Jungle Nama by Amitav Ghosh and Illustrated by Salman Toor

Review by Shwetha H S

Title: Jungle Nama
Author: Amitav Ghosh
Imprint: Fourth Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 9789353379128
Genre: Mythology, Illustrated, Children, YA, Adults

If you are into reading books, then you would have probably heard of Amitav Ghosh. He is a prominent name in the Indian literary circles and is also a recipient of Jnanpith Award. I always stayed away from mainstream books. Amitav Ghosh’s books seemed so mainstream, I never thought of reading his works. But while browsing through a bookshop in Leh, Ladakh, a book cover caught my attention. It was Amitav Ghosh’s Jungle Nama. As you must have guessed, I bought that book to enter the world of one of the greatest Indian literary celebrities.

Jungle Nama is based on one of the chapters of The Legend of Bon Bibi. It is written in the form of poetry. This is a story of morals with a link to local mythology, anchored in reality, for both kids and adults alike. Particularly this story talks about greed – how a wealthy merchant makes a pact with a regional deity or a demigod, Dokkhin Rai, who often shape-shifts into a Royal Bengal Tiger and is restricted to the areas of Sunderbans, to leave his relative as food in exchange for honey and wax, but are punished by Bon Bibi and her twin brother Shah Jongoli.

I found it good to read Jungle Nama aloud. There are quite a few Bengali/Bangla words, so it is better to read in the same accent, for fun as well as it gives a sense of relevance. There are a few moderately difficult words used in the book, which make a good addition to the readers’ English vocabulary. Most of all, the Afterword of this book is as precious as the story. The last time I was so mesmerised by someone’s writing was while reading Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie. There was no need for a bookmark while reading Jungle Nama as I finished reading it in one go! I thoroughly enjoyed the book and am no longer skeptical about reading a mainstream Amitav Ghosh’s book. While the writing is great, the illustrations aren’t so. Although the last few pages of the book praise the illustrations by Salman Toor, I thought they could have helped glorify the story better, especially because this is based on mythology. Nevertheless, I definitely recommend reading Jungle Nama.

Queens of Hastinapur by Sharath Komarraju (Hastinapur, #3)

Review by Shwetha H S

Genre: Mythology
Imprint: Harper Collins, India
ISBN: 9789352773138

The Queens of Hastinapur is third in the Hastinapur series. First two were Winds of Hastinapur and Rise of Hastinapur. Hastinapur series is a retelling of Mahabharath. This retelling shows how humane and materialistic the characters of the epic saga are compared to their depictions in the original and other versions.

Gandhari is striving to secure her chance to be the queen and the future queen-mother of Hastinapur. Pritha is striving to secure her place in the heart of her husband, the king of Hastinapur, Pandu, who has taken Madri as his second wife. The gods on Mount Meru are striving to resist the flourishing of Hastinapur to prevent the great empire, under the aegis of Devavrata, invading their abode on the holy mountain. Devaki is striving to keep her new-born alive so that he can grow up to kill his uncle Kamsa. King Kamsa is striving to keep his kingdom Mathura safe by coming into an alliance with King Jarasandha. The gods on Mount Meru have to now strive to keep themselves safe from the strong alliance of Kamsa and Jarasandha because Kamsa will definitely try to avenge the theft of the black stone magic by the gods from his kingdom. Jahnavi, Ganga’s apprentice, sent by the gods to Mathura, along with Kubera and Nishantha, gets caught by Kamsa and they all strive to get out out of the prison. What happens to all these women who are striving in this game of power? What happens to the men whose lives are entangled with the lives of these women? Ganga continues to tell you the epic story of Mahabharath.

Since the Queens of Hastinapur is third in the Hastinapur series, you need to read the first two books too to understand what is happening. After watching B R Chopra’s Mahabharath on television, this fresh retelling that shows each character in a different angle is welcoming. But, compared to the first two books, the Queens of Hastinapur’s narration seems pale, especially the part of Jahnavi, Kubera and Nishantha. Rest of the book’s narration is tolerable.

Hoping that the birth and upbringing of Krishna will not make women suffer more, hoping that the fourth book in the Hastinapur series will have a better narration than the third one, do give the Queens of Hastinapur a read.

