Review- Raavan: Enemy of Aryavarta

Raavan: Enemy of Aryavarta is the third book in the Ram Chandra series by Amish and is preceded by Ram: The Scion of Ikshvaku and Sita: The Warrior of Mithila.

Raavan: Enemy of Aryavarta is the story of the making of a villain. Raavan is the son of Rishi Vishrava and Kaikesi. He is scorned by his father, because of which his father regularly beats him and fights with him. Once a Kanyakumari visits the ashram, and her encounter with Raavan changes the course of his entire life. When Vishrava goes out of the country for some work, Kaikesi learns that she is pregnant and a few weeks later Raavan’s baby brother is born. Due to certain incidents Raavan, along with his mother, brother, and uncle (mother’s brother) has to flee from the ashram. They go to various places and finally settle in Chilika. Raavan soon makes a name for himself among traders and smugglers because of his shrewdness and leadership qualities.

The story progresses as Raavan becomes more and more of the villain we know him as. Raavan’s character is engaging. He is a scholar, warrior, and tyrant, all rolled into one. He is passionate ans will love without expecting anything in return.

We see behind Indian mythology’s greatest villain, disastrous events which might have made a weaker man give up, but in the case of Raavan, they increased the fire within and made him who he was. At the same time, while these events and their consequence seem inevitable, we also realize that Raavan had a choice as to his reactions to events. Instead of improving the factors which caused him losses, he chose to be the enemy of the Sapt-Sindhu.

The plot line is interesting and gives us a different perspective from usual of Raavan’s character, but the narration lets it down. It gets slow and cumbersome at points, when you can easily skim over the lines and not regret it. Also, I did not like the change made to Sugreev’s and Vibhishan’s character. A slight change would have been acceptable, but the complete flip in their personalities left me in a bad mood. The one thing that grabs attention the most is Kumbhkarna’s character. He is innocent, dutiful, respectful and a loving brother. He worships Raavan and will do anything to protect him, even if he has to risk his life for it.

One prevalent point we see in all books is the recurrence of the same lines. Entire paragraphs have been repeated word to word in the descriptions of some people and events. This also results in dissipating interest a couple of times as we have already read the same thing in the preceding two books.

Something I appreciate in this series, shown especially in Raavan, is the way prejudice towards Nagas or deformed people is shown which is present even in today's age.

Overall this book is pretty interesting.

The shift in Raavan’s character, Kumbhakarna’s love for his brother, Raavan’s strength and the various angles of human nature we see as we encounter, some selfish, others selfless, some gentle, others rough and so on, a huge spectrum of people with diverse morals, beliefs and characteristics, these are some of the reasons to pick up and read this book.