REVIEW

The epic tale of victory and defeat… The story of the Ramayana had been told innumerable
times. The enthralling story of Rama, the incarnation of God, who slew Ravana, the evil demon
of darkness, is known to every Indian. And in the pages of history, as always, it is the version
told by the victors that live on. The voice of the vanquished remains lost in silence.

But what if Ravana and his people had a different story to tell? The story of the Ravanayana has
never been told. Asura is the epic tale of the vanquished Asura people, a story that has been
cherished by the oppressed castes of India for 3000 years. Until now, no Asura has dared to tell
the tale. But perhaps the time has come for the dead and the defeated to speak.

“For thousands of years, I have been vilified and my death is celebrated year after year in every
corner of India. Why? Was it because I challenged the Gods for the sake of my daughter? Was it
because I freed a race from the yoke of caste-based Deva rule? You have heard the victor’s tale,
the Ramayana. Now hear the Ravanayana, for I am Ravana, the Asura, and my story is the tale of
the vanquished.”

“I am a non-entity – invisible, powerless and negligible. No epics will ever be written about me.
I have suffered both Ravana and Rama – the hero and the villain or the villain and the hero.
When the stories of great men are told, my voice maybe too feeble to be heard. Yet, spare me a
moment and hear my story, for I am Bhadra, the Asura, and my life is the tale of the loser.”

The ancient Asura empire lay shattered into many warring petty kingdoms reeling under the heel
of the Devas. In desperation, the Asuras look up to a young saviour – Ravana. Believing that a
better world awaits them under Ravana, common men like Bhadra decide to follow the young
leader. With a will of iron and a fiery ambition to succeed, Ravana leads his people from victory
to victory and carves out a vast empire from the Devas. But even when Ravana succeeds
spectacularly, the poor Asuras find that nothing much has changed from them. It is then that
Ravana, by one action, changes the history of the world.
‘Asura: The Tale of the Vanquished: The Story of Ravana and His People’ is a narrative, which
depicts The Ramayana focusing on the Ravana and Bhadra’s characters. The book spotlights
their view points. This tale has attempted to escape from the dullness of recounting stories from
the point of view of a victor. This narrative is a blend of history, religion and mythology. The
book has aimed to demystify the blunders done by the Deva clan, which is represented as
conventional and prejudiced. Also, it throws light on the liberation enjoyed by the Asuras.

Descriptions about Vamana and Mahabali are given along with the meeting of Jataya and
Ravana. Also, described is the Agni Pareeksha underwent by Sita. An unusual angle is shown
about the human emotions. A new but logical outlook is thrown at the people in regard to the
varied practices that were witnessed in this epic story. Also, the book makes people consider the
fact that the Brahmins, back then, followed unreasonable practices.

The book also questions the lifestyle of Ravana and the alternatives and decisions he opted for.
Besides, there is also an account about Ravana’s confrontation to the Gods regarding his
daughter in the book. The book was amongst the names of toppers of the 2012 Crossword. Also,
it was on the bestseller list of CNN IBN.

The book is also in the process of being translated into Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu
and Italian. It is available in paperback and can be directly ordered from Amazon India.

About the author:

Anand Neelakantan was born in a picturesque small village Thripoonithura, on the peripheries of
Cochin, Kerala. He did his Engineering and joined the Indian Oil Corporation besides moving to
Bangalore.

Maybe it is because it challenges the accepted norms about Rama and Ravana, which is difficult
for someone who has heard one version of the story from childhood to accept. Some complained
that the character of Ravana did not have a consistent characterization. I think this is deliberate
and what makes the book more real. Everyone is a shade of grey....and every human is a mixture
of inconsistencies. A true characterization of Ravana cannot paint him consistently evil but it has
to be more an internal conflict between noble intentions and wrong choices which the author has
portrayed successfully. Having said that, here is my review. "Asura" is a very unique take on the
Indian epic "Ramayana". While Ramayana is the story of Lord Rama's triumph over the evil
demon Ravana, this book is the story from Ravana's perspective; the king who lost the war. Like
every legend that grows over thousands of years, Ramayana is full of fantastic events and
unrealistic occurrences (Ravana's ten heads, Hanuman's jump over the ocean etc.). However, it is
obvious that these exaggerations must have had some real and fundamental truth to them which
then evolved into the fantastic story that we now know as Ramayana. Anand Neelakantan does
an excellent job of weaving together a very realistic picture of what might have been the actual
events which now have turned into legends and myths. Ravana was a great ruler; flawed but
great. Even the Ramayana acknowledges the fact that Ravana was a very learned and able ruler.
The empire eventually crumbled due to infighting, betrayal and Ravana's ego, culminating in a
great war precipitated by Ravana's abduction of Rama's wife, Sita

the name suggests, this novel is about Rakshas/ demons or Asuras! We call them by many names
rather by various nasty names – names that depict evil, sin and wickedness.

