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Business News/ Mint-lounge / Features/  My book is a respectful interpretation of the Ramayana too: Amish
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My book is a respectful interpretation of the Ramayana too: Amish

The author of the Shiva trilogy on his new series on Ram, and what it takes to create Ram Rajya

Amish says one can learn from Lord Ram that it can be cool to follow rules as well, but even that way of life has its challenges. Photo: Abhijit Bhatlekar/MintPremium
Amish says one can learn from Lord Ram that it can be cool to follow rules as well, but even that way of life has its challenges. Photo: Abhijit Bhatlekar/Mint

Two years after the final book of the Shiva trilogy, bestselling author Amish is ready with his second series. The first book of what will be a five- or six-part series (Amish said he hasn’t made up his mind on this yet) is titled Scion of Ikshvaku, and is based on the life of Hindu god Ramchandra. It will be released on 22 June. The other books in the series will follow every other year, he said.

The much-anticipated Ram series was in the news when Amish received an advance of 5 crore from publisher Westland Ltd in 2013—the biggest signing amount paid by an Indian publishing house to an Indian author. The Shiva trilogy, whose first book Immortals of Meluha came out in 2010, has sold a total of 2.5 million copies in print, with gross retail sales of 60 crore. The trilogy achieved fame for its characterization of Shiva, a Hindu god, as a marijuana-smoking tribal lord from Tibet, and Parvati, his sword-toting, battlefield-ready consort. We met Amish before the launch of his new book. Edited excerpts from the interview:

Ramchandra is a political god. The current party in power stated during the run-up to the elections that it intended to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya at the site of the demolished Babri Masjid. In this scenario, how do you feel your book will be received?

I never comment on politics. In an article that I wrote defending the system of voting, I made it clear that it should not be taken as support or rejection of any political party. I’m a believer in democracy, and believers in democracy say, whoever has won, has won. Accept it, and if you don’t like it, fight it politically. Politics by its very nature has a very short time frame. When you refer to Lord Ram as political, you are referring to the last 20-30 years, which in the life of our nation are a few moments. The message resonates over millennia and is at the root of the Ramchandra series for me. Some people could read them as adventure thrillers—and that’s fine—but at the heart of it is a philosophical question. In the Shiva trilogy, the philosophical question I examined was: ‘What is evil?’ And the answer, of course, is not simple.

What is the question at the heart of this series?

The philosophical question I’m asking in this series is: ‘What is an ideal society?’ The answers aren’t simple. What is the impact of the choices that a society makes after 50 or 100 years? If we’re aware of the impact, how should we structure society, so that it stays stable? All of us like to point fingers at politicians and bureaucrats for not following the law. But the moment our favourite actor gets into trouble under the law, people start protesting. So the question we need to ask ourselves is, do we truly understand what the rule of law means? A life of laws is tough. If someone in our family breaks the law, we would probably not register a complaint against them. What I’m trying to do through this five-book, or probably six-book, series is to start this debate. On this matter, I think there is a lot to learn from Lord Ram.

Is that how the narrative tackles the episode of Sita’s trial by fire?

You’ll have to read the book to find out. If you ask people what an ideal society is, many will answer, Ram Rajya. But if you ask them what Ram Rajya is, you’ll get different answers, as everyone has their own interpretation. That’s what the debate is—is it a life of freedom, or laws or one of balance? Who gets to decide? Is it through majority voting? Or does an elite sitting in Lutyens’ Delhi decide? Which way is better? Perhaps, from Lord Ram, we can learn that it can be cool to follow rules as well, but even that way of life has its challenges. But a society that is driven by laws becomes a far more trusting and efficient society.

Not everyone may think that Ram Rajya is an ideal society. Do you worry about those who may not agree with you writing about Ram, or presenting what is a version of the Ramayana?

The intentions that one has come through. The effect that a book or movie may have, one only gets to know later—as with any work of art. I know this debate has been going on that our pluralistic society is under threat, and I would like to say that there’s no way it is, because India is not that kind of country. It never has been. The core culture of our people is deeply liberal. This is not just about Hinduism, but the way every faith is practised in India. In my puja room, I have several idols of Hindu gods and goddesses. I also have pictures of Mother Mary, Jesus Christ, Guru Nanak, of the Kabah, the star of David, of Zarathustra. When I tell people in India this, no one gets surprised. I went to the US and mentioned it to a few people there, and everyone was shocked.

There are many versions of the Ramayana. For most urban Indians, the version they know is a 1980s television show, which itself was sourced from the Ramcharitmanas, written by Tulsidas in the 16th century. There are many differences between that and the Valmiki Ramayana. Most educated Indians haven’t read the original Valmiki Ramayana. There is a version of the Ramayana in south India called the Kamba Ramayanam, in which Lord Ram and Ravan praise each other before battle. In another version called the Adbhut Ramayana, which is at least a thousand years old (though I believe it is older), there are two Ravans and one of them is killed by Sita. My book is a respectful interpretation of the Ramayana too.

The ancient world had the attitude of shastrarth (debate): You have the right to your point of view; I have the right to mine. The Rig Veda says, ‘Ekam sat​ viprah​ bahudha vadanti’, which means ‘truth is one, but the wise men speak it as many’. We need to revive that spirit of the ancient world, which was essentially an attitude of ‘let’s learn from each other’. Within India, my belief is that we still carry many of the ancient ways. I’m not saying that everything in our country is perfect, and I’ve repeatedly stated that the oppression of women is our biggest social problem, and we’re disrespecting our ancestors. But in terms of accepting expression, the people—not the government or the laws—are the best in the world.

What’s the status of the movie deal for the ‘Immortals of Meluha’?

Earlier we had a tie-up just for Immortals of Meluha. Karan Johar’s company, Dharma Productions, had the Indian language movie rights for the first book of the trilogy. Then they realized that they needed the rights for all the books of the trilogy because it’s one continuous story. So we re-did the deal for all the books and there will be a series of movies. Karan Malhotra and his wife, Ekta, are now working on the script.

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Published: 20 Jun 2015, 12:11 AM IST
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