious youth, rebuilds some semblance of the original glory of the Asura’s and eventually starts capturing back the mainland from his base off it - in Sri Lanka. During one of his conquests, he fathers a girl child who was abandoned and then adopted by the king of Mithila - yep, Sita is Ravana’s daughter in this narrative - can’t have the good guy indulging in random abductions, can we?
  
  Then Ravan watches with great sadness as Sita marries Rama later in life and decides one day that her life with Rama will never be really cool and abducts her - in her own best interests, mind you - because the Aryan society mistreats women and Ravana doesn’t want that for his daughter. So in keeping with the high moral principles of the Asuras, he kidnaps her and keeps her captive against her will - way to treat them equal, eh?
  
  
  
  Rama launches an attack and as usual (but not before Lakshman disfigures and rapes Ravana’s sister, provoking the now pacifist Asura king), the lack of unity is the undoing of the Asuras - Ravana’s own brother plots to dethrone him.
  
  Eventually Rama triumphs and then institutes the caste system, Sati system and every known evil - all dictated by the Brahmans. India degenerates into all sorts of chaos and loses her position as a moral force and a political force in the world. The dark ages descend and Rama was the initiator, Ravana was the last hope for the Tamils - the golden age was lost forever.
  
  
  
  Now the funny thing is that the whole novel is written at a time when the whole Aryan Invasion theory has been thrown out of the window, more or less. It was part of the ‘divide & rule’ policy and this author wants to bring back those heydays of old. It is politically motivated twisting of facts. There is hardly any justification for the inventions that the author has indulged himself in.
  
  Facts:
  
  1. Ravana’s father was Visravas - Ravana was an aryan himself in all likelihood. (+ He is known to have followed the Vedic rituals that are so derided in this book - and technically that was the criteria for Aryanhood, just as Vibhishan in this book does)
  
  2. Ravana was a North Indian himself too, before traveling down south and capturing the kingdom that belonged to Kubera (who is himself supposed to be Ravana’s brother - an earlier wave then?). So if anything, he must have been one branch of the Aryan Invasion that spread across India (as per that theory)
  
  3. Dark skin is not a characteristic of Non-Aryan, nor is white skin a characteristic of Aryan:
  
  - Rama was himself dark-skinned.
  
  - So was Krishna, later (and Arjuna, for good measure).
  
  - So was Vishnu himself, the supposed god of the ‘white-skinned’ Aryan race (btw, Shivites Vs Vishnavites is another virulent theme of this book - Vishnu worshipers are shown as the uncouth Aryan stock while Shiva worshippers are the Dravidian stock, according to the author.)
  
  4. Sita is Ravana’s daughter purely because she is dark-skinned? By that logic, Rama too could have been an Asura prince? What, if any, racial conflict is the Ramayana supposed to portray then?
  
  5. Plenty of Rakshasas were fair skinned and hence cannot be a simplistic racial characterization.
  
  6. Dravidians are not always dark-skinned - stereotypes are for idiots, surely?
  
  7. Recent genetic studies have shown the racial stocks to be hopelessly intermingled throughout India and gives no evidence of any distinct racial divide between North and the South.
  
  8. Except for the language, not much divides the so called Aryan and Dravidian culturally, genetically, religiously or historically. Even the linguistic divide shows the potential for being bridged as a common ancestor for proto-Tamil and Sanskrit is investigated.
  
  9. One more thing, the book boasts of being 'Ravanayana.' The name 'Ramayana' is formed from 'Rama' and 'ayana', translating to "Rama's Journey," not "Rama's Story." Shows the level of knowledge that was brought into this 'rewriting' of Ravana's (and his people's) story.
  
  
  A Note to the Readers
  
  Dear Readers, the author is clearly misguided and the book is clearly a fanatic’s attempt to rekindle old hatreds. Please do not take it literally. Take it as an inventive, if extremely badly written, exercise in reversing the so called historical bias of victors, and leave it at that. It merits no historical discussion, and is definitely of no political relevance.
  
  This book is a blatant attempt to fan anti-brahminism, North-Indian hatred, and basically blame every ill of society on this ‘historical injustice’. It does have a call for caste-solidarity, but even that is not a noble call, considering that it is caste and not class that is being called to unite.
  