Atha Kāljnānaprakaranam: The Knowledge of Death Related to Time (Edited by Pandit Shoe Shankar Mishra and C N Burchett)

Review by Shwetha H S

Whatever were the intentions of the editors when they began working on publishing the shlokas compilation and its translation, they have failed in it. Atha Kāljnānanprakaranam is based in the collection of ancient shlokas made by Shri Banwarilal. Maybe the shlokas actually teach us something good, but we never know because they are in Sanskrit and not everybody understands that ancient and mother of all languages. Hey! They have provided translation too in Hindi and English. But the translations are so miserable that they will make you cringe out of frustration because you aren’t learning anything from this book and it doesn’t even justify at least its title. The editors must have given the background of the book, neat translations and explanations about why such shlokas were made in the first place. This book is a complete laughing stock, that too in a pathetic way. Please don’t bother reading this unless you have some money as well as time to waste.

The Rise of Hastinapur by Sharath Komarraju (Hastinapur, #2)

Review by Shwetha H S

Following the events that occurred by the death of Vichitraveerya in the Book #1 of Hastinapur series, The Winds of Hastinapur by Sharath Komarraju, The Rise of Hastinapur starts with Amba who becomes a priestess, then takes you to Pritha, the princess of Kunti, and at last Gandhari, the princess of Gandhar. Devavrata is now renowned as Bhishma, and Satyavati is not mentioned much in here, but Ganga is still there. And you get to meet Shakuni, the prince of Gandhar and younger brother of Gandhari. Hastinapur has grown to be a juggernaut and so does the number of people scheming for the downfall of Hastinapur and Bhishma.

This book, more than the first one, leaves you wondering if Bhishma was truly a visionary or just a happy-go-lucky chap for the time being. More than men, he has women scheming against him and he has no idea like ever. The celestials are present as usual and they play their role whenever necessary. There are lust-filled, power- hungry people everywhere who may or may not be truly brave. As the story continues, it is easier now to see these characters from Mahabharata to be more realistic than magical as they are told to be. Of course, magic is there due to the Celestials, but this retelling doesn’t have magic for everything; like magic to bring shoot arrows and burn people.

As the story moves forward, there are more and more characters brought in. I am sure there are more to come. Why? Because this is Mahabharata! There are numerous characters meant to be in it. But for now, the royal ladies are paving the path to where they go and lay the foundation to one of the epics that mankind has ever witnessed (ahem, read). So, brace yourselves people. Sharath Komarraju is here to stay narrating his version of Mahabharata.

The Winds of Hastinapur by Sharath Komarraju (Hastinapur, #1)

Review by Shwetha H S

We grew up listening to tales of Mahabharata and sub-stories related to this epic. Many of us must have even watched the telecast of B R Chopra’s and Ravi Chopra’s Mahabharat and its many re-telecasts. The epic is etched on our minds so well that we can’t imagine anybody else for all the characters apart from those who portrayed them. But Sharath Komarraju manages to cast away those familiar images and instil new ones in their places through his first book in this Hastinapur series, which is a retelling of Mahabharata, called The Winds of Hastinapur. You certainly won’t think of Mukesh Khanna when you think of Devavrata while reading this story.

The Hastinapur series is not only about Mahabharata, but about women of Mahabharata. True to being the first in the series, The Winds of Hastinapur tells you where and why a path was paved for this epic. There is a great man at the beginning of every epic and behind every great (replacing successful) man, there is a woman. And that woman is none other than Ganga, and many other women who were the Lady of the River before her. Then came Satyavati followed by Amba and her sisters. The story in the first book mainly revolves around the age-old concept, you know what they say, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Well, this applies only for Ganga here. Satyavati is more of “I am the woman.” Amba arrives towards the end of the story and that makes me guess it is from her the next story starts.

There are men too in this story. Apart from many celestials and sages, we have many kings here. Out of them, Shantanu and Devavrata, who goes on to be known as Bhishma. You will take pity on both the men as the story moves ahead.

From what is depicted of this epic in sculptures and paintings on ancient architectures, we already know that men were brave and women were sensual. But imagine them to be making out with each other? Oh, they were more human than divine. Or did divine blood too crave for intercourse? This retelling is more realistic than completely magical; like babies popping out of nowhere. Nonetheless, this retelling of Mahabharata is worth reading and it keeps you waiting for the next book is the series, The Rise of Hastinapur.