We are living in a land filled with mystical, mythological and historical stories, Vikramaditya and Vedhal, Tenaliraman, Akbar and Birbal the list is endless, setting these stories aside we also have astonishing ithi-hasas (which translates to thus happen in Sanskrit) like Ramayana, Mahabharata originally written by Sage Valmiki and Sage Vyasa respectively, some may argue here that Mahabarat was technically written by Lord Vinayak.
Our land is an Immortal land for a reason, the ancient cultures of the Central, South and North Americans, Celts, Nordics, Mesopotamian s and many others are largely extinct.But ancient Indian culture stubbornly refuses to die despite of repetitive violent and intellectual attacks though there may be many reasons attributed by many eminent scholars, the sole lies in engineering our culture, ithi-hasa and puranas to mend with evolution.
Tales of Lord Rama or Lord Krishna are being told not by one, but many. which is a unique feature to the majority population of our land, for instance there is not one author for Ramayana, the original Ramayana written by Sage Valmiki, was again written by Tulasidas ji in 16th century, penned by Poet Kambar in Tamil language by 12th century, the personification of Sita is different in all three texts. Keeping in mind the time difference of these authors the characteristic feature differs.
The craze for Bahubali film can be attributed to the craze of the 1980s Ramyana television series that changed the communal and political mind set of the country. India built by left liberal mindset changed communally, politically into center right. Demolition of disputed structure made the pink lotus to blossom ,reason for the political party founded by Syama Prasad ji rolling into power can be majorly attributed to the 1980s Ramayana serial which had a dynamic impact on Indian viewers.
The Bahubali tale too had an impact of Indian viewers which is evident by the numbers generated by the film. The tale of Mahismati penned by Annand Nelakandan is a prequel to the Bahubali series has a same ingredients compared to Ramayana of 1980s.
Characters and dialogues are powerful that it may leave an impact until the next book in the trio series arrives, the personification of the protagonist character Sivagami in an invincible trait sets the entire tale interesting and involving. Kattapa's loyalty to Mahismati empire reasoned in the book, gives an added honor badge to the author.
Some strong dialogues spoken by characters that left me perplexed.
"Enemy is not the one to hate, but enmity and cause of it"
"Eyes should either have fire or fear, but the sight to see all that God holds dear"
"it is easy to find fault, protest and rebel, but it is difficult to change things inch by inch by being part of system"
Overall the tale of Sivagami and Mahismati is a very good read, a modern day mythology and a future ithi hasa.
Many thanks to SS. Rajamouli ji for making modern day Valmiki penning down a future ithi hasa for many many posterity.
Akshayaram Viswanathan
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