  For me, the scary thing about this is that such sentiments are already high in many cities. So many North Indian friends of mine complain about the increasing xenophobia towards them in South India, even in metropolitan cities like Bangalore. Speaking in Hindi in Chennai is a sure fire way of being discriminated against. Similarly, the North Indian cities too are treating the South Indians in a derogatory manner and treating them as encroachers.
  
  
  
  The stereotypes that are popular about ‘Tam-Brahms’, ‘Mallu accent’, ‘the gali-speaking Delhiite’, ‘chinkis’, ‘Yuck, South Indian idli-dosa??’, ‘the uncouth Bihari’ etc., are all manifestations of this. Not to mention the crudeness of delusional movies like Chennai Express: 
  Ayyo, Rama, what’s aappening?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This mutual alienation is very dangerous and could easily be the cause for major riots in our densely packed cities. This sort of fanatical historical narratives only add fuel to this fire and should not be encouraged.
  
  Instead of banning books that ‘offend’ religious and racial sentiments, we should be more careful of such works which provoke those sentiments and tries to convert them into blind hatred. Those are the dangerous ones.
  
  
  
  
  
  Links:
  
  
  Come south, young man, but here be dragons
  
  
  The Great North-South debate rages
  
  
  Labels and stereotypes - Do the roots of racism lie in the stereotypes we create?
  
  
  Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines - would be a nice corrective (as a modern, opposing conspiracy theory, but perhaps closer to the mark).
  
  
• 
  Alok Mishra

  I call such authors cowards who hide behind the glimmer of fiction and don't have the courage to own their text. Anand Neelakantan, otherwise, might have been a wonderful author who could have impressed me with his vision and work. However, with this novel, Asura: Tale of the Vanquished, the author has lost his fictional reputation, for me. I am being highly subjective here. I will call out some flaws in the text and you can decide for yourself.
  
  1. The book is a work of fiction but it contains many subjective opinions that you will find highly offensive, ridiculous and absurd. So, why don't the author have the courage to admit that he is trying an alternative version of Ramayan? Why he disowns his own thoughts with a disclaimer but propagate everywhere else that it is a work inspired by or based on Ramayan? Hypocrite of the first rank!
  
  2. The book has many illogical analogies, equivalence and also many ambiguities because of the selective collection of facts by the author. For example, at once place, the author criticises Devtas and especially Vishnu's Vamana Avtara for 'acting like missionaries and propagating his religion' but he hails Ravan as a hero for doing the same thing - getting his guys together and attacking people for nothing. So, what's right for you will be wrong if I do so - what a vision!
  
  3. The book is an outright slur on Brahmins, Hindus and all the devotees of Lord Ram. Had it been a work of pure fiction, the author might not have brought such cowardice accusations that he has included in the storyline. Why this veil, Anand?
  
  You can read a detailed review that has been published on Indian Book Critics to know more:
  Asura: Tale of the Vanquished
• 
  Amit Mishra

  This is the worst literary creation by any fiction writer. I have read many pathetic books but this one will surely top that list. I have read the novel and found it full of utter garbage and punctured narrative full of self-imposed assumptions of the author that shows hehhas come far away from reality. The book is a work of fiction but it has done everything to mislead the readers in every possible way.
  I strongly recommend everyone not to read this work.
• 
  Rituraj Verma

  Half way through, the book seems like a scientific explanation of a myth, with a strong anti North and anti Brahmin slant. But that maybe because I am reading the unmodified, raw version that is too hard hitting to be printed because it could get banned or at least get shouted at.
  
  By the end of the book however, two things become clear. One, that all myths are machinations of ancient politicians and people came to believe what they found convenient. Two, that while there is no concept of a codified list of sins in Hinduism, almost anything that seems like a deviation from the norm can be construed as evil in our land.
  
  The author does a good job at presenting the grey areas in our belief systems, which are largely shaped by what we believe were black and white since time immemorial. While criticisms of Maryada Purshottam Rama have been around since the Valmiki Ramayan, this one is different because it combines class struggle from Bhadra's perspective with the story of a war supposedly fought for righteousness. The power of the first person narrative works wonders for the book, as both Ravana and Bhadra speak from their hearts.
  
