SCION OF IKSHVAKU
Scion of Ikshvaku the first book of the
Ramachandra series by Amish Tripathi attempts to tell the story of Ramayana
through modern eyes. The main features of this book are its conversational
language, strong women characters and debates on moral issues.
The book is based on Ram, the legendary Indian king regarded as the
incarnation of Vishnu. The story begins with King Dasharath of Ayodhya being
defeated in a war by Lankan trader Raavan, and the birth of his son Ram. It
follows through Ram’s childhood and tutelage along with the politics
surrounding his ascension to the throne and ultimately his fourteen year old
exile accompanied by wife Sita and brother Lakshman.
Amish defends Ram and all his actions in the book. He says that : "I would like to look at
him holistically and completely. Practically all Indians love and respect him
for what is known as 'Rama Rajya', but I wonder how many people would have
actually thought through what 'Rama Rajya' is. That is the thing I want to
write about and how he built that society... Through Lord Ram, we might learn
that it is cool to follow rules. And that is something I think modern Indians
might need to learn."
Tripathi’s idea behind the series is to make the reader realize what a
ideal society is. Through dialogues and repartees between Ram and Bharat he
aims to do that. Amish also highlights on the negative impression of Ram, and the
term ‘Maryada Purush’ associated with the king. Amish says that: “People
erroneously translate the term ‘Maryada Purush’ as 'the perfect man' when it actually means 'the
perfect follower of rules'. It is true of a lot of people who were brilliant
for society, but not for their personal lives. If we can look at Gautam Buhdha and Mahatma Gandhi in their entirety, why not Lord
Ram?
Ikshvaku was the founder of the Suryavanshi
dynasty to which Ram belonged and the book deals with how Ram tried to
establish his “Ram Rajya” in the middle
of a corrupt Indian society. "Maryada Purush"
With modern re-telling of the epic, set in
3,400 BC, the women characters have also been given a voice - and an agency.
Sita is a strong character who stands her ground, even if it is to fight the
Lankans, which might seem questionable to Vishwamitra. Though the book retells the story of Ramayana as
practically as possible, the mystic element entwined in Hindu mythology
generally has been kept intact. The saintly Ram, the devilish Ravana, the
morally upright Sita, the rebellious Bharat and others are shown as real people
with real lives in this book . Also
the use of colloquial language would make the reading effortless and
interesting,
The narration is very good, dialogues crisp and to the point and
suspense is built up almost from the very beginning in the motives of some of
the characters which will definitely be pivotal in the events of the next two
books. Amish has taken the revered Hindu epic Ramayana's characters, the rough
setting and has formed his own narrative. Since we all know the story of
Ramayana unlike the Shiva trilogy, there might be a bit of a hesitation to pick
up this book. However the really
big surprise element here is the amount of philosophical dialogue between Rama
and various other characters with a tinge of a hint at the author pointing to
the current state of affairs in our country and Amish has deftly handled those
dialogues. It makes the reading all the more interesting .
Amish
builds upon the Rama epic in a very un-Ramayana like manner. The differences
are apparent right in the first page, where he lists the major characters. Some
of these are surprising, some shocking, and some, even amusing. Amish’s Ram is
very much a human hero. Ram is neither born through divine means, nor portrayed
as the apple of everyone’s eye. In fact, the first and greatest point of
difference between the traditional Ramayana and The Scion
of Ikshvaku is the
depiction of Ram as an unloved prince. His father, king Dasaratha, considers
Ram’s birth inauspicious and blames him for all his misfortunes. So the
fabulously powerful and wealthy king of Ayodhya is shown to be a defeated old
man ruling over a crumbling kingdom. The very foundations of the epic are laid
differently in this story. Further, Manthara has been depicted as the
wealthiest businesswoman of Ayodhya instead of the poor handmaiden we know her
to be. She even has a noble daughter who is a rakhi-sister of the four Ayodhan princes. We all know Sita
is a strong character, but Amish pushes the envelope by appointing her the
prime minister of Mithila. The development of the usually ignored character of
Shatrughnan is very interesting . The poor youngest prince of Ayodhya has
little or no role to play in most versions of The Ramayana.
Here Bharat gets a makeover as something of a ladies’ man, a foil to the stoic
Ram. Ravana loses nine of his heads in Amish’s version and gets a horned helmet
instead.
Tripathi wrote the story both from a critical point of
view about Ram as well as a devotee of him, adding that "part of our
traditions is also to learn from the stories of our gods”.
Critics mostly appreciated Tripathi’s work. Urmi Chanda-Vaz writes in scroll.in:
"He has an almost magical ability of retaining the essence of familiar
mythological tales while spinning wildly deviant plots...While not a great fan
of his literary style, I cannot help but admire Amish for the way he manages to
create completely new stories from old ones...for anyone who is familiar with
the author's previous works, the book meets all expectations... Amish's
easy-to-read prose and page-turning style is designed to be accessible and
enjoyable. From the looks of it, he is poised to set another best-selling
record”.
Scion of
Ikshvaku identifies several
contemporary ills of the society and debates on the possible solutions
that can be offered. The readers need not believe in Ram himself or follow
a particular religion in order to enjoy this book, for more than
the characters it’s the contemplation of issues that is more important. The concepts of marriage, of masculine and
feminine form of administration, and of structural politics have been studied
at length here. The positives and negatives are laid out, and it’s not hard to
draw out parallels of these with the laws imposed on us presently. The
narrative is fast-paced. While the characters’actions and the way they’re
presented may vary from what we’ve known so far, their decisions and their
ideologies definitely align with the plot. The characters have been beautifully
developed. Raavan’s arrogance, Dashrath’s crushed ego and Ram’s childhood agony
are well described.
Instead of the commonly accepted belief that Ram was Vishnu's avatar,
this story has challenged Ram to become Vishnu's avatar. There is no God like
powers in him but he justifies his character by his moral code of conduct and
respect for the law. Scion of Ikshvaku
is definitely a page turner. The creative brilliance of Tripathi shines bright
throughout the book. The story is told entirely on
third person objective and most of the inner struggle faced by the greatest
character Ram remains untold. But on an overall basis the creative genius
of Amish is at play. The books clearly creates a parallel with Ramayana and
many interpretations of known beliefs are intriguing. All in all this is a
light read and interesting book. The fast paced narration will keep you
occupied for hours. The twisting and the interesting characters set a strong
stage for the remaining books. The book is a pure enjoyment and will leave you
refreshed and wanting.
- Haripriya Sreekumar
