# Shanu Jitan
Anand Neelakandan’s ‘Raavan; Let’s read the note about the book ‘Parajitar Gatha’…
‘Can I be so easily removed from the pages of history? That’s all I am… Wasn’t my birth mission to be a loser? Little did I know that I was born to fulfill someone else’s destiny. To become a god for someone else, to pave the way to godhood..’
Anand Neelakandan’s beautiful work ‘Raavan, the Saga of the Losers’ begins with the chapter ‘The End’. The background of the story develops through the soul conflicts of Ravana, who also awaits death.
There is one thing that many worldly people have said, that if you want to thrive in this world, if you want to fit in with the world, you have to be content and practical with what you spend your life doing that is not yours. ‘But I’m a dreamer, and it’s not enough for me to get any further in this world. I want to own it.’ Ravana’s journey to own it was his life.
Even if the Asuras were never openly theistic, they had their own deities. Lord Shiva was their main deity. Shiva was represented in linga form to herald virility and fertility.
Vishnu temples began to spring up in many places, overtaking Shiva worship. The main goal of the devas was Vishnu seva only. For about 700 years the Vishnu dynasty ruled in the name of Indra. Brahma, the true inheritor of knowledge, was recognized as the creator, and Vishnu as the preserver of the system. Ironically, it is not Indra who destroyed the empire but Shiva who built an empire who was praised as the destroyer.
Ravana proclaims himself as the savior of the Asura clan, with a broken, defeated culture behind him, and a people who have lost hope and trust in him standing before him.
From the time when the intoxicating myths of power came into being, we have been losing ground in the world. Here Ravana’s lust for power, which has not been seen since the conquest of Lanka, and the resulting arrogance, pride and selfishness can be seen in many places.
Although it is recognized that there is nothing worse than selfishness, the intoxication of power in many places, that madness makes him subject to many justifications.
Ravana is trying to justify all the evil deeds he has done by upholding his own dharma and oppressing the subjects through military force in many ways, the power and kingship he has gained through riots, fraud or hypocrisy.
Even as his parents curse him, Ravana realizes that he has discovered the dead soul of youth as the little bubbles of joy slowly grow bigger and bigger and fill his entire mind. As long as you have big, big dreams on a higher and broader level, that elixir will never run out. It is only in anticipation of his death that the need for a reconsideration of all that he has done arises in him.
While basking in the pride of power, at some places the face of Ravana who pays the price for human values is revealed. The initial lust for the Brahmin widow who can be tormented by her kinkaras is then seen to turn into a slight humiliation and heartbreak in the face of her tears and the intensity of her words.. Finally Ravana, humbled by his lack of love for the deva Brahmin girl, falls at her feet and remembers.
The saga of the losers is not only about the defeats of Ravana or Asurakulam. Here Ravana’s ally Bhadra was the chief who stood next to Ravana or even ahead of Ravana. The story is drawn through Bhadran along with Ravana’s mental dealings.
Bhadra introduced himself like this;
‘I was neither a good warrior nor a good organizer. I am a common man with soft hands like a vegetable gardener like a laundress. There is only that, I am nobody. the frivolous I don’t have steely muscles, arched eyebrows, or a long nose. I used to have a name, but now I am known as Bhadran..’
Bhadra was the only person who knew all the secrets of Asuravamsa, Ravana and Sanskrit itself. All the victories achieved by Ravana had the shadow of Bhadra’s strength, wisdom and diplomacy.
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At a time when he firmly believed that the Asura Empire was weak, Indra broke its protective shield. A culture derives its pride from the cities it built, the books it built, the artists and sculptors it nurtured, and the temples it erected. Indra built an empire based on the framework of Asura culture.
From there, the Asura emperors before Ravana fragmentedly took over the power of many regions and maintained the remaining Asura clan. ‘The Saga of the Losers’ is also a story of success achieved by Bhadran, who had to see everything he had destroyed in front of his eyes in the attack of the gods, and Ravana, who escaped from extreme poverty and came with the goal of conquering the demon race one by one.
Bhadra was the only person who experienced all the mental and physical hardships that a human being can experience in his lifetime. Even though he was with Ravana like a shadow, Ravana treated him with utter contempt.
Bhadra does many evil deeds for Ravana that a conscientious person would hesitate to do. For Bhadran he is his own Lord. He goes through all the miseries just to see the end of the grudge that lies within him like an ash-covered coal, to drive away the gods and reclaim the Asura culture.
In the ‘Gatha of the Losers’, there was a different face of Ravana from the Ramayana that we have heard and seen so far. In many places, the description confuses Wayana people whether it is a fiction or a legend.
As I read each chapter, I kept thinking how endless the author’s thought levels are. The writing style and descriptions were so good. The description is so clear that the reader sees a movie in his mind’s eye.
Many of the best works have been put aside by translation, either unnoticed or unreached. Here N. Sreekumar has interpreted the story in such a way that the readers get inside the best, flawlessly. There are still many places where the ‘Gatha of Ravana’s losers’ needs to be discussed. More readers to reach.