  On the flip side of the coin, there is no character with any human kindness or any positive virtues in the book. This makes for a very pessimistic outlook of humankind and Hindu religious texts. For all the anarchistic suggestions in the book, none of the characters seem to be likeable or inspiring or funny. The sarcasm is caustic and it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. I found myself speed reading and wanting to forget what I had read.
  
  
• 
  Nidhi P

  The book doesn't make any sense to me. It's like forcefully injecting something into a source that does not approve of it... psychological blunder, if people claim it to be a psychological novel.
• 
  Naman Singh

  I would certainly say all the sensible readers to avoid this book which is already deconstructionist in a devastating way! Avoid it!
• 
  Supratim

  Before I start my review please allow me to tell you about the Ramayana. It will help you get the context.
  
  Let me also clarify that I only have a superficial knowledge about Ramayana. Mostly gleaned from a children’s abridged edition they taught us in school, what my elders told me and popular culture.
  
  The Ramayana meaning Journey of Ram is an ancient India epic about Lord Ram. He is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu (one of the principal Hindu Gods) and regarded as Maryada Purushottam – the perfect man/being. The epic states that Ravana, the mighty king of Lanka would abduct Shri Ram’s wife Sita & Ram would invade the island, kill Ravana and rescue Sita. Scholars will tell you that the characters in the epic are metaphors for various qualities: Ram represents the soul, Ravana stands for ego and so on. The epic is more than a narrative of war & revenge but is about ancient Indian philosophy told as a story.
  
  In mainstream (for lack of a better word) versions of the epic – Ram is the hero while Ravana is the villain. Ram is worshipped as a God while Ravana is often vilified as a demon king. In Ramayana, Ravana though a villain was also portrayed as a courageous warrior, a great king, a learned scholar & a great Shiva (one of the principal Hindu Gods) devotee.
  
  However, there are a few versions where Ram & Ravana exchange their status. Anand Neelakantan’s Asura Tale of the Vanquished portrays Ravana as a misunderstood hero, Ram as a righteous man strait- jacketed by the scheming Brahmins and all the virtuous characters in the mainstream Ramayana now have shades of grey.
  
  Ravana in popular culture is often depicted as having ten heads. I was told that ten heads signified ten brains – high intellect & knowledge. In this book, the author clarifies that Ravana is depicted as a ten-faced character as along with intellect he also embraced the nine base emotions of anger, pride, jealousy, happiness, sadness, fear, selfishness, passion & ambition. He did not want to be a God; Ravana wanted to be a complete man.
  
  The author also portrays the Asuras and Devas were two distinct races of people: Asuras were the original natives of India while the Devas came from outside. Ravana was an Asura while Ram was a Deva.
  
  Anyways, let us come to the book.
  
  The narrative alternates between Ravana & Bhadra.
  
  Ravana is shown as the poor boy with the dreams of building a great Asura Empire. I enjoyed the adventures of Ravana & how he would ultimately become the mighty king of Lanka. But the burden of kingship would start taking its toll and the character would change over time. Just like an ordinary human Ravana would start misbehaving & suspecting his senior advisors, be cruel towards his subjects and even humiliate his mother & siblings in public. Ravana himself was aware of how he had changed and in the end he would realize how he had placed his trust in the wrong people.
  
  The most tragic character of the story is Bhadra: a common man whose family had been brutalized by the Devas. He would believe in Ravana’s dream of building a great Asura Empire where laws would be just and every individual would have the opportunity to rise above his station in life by hard work and a bit of luck. Bhadra would faithfully serve Ravana as a soldier – risking his life multiple times. In fact he would make it possible for Ravana to be a king, do all the dirty work for him. But, Bhadra would be rewarded with suspicion and contempt. Ravana’s folly and the ensuing war with Ram’s forces would ultimately lead to the destruction of everything he had fought for. He represents the exploited, humiliated masses who have been down-trodden for millennia.
  
  The biggest villain in the book is the Deva Brahmin. The Brahmins are the ones who devised a rigid social order where a person’s birth decided his/her entire life, the women were suppressed and treated as commodities and the Brahmins manipulated everyone including Ram to do their bidding.
  I agree that the rigid caste system was a social evil indeed. But, the constant vilification of the Brahmins was a bit too much at times.
  