The novel is basically dictated by 2 protagonists: Ravana and Bhadra which I feel is the strongest
thing about this book. Both the characters depict almost the same incidents in their own ways
and according to their thinking which shows the difference between point of views of rich and
poor. Ravana describes about his feelings and his ambitions from a teenager’s point of view
initially and then, further describes the problems of handling an entire empire from a ruler’s
point of view. While Bhadra describes everything from a common person’s point of view or
rather from a poor person’s prospective.

The novel being about Asuras doesn’t mean that the author has gone to the extent of glorifying
Asuras and Ravana! Infact, I appreciate the way the author has very beautifully depicted the
good and bad at both sides. The thing that makes the story of this novel different from the old
laid ones (mythological books) is that the author has dared to exude the good side of Asuras and
has emancipate the evils which laid in Devas society! These 2 things are very contrary to what
we had grown up listening to! We had been taught that Asuras were all about bad and Devas
were all about good!

This book has given a very strong and audacious challenge to those old set notions and
convictions! Both the sides have been shown as 2 human civilizations and nothing more than
that! Ravana is not shown as a demon with literally 10 heads and having black magical powers!
Rama is not been shown as a God who had the power to call for special weapons by just one
mantra whenever and wherever he want to! There are no Gods showering flowers on the win of
Rama… Demons are not shown as cruel and heartless creatures flying around everywhere
wearing black cloths, killing everyone! There are no deities shown who sit in darbar of heaven,
watching the beautiful apsaras dancing… there are no demons shown with huge teeth, weird
looks and all! It’s a book where Devas and Asuras both are shown as mere human beings who
are parts of 2 different cultures and society and who has no special powers!

Thank God somebody had really dared to challenge the society for creating such wrong notions
about somebody! It is an amazing piece to read specially for people like me who believes that
our mythologies have really been written from a very biased point of view, whether its
Ramayana or Mahabharata. They are just one sided stories and have no depiction or explanation
of the other side which is off course the villain side! I agree that I have no point in believing
what Anand has written, its fiction, completely fiction but then, even Ramayana can also be a
fiction. When we believe that, why can’t we believe this? How can we refuse to believe that
there were many things done by Rama that were unethical, that were erroneous? Why do we feel
scared of accepting the positives of Ravana?

Go ahead and read this one piece and ask yourself that is it right to burn Ravana’s statues every
year just on the name of celebrating victory of good over evil? Who are those who defined who’s
the hero and who’s the villain in this great epic called Ramayana?

This book is really a treat to my audacious views!!! It is a treat to my thinking, to my point of

views. I loved it and I am sure I am going to read it again and that too soon!

Asura: Tale of the vanquished started off promisingly with an interesting premise. Told from the
viewpoint of Ravana, the antagonist of the Indian epic, Ramayana and Bhadra, a common Asura
in Ravana's service, the book follows an alternating narrative style.
However, as the story progressed beyond 60 pages (of 500 total), the quality declined and the
shortcomings became glaringly evident.
 1. The story is stretched beyond requirement and the narrative felt intentionally dragged
in places. The actual story ends in 400 pages and the final 20% of the volume is simply
unnecessary addendum.
2. Inclusion of totally unnecessary details in places most of which pertained to sex,
seemed odd and distracted from the main story.
3. There were a lot of grammatical and editorial errors prominent which pointed to a
shoddy job by the editor.
4. One word to summarize the author's thought process while penning the novel
: Confused. Initially, I thought it was the use of the unreliable narrator which made the
story slightly conflicting in places. But on completing the book, it becomes evident
that the author hadn't thought through the complete story. I wasn't able to form any
opinion of the major characters even after completion because all of them oscillated
between extremes.
o Was Ravana a benevolent ruler as depicted in some places? Or was he just one of
many who do not care about the general populace?
o Was Bhadra a loyal servant?
o Did Ravana treat all as equals or did he not?
o Was he a steadfast, determined ruler who did not care about the general consensus? Or
was a bigoted, selfish tyrant?
5. Use of the words like "sorry", "penis" etc alongside words like "apology", "manhood"
hinted again at poor writing and proofreading quality.
6. The author seems to have some prejudices against the color black. Every reference to
black (usually in terms of skin color) is accompanied with "ugly", "disgusting" or
"evil".

