New Delhi, Oct 9 (PTI) Author and mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik approaches Ravana from a 360-degree angle in his new audiobook and says seeing the demon king as a father, son, brother, husband will enable people to appreciate the Ramayana, Lord Rama and the Vedic thought better.
“All characters in Hindu mythology help us understand humanity better. Ravana is no exception. Being larger than life, I always wonder why would the great epic Ramayana choose an educated and a rich powerful man as its villain. This makes ‘Ravana 360 Degrees’ on Audible an exciting part of analysis,” he says.
According to Pattanaik, 360 degrees refers to the Hindu practice of ‘pradakshina’, going around a particular deity and seeing it from different points of view.
“And of course, your Ravana is not a deity but an idea, and every idea is divine, when you start approaching it from all angles and see how a particular idea reveals something about Hinduism in particular and humanity in general. Ravana is no exception,” Pattanaik told PTI.
He says in the Ramayana, each character helps us understand the other character better.
“In order to understand Rama you must understand how different he is from Lakshmana, from Sita, from Hanuman, from Ravana. And this kind of analysis enables us to get a refined idea of the great epic, which takes us deeper into Vedic thought,” he says.
“This is why this shows how by approaching Ravana from a 360-degree angle, seeing him as a father, son, brother, husband, we are able to appreciate Ramayana and therefore Ram and therefore Vedic thought better,” he adds.
Pattanaik believes a story needs many characters to bring an idea alive and Ramayana is no exception.
“Ramayana has the added burden of presenting the thought to the common man and this means it has to be far more refined and structured in composition so that we can appreciate the finer nuances of the Vedas,” he says.
Ravana, according to the author, embodies an educated, powerful, privileged elite, who does not respect other people.
“And that’s what he embodies. He doesn’t respect even despite all his education, he doesn’t respect the consent of a woman and believes that locking up a woman is an expression of his love.
“Even today, we find such bullies everywhere who genuinely believe that stalking a woman is an expression of love. Such ideas are amplified in many Bollywood stories,” he argues.
There are some important lessons to be learnt from Ravana’s story, Pattanaik suggests. “The most important of them is that education, knowledge and power do not necessarily make you a wise man.” “We must not forget that Ravana speaks Sanskrit but so does Hanuman. When people talk about Ravana, they refer to him as Brahmin. How do we refer to someone? “How should we refer to Hanuman who is as educated as Ravana but never seen? He is more popular for his strength than his wisdom. This tells us so much more about us than about Ravana or Ramayana,” he adds. PTI ZMN RDS RDS
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Source: The Print
