Valmiki's Women : Book Review

Valmiki's women re-introduced me to five women from the ancient Hindu lores whom I have been hearing since my childhood days. For a change, this time the stories were not of the all-sacrificing, consistently righteous Sita ma. Not that Sita Ma's character has not intrigued me, but it was simply refreshing to read about the monstrous Soorpanaka, and the uncouth Tataka with red eyes and shabby knotted hair. It was like the demonesses finally got a chance to tell their story first hand!

I cannot but appreciate the gifted writer's gumption to give voice to the condemned. When paeans are sung on the heroic valor of Rama, Ananad Neelakanthan is the first one, at least for me, who prompted us to think from the loser's perspective too. It is through Anand sir's riveting book Asura, that Ravana, the fiery and belligerent Asura King finally got his chance at narration of a story known for millenniums by his killer's name- Ramayanam.

Until then, Ravana was demonized as a vile abductor who lusted after another man's wife. But Anand sir beseeched his readers to look from another angle and his writing prowess is so compelling and unique that we cannot help but be convinced that maybe, there was another side to the story too.

Maybe, there is a teeny weeny chance that the victors have hijacked our collective conscience for ages and colored all losers with one shameless brush of ignominy, cunning, and subterfuge.

We start questioning how is it that all losers were demons, devoid of all morals, and charlatans of the first order, liars and dark and everything evil. Was karma so prudent that every wrongdoer was annihilated in the annals of time? Or was there another way to tell the story? Is there another version? Why didn't we ask these questions earlier?

The five women narrating their stories are Bhoomija, Shanta, Manthara, Tataka, and Meenakshi or better known as Soorpanaka.

Be it the Mother Krauncha bird struggling to find meaning when she loses her family in one fell swoop, or Shanta, the neglected, unwanted daughter of King Dasaratha, jeopardizing her life to earn even an iota of love and affection from her father who is so fixated on having a son that he often forgets about his daughter, or Manthara, the vile, repugnant hunchback, with her ugliness and unmatched cunning finds herself back in the dingy streets after being thrown away by the very daughter whom she lived for all her life or Tataka, a devoted wife and mother, killed and her entire family annihilated because she and her ilk were 'savages", and the last story of the woman with such beautiful eyes that she was named Meenakshi, but destined to go down in the annals of history as Soorpanaka because she fell in love with the wrong man, all these women's stories are rendered with a fresh narrative.

Their struggles are given credit, regardless of which side of the aisle they belong to, without prejudices. Every story gives us a moral, coercing the reader to think and analyze and respond with an unprejudiced mind. It might nudge us to question our own deep-entrenched belief systems of right and wrong, idols and ideals we held close to our heart for all our lives, may come crashing, but that is the beauty of these stories.

In the first story, Bhoomija, Valmiki, the great scholarly sage is thrown into mental turmoil by the simple gesture of an uncouth hunter and he questions good and bad. Despite being born a princess in a palace, amidst opulence and extravagance, Shanta finds happiness and contentment in life with a forest-dwelling rishi leading a hand-to-mouth existence.

"When the greed for a son won over the concern for his daughter."

[When King Dhasharatha gives away his only daughter Shanta for adoption.]

In spite of her indulging love for Rama, overcome by Mathara's odious advice, Kaikeyi does what she herself knows is wrong and is never able to fully forgive herself. Soorpanaka's story is the one that truly shook me. It left me riddled with umpteen questions that begged an answer and I couldn't understand why we had never asked these questions until now.

Apart from the refreshingly different perspective that this book offers, and the free-flowing, easy-to-read narration style, the way the author has explored the inter-relationships between these strong women characters is commendable too. How Sita and Soorpanaka find it in them to forge camaraderie and even friendship despite their unfavorable situations, the tumultuous and ever-changing relationship that Manthara and her foster daughter Kaikeyi have managed to create over the years, the warm bond shared between Kaikeyi and Shanta, are all equally piquing.