The story picked up some slack towards the end but failed to salvage itself.

To the author's credit, it is indeed a fresh perspective on the epic Ramayana. However, he could
have done a better job if he had put more time in research and in re-reading the final draft.
Being born in the historic city of Agra does more to you than just Taj Mahal, it nurtures
you in a society where Ram is enacted, glorified, worshipped and loved. I had the
privilege of growing up in the place where the tradition of Ram Leela and Ram Baraat
has been celebrated from over hundreds of years, with the pres ent form starting from the
year 1885. For us, Ram is born every year, and for a month each one of us witnesses his
life story right from his birth to his departure from the Earth. The locality which wins the
bid to become Janak Desh and build Janak Mahal considers itself as truly blessed by the
Lord Shri Ram himself. Such deeply rooted is this culture in our lives, that, for one
month we forget who we are, flocking in lakhs of numbers to witness the Ram Leela and
especially the Janak Mahal, Ram Baraat and Ram Vivaah. I was born and brought up in
such a society, and therefore my faith in Ramayan is absolute.

So, when I heard about Asura: Tale of the Vanquished by Anand Neelakantanfrom my
friend, I was utterly shocked. It was beyond my comprehension why would somebody
want to write about “Raavan”, the perpetual evil force in our lives. As I dug deeper, I
realised that this is not a conspiracy theory as suggested by my friend but an author’s
attempt to present the losing side’s point of view. I found the description of the book
very intriguing and decided to order it. Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down. It
was that good. It did to me now what Harry Potter had done to me in my school days. It
was absolutely irresistible.

The concept of narrating the story from the defeated’s point of view is really good. What
I especially liked about the narration is the fact that the author is narrating the story from
the point of view of two people and the contrast between the two narrations is
remarkable. Ravana narrates the story from the time of his birth, telling us about the
hardships he faced as a poor in Lanka and his big ambitions which led him to Mahabali
before finally making him the King of Lanka. Once he sits on the throne of Lanka, the
narration is from the point of view of the King. In a stark contrast to this, we discover
Bhadra, a commoner who though completely loyal to Ravana is misunderstood a lot many
times and narrates the story from a poor man’s point of view. While we all have heard
that Lanka was the golden kingdom, Bhadra tells us much more about the situation in a
commoner’s Lanka.

Another good thing about Asura by Anand Neelakantan book is that the author does no t
seek to defame the Ramayana, or glorify Ravana, he just makes an attempt to bring out
the loser’s tale. He makes us question the norms, and realise that maybe the evil is evil
because it was depicted so, maybe there is another story or another rationale behind
Ravana’s actions which ultimately led him to his defeat. Why did Ravana abduct Sita?
Did he really intend on making her his queen or was there some other reason behind it.
Maybe there was another rationale behind his action, maybe his intentions we re not as
bad as have been portrayed. Winners always defame the losers, maybe that is what has
happened with Ravana too. What I also liked about the book was the portrayal of Asuras
and Devas as not gods and demons but two contemporary civilisations fighti ng for glory
and kingdoms. They were as human as any of us are now.

While writing this review of Asura by Anand Neelakantan, I was trying hard to remember
things which I did not like. But in my search for the flaws of this book, I couldn’t come
across any. It is almost unbelievable how a debut author has done such a commendable
job in his very first book. The theme, narration, side plots, characters, research and most
importantly the climax are all done beautifully. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that
though we knew the climax of this book from the very start, with Ravana showed dying
in the very beginning of the book and from our common knowledge of our own
mythology, the interest of the reader is kept alive and ignited till the very end. Kudos to
the author for coming up with such a brilliant plot and for articulating it so beautifully.