  I had started the book with very high expectations. The premise was interesting and given the success of the book I was expecting something fantastic. However, what I got somewhat fell short of my expectations. I am not saying that it was bad but somewhere I felt it lacked the wow factor.
• 
  Abhishek Ranjan

  What a ridiculous novel! I am ashamed that I picked it up with high hopes. This is plainly devilish and absurd. Don't read it.
• 
  Lalan Jha

  A book that I could not go ahead with after reading the very first chapter. This is a covert operation of somekind that forces you to change your belief and think about delusional things which are not there. Claims to be inspired by the Ramayana but tries to portray a version which might not possible in any distant imagination.
• 
  Rupesh Singh

  This is not the proper way to tell a story in the name of fiction. It is totally misleading can create a lot of misconceptions in the mind of readers. It has a very pathetic story to tell that is grounded on the realities. The author has just gone too far and said everything that came in his mind. It was a boring read for me and I don't recommend books like this to anyone. It will hijack your intellect with lots of false imagination.
• 
  Nishant

  I could not pass beyond the first chapter itself. The book takes the readers into a very dark direction which goes beyond the legitimacy of fiction...
• 
  Gudiya Rani

  I am not very much worried about the author's perverted perception of an ancient tale and (almost) scientifically proved by the magical American's ego calling a setu as Adam's Bridge... I am much worried about the editorial policies of the publisher who published this uncouth novel with not only derivative errors but also mini mistakes which even a child does not make! Waste of time and I decided to shut it down just after 3 chapters.
• 
  Prabhjot Kaur

  I am fascinated with mythology and the retellings and how if one thing changed, how it will change everything else and what not. So I always look forward to reading retellings. I was promised an alternate/mythology woven story that I was very excited to read but what I got was something that didn't even resemble the Hindu mythology this is based on.
  
  This book was so hard to get through, not just because of the stupid plot or the hateful and racial and discriminatory slurs but also because I couldn't understand what the author was going on about. I had never read anything else from Anand Neelakantan prior to this but I also don't plan to. It was a complete mess.
  
  0 stars
• 
  Rudra Kapalin

  An amazing stories that shows Anand Neelakantan's genius. Its not just about the book but the way he looked at History, Religion, Mythology and then uses his own mind to write an awesome piece of Fiction.
  
  The thing I admire about the author is that in this country infested by religions, he thinks rationally and pours out his heart which breaths life into his Novel.
  
  This novel by Anand makes more sense to me than Ramayana.
• 
  Mayanti

  The novelist seems to have no clue about whether he is writing his novel based on historical events of just a myth. He picks his cherries very carefully and this is what makes the work too obvious to be something that is based on ego and whims rather than solid grounds of a compelling fiction.
• 
  Vibha Jain

  ASURA-TALE OF THE VANQUISHED BY ANAND NEELAKANTAN.
  Rating of this book after testing on five backgrounds.
  1. The Content.
   Hats off to the research work.
   Every minute detail is casted with utmost dedication.
   I’ll rate this 4.5 out of 5 as for the reason nothing more could have been written.
  
  2. The Narration.
  It wasn’t that appealing as for the two reasons.
   Lengthiness of the conversations. (that compelled me to complete the novel in three days which I could have done in a night if it wasn’t that distracting)
   If the topic was ancient, I think the language used should be justifying that.( though there were only less words so it can be ignored)
   I’ll rate this test 3 out of 5.
  
  3. Editing Analysis.
   Editing was up to the mark but yes of course, “Best Is Yet To Come”.
   Reduction of the frequency of the repetitive words could have fetch more concentration.( but again, it wasn’t that big issue that couldn’t be ignored)
   I’ll rate 4.5 out of 5.
  
  4. Hard work or home work.
   Impeccable
   Going into the depth of some content and re-writing it is itself a tall order. But author did his job stupendously.
   Glossary in the end helped me a lot
   I’ll rate this section 4.9 out of 5.
  
  5. Overall book.
   I’ll give 3.8 out of 5 to the final product.
   We have known about the ancient times from the Rama perspective, but knowing the same from Ravana perspective was a great journey.
   You must grab the book if you want to know the life Ravana lived and how he treated his people.
  Vibha Bothra (Jain)