Raavan: Enemy of Aryavarta by Amish Tripathi Book Review

Raavan: Enemy of Aryavarta by Amish Tripathi Book Review

Raavan: Enemy of Aryavarta by Amish Tripathi Book Review

Over the past decade, author Amish Tripathi – or Amish, as he prefers to be known as – has long gone from electricity to strength. Naturally, as an artist grows into his profession, his work is also honed, and this is the first thing that strikes you while studying his brand new novel Raavan: Enemy of Aryavarta.

There is no doubt Amish is India’s most outstanding modern-day fiction writer, having bought extra than five million copies of his books, which have been posted in 19 languages. But his experience wasn’t easy – it took him greater than three years to write his first book, Immortals of Meluha – and it seems the persona of Raavan has introduced forth his struggles in literary form.
Throughout the book, Raavan’s suffering, after losing the only lady he loved, is deep-seated and terrible. It eats at him from within, while on the outside, he turns into the world’s wealthiest man – powerful, merciless and ruthless.

While researching and writing this book, Amish additionally experienced difficulties, a time he as soon as described as the most harrowing and painful of his life. This ache and sorrow are reflected in Raavan’s struggles. This may be the most heartfelt and soulful ebook that Amish has written as a consequence far.

Raavan: Enemy of Aryavarta by Amish Tripathi Book Review

The third e-book in his Ram Chandra series, Raavan: Enemy of Aryavarta, follows Raavan’s life, set in 3400 BC. A fierce warrior, brilliant scholar, ruthless businessman, effective king, artist, musician and statesman all rolled into one, Raavan is known in mythology as the villain who kidnapped Sita, wife of legendary god Ram, in the epic Ramayana.

Instead of a unidimensional villain as in Ramayana, Raavan is human – flawed, a genius and a strong persona capable of intense devotion on one hand and horrifying cruelty on the other.

The e-book follows Sita: Warrior of Mithila and Ram: Scion of Ishkvaku, all multilinear narratives that shape the ­background of the subsequent two books, in which the characters come together in one grand narrative.

Amish Tripathi’s books are handy in 19 languages. Courtesy Amish Tripathi
Amish Tripathi’s books are accessible in 19 languages. Courtesy Amish Tripathi
In the acknowledgments for his modern-day work, Amish refers to the private pit he discovered himself in over the past two years – writing this book appears to have been cathartic and damaging for the creator at the same time. A fascinating combination of historical Indian records and mythology, it’s clear that Amish carried out a dazzling quantity of research before inserting a pen to paper. From the Vedas to the Natyashastra, his scholarly interests are obvious, a good deal like Raavan’s.

The story Amish wrote after all of this is no longer solely enlightening however thought-provoking, mainly when it highlights troubles such as the caste system, racism, patriarchal evils, poverty, dependency, and infant abuse. Philosophical debates discover their way into the narrative alongside sociopolitical events, such as the Sabarimala Temple row. In 1990, ladies of menstruating age (between 10 and 50 years) had been banned from coming into the Kerala temple, one of India’s greatest pilgrimage centers. The country’s Supreme Court overturned the ban ultimate year. All of this splendidly rounds off the business tenor of the book.

Racy and well-paced, it’s almost akin to an uncensored Bollywood film – there are gore, torture, violence, passion and coronary heart – which is sure to make it a hit among fans and uninitiated readers alike.
But at its heart, Raavan: The Enemy of Aryavarta is a love story. It’s shifting in its simplicity and some components are overwhelmingly grief-stricken, albeit the narrative isn’t nuanced nor layered and the emotional thread that runs via the e-book is straightforward, touching on cliches of love and loss. But it is in this plainness that readers will possibly discover the biggest resonance. Amish makes no pretenses about his work and his books are not for the literary elite however for India’s masses, who can delve into his writing and by way of doing so recognize themselves, the Indian way of life and mythology a little better.

Raavan: Enemy of Aryavarta by Amish Tripathi Book Review

Most importantly, Raavan: The Enemy of Aryavarta is about the underdog and his story. In this book, Raavan belongs to the Nagas, a hated and cursed tribe (a team that has featured in Amish’s books since the Meluha series) and in opposition to all odds, he will become the world’s wealthiest and most powerful man. There are no judgments here – a man’s bought to do what he’s bought to do, as they say – however from the proper perspective, this book has the conceivable to be inspiring to lots of people struggling to get their lives together.

It is additionally about choices; the ones we make on a moment-­by-moment basis, which weave collectively the tangible and intangible webs of our lives, sensible and spiritual. At every step, Raavan is introduced with two options, and his picks decide the direction of his life and shape the man he becomes – ruthless and a pawn in the hands of the gods. At 374 pages, Raavan: The Enemy of Aryavarta is a speedy and ordinarily breezy read. Even if you haven’t studied the previous titles in the series, the drawback isn’t too exquisite as they’re unbiased stories.


Amish units the stage for a scintillating finish. Pick it up and you won’t put it down.