The Forest of Enchantments - A book review
The Indian Mythology is an opus song of two of the greatest Epics, the Vedas, the Upanishads, and folklore, sung for centuries to regard the existence of righteousness and wrong.
Having umpteen version of The Ramayana and The Mahabharata, often, men and women hold conservative views of their understanding of the story. Amidst the religious battle of words, and the copious euphemistic views of the salts and peppers, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni brings a feminine view to the heroic tales of princes and kings.
The author's fictional depiction of Ramayana from Sita's perspective breaks down the epic beautifully to talk about Sunaina, Mandodari, Urmila, Kaikeyi, Shabari, Sarama, Surpanakha, Tara, Ahalya, and Kaushalya. The strong female characters that the original epic eludes from its existence.
The thematic and literary visualization of the author leaves you in awe. The book starts with a banished and sanctioned Sita at Rishi Valmiki’s Ashram where she is handed over The Ramayana, a compilation of the great sage’s visions from the cosmos.
“What occurred when I was alone in the darkness, under the sorrow tree, you don’t know. You don’t know my despair. You don’t even know my exhilaration, how it felt-first in the forest and then in Ayodhya-when I was the most beloved woman in creation.” Becomes the basis of how the book is to be perceived by the reader, henceforth. It unfolds Sita’s narrative from a microscopic vision to the naked eye.
Life and death walking parallelly. Through the long walk of alive, we miss out on experiences for the need for fulfilment. We long for what we believe is our destiny and prepare for the worse to unravel. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni weaves a rather fresh story of Rama and Sita as royals and foresters, supporting and waiting on each other’s end goal, to become king and queen of Ayodhya someday.
The author segways the reader through years of tumultuous grief, ache, longing, and indignation of wives, sisters, daughters, and mothers of heroes the saga sings of. From banishment to her self-actualization into the earth she was the daughter of, Sita's journey was a glass shard-like. It grows on you, page-by-page, to the point where her endurance and patience becomes a chagrin adoration.
The Ramayana, which is Rama's triumph over wrong, destroying the evil, and establishing an ideal kingship, touches base with female characters. What Divakaruni has done is, delve deeper into their stories. Her creative juices have allowed buried fables to breathe and bring perspective to a reader of what could be.
Throughout the book, the author has subtly established autonomy over female characters of the saga and given a contemporary comment on how duty, honour, love, betrayal, and infidelity may never be enough to reason with decisions of the great.
If not resonance, a reader, irrespective of the gender, can find the brilliance of being human. We are all driven by emotions, thoughts, and beliefs. Experiences that may have occurred thousands of years ago may seem bizarre, but their actions, as a result, can still be found relatable ever today.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone who has the slightest interest in Mythology. You may want to leave your inhibitions and apprehensions at the door. What you may find, may amaze you or amuse you. Nevertheless, it will awe you, for the words, poems, and dialogues exchanged hold weight and interact with you in a trance if anything.