Title: Uttarakanda
Author: Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa
Publishers: Sahitya Bhandara
Genre: Mythology/General Fiction
Pages: 350+ (Hardbound)
Source: Personal Copy
We all grew up by reading and listening to the stories
of the Hindu epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata. We have a sculpted belief
that a certain character from certain epic will behave like this and there
won’t be any misconduct or any character deviation from their original ones. At
times, these beliefs can be shaken to the ground when you come across certain
books. At the same time, certain books make you question the reality. This is
the very essence of the book “Uttarakhanda” penned by my favorite author,
philosopher and a great human being, Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa. He finished writing
this book in just 3 months of duration, but took whole 8 months to re-draft
each and every chapter before sending it for the publishers. That’s typical SL
Bhyrappa’s flavor.
Coming to Uttarakanda, this is the retelling of the
Ramayana. But what makes it different from other writers is the theme of the
book. This Ramayana is entirely from the viewpoint of Sita. How she sees the
entire Ramayana as an event? What was her thought process when she decides to accompany
Rama to the exile for 14 years? What were her thoughts when Ravana abducted her
from the forest? Etc… The entire narration belongs to Sita in this book. How
she endured all those years along with Rama and his brother Lakshmana is
pictured vividly, brilliantly. This is one of the hearts wrenching narration of
the Ramayana I’ve come across in my entire life.
One thing I must mention in this review, there are no
gods in this version of Ramayana. Each and every character is human. Rama is as
much of a human as a normal court maid. There are no flying chariots, no 10
headed Ravana but one, no curses, no divine arrows, and Hanuman is a normal 50
year old person, who believes that he belongs to the clan of the Lord Hanuman.
I must applaud the brilliance of the author here for keeping the Gods as gods
and making this story that touches the nerve of his readers.
As the story progresses further, we get to read the
normal tale of how Rama and Lakshmana accompanied sage Vishwamitra to kill
couple of rakshasas and eventually reaching the Kingdom of King Janaka, the Mithila,
and breaking the Shiva’s bow to win the bride Sita. But a little twist here
from the author makes it even more human. The actual plot of breaking the bow,
was a setup by the King Janaka who was under the impression that, if any prince
would tie the bow string with their bare hands would win over Sita, so that,
the actual birth details of Sita would be negligible, since she was won in a
challenge!! It is just brilliant to have this thought. It makes us to ponder
for a few minutes. The after events keep Rama in high regard. Dasharatha
actually learns that Sita is not the biological daughter of Janaka and she was
actually found in a land while tilling. He raises an objection to the marriage
and decides to cancel the wedding. By the timely intervention of Rama, this was
avoided and Rama marries Sita, so does his brothers and Sita’s younger sisters.
The plot carries further in a regular manner but with
a humane touch. The promises that Dasharatha made to his 3rd wife
Kaikeyi has been written in an entirely different perspective which I am not
going to include in this review. This must be savored from the book. One thing
the readers must keep in mind that, Rama was a staunch follower of Dharma even
in this version. He learns the ill motives of Kaikeyi and decides not to become
Prince. As per Kaikeyi’s wishes, Rama prepares to leave Ayodhya to the exile
for 14 years. The event after that takes an entirely different approach where
the human nature of Rama, Lakshmana and Sita will begin to unfold.
Now the real story of how Sita tries to analyze Rama
and Lakshmana and herself begins slowly. Soon she realizes that it is difficult
to adjust to the forest life. Also, she learns that without Lakshmana’s
assistance, she and Rama both wouldn’t have been survived in that forest. Rama
was a recluse in the forest life. He was enjoying the nature with a least concern
to check on his wife and her comforts.
The climax of the book will keep your mind occupied
and haunts you like anything. Ravana will abduct Sita, but not by himself. He
sends his troops across the sea border to bring Sita via boat. His men will do
just that by tying Sita to a boat and rowing across the sea. Ravana abducts
Sita for the sole intention of avenging his sister Surpanakhi who got insulted
by Lakshmana. Surpanakhi instigates Ravana by narrating the events that took
place when she confronted Rama and Lakshmana in the forest. She describes Sita
as a beautiful lady and he should abduct her at any cost and rape her. Being a
womanizer, Ravana was all prepared to get Sita to his city of Lanka. Once after
the abduction, the scene was written in an entirely different fashion, where
Sita confronts Ravana and asks him to win the battle over Rama. If he wins,
then he can marry her. But Sita was all prepared to immolate herself if the
unthinkable happens.
Once the battle was over, the real test for Sita
begins when Rama doubted Sita’s chastity. He wasn’t sure whether Sita was raped
by Rama or not (sic). Having spent more than a year in another man’s
supervision, Rama doubted whether to take back Sita or not. This is an eye
opener scene for the reader. When Sita questions the same thing to Rama about
his chastity for spending more than a year away from her, Rama didn’t have any
answers. Sita’s questions are a mirror test to the present society. Is chastity
applicable only to women? Who made this rule? Won’t men also fall under this
category? Why women are termed as spoiled when she was raped or abused? Why the
same things do not apply to men? Are men not under the purview of rape? Won’t
they get raped by women? All these questions of Sita hits the bulls eye to the
present society that questions that chastity of a woman or term her as raped
when it wasn’t her fault? Rama’s unwillingness to answer these questions denotes
the situation of every man in the present society.
The final confrontation of Sita with her husband Rama
was a true testimonial of how bad the decisions that Rama took against Sita.
When she confronts Rama asking him about his conduct with sage Gautama, asking
him to forgive his wife Ahalya when she committed adultery 25 years back, and
why he can’t he do the same? When Rama can bow down before a low born woman
Shabari and consider herself as his mother, why he went ahead and beheaded a
low born man who was doing tapas and reciting Vedas? Rama’s reason was like low
born persons shouldn’t do the tasks that belong to the higher born persons. What
kind of Dharma he is following? For all these things, Rama was not able to
answer anything.
Overall I believe that book showcases the patriarchal
society of Rama’s era and why it hasn’t changed even a bit in the 21st
century today. Questioning a woman on her every move is still prevalent in the
current society. Rama was no exception either. He just behaved the way he believed
it was according to the Dharmic principles. He didn’t even shown the human side
of him to the world. Though we revere and celebrate his life and keep him in
high regard as the epitome of the justice, but how he wronged Sita will remain
as a black mark on him till the earth survives. A must read book. You can go
back to the earlier writing flavor of S.L. Bhyrappa. I would definitely rate
this book beyond 5 stars and recommend it to every reader.
My Rating:
5/5
