Raavan: Enemy of Aryavarta (Ram Chandra #3)

Loved the new perspective of series of events in ramayana and many are logical to believe them. Sita will not be Vishnu as she goes against vishwamithra knowing that he used ravana and founds Naga kingdom of meluha series with bhumi Devi as name, Rama founds meluha and Bharat founds chandravamsi kingdom, he might go against Rama as he is supportive of bhabhi. These are my predictions for next books in the series.

A better book than the other two in the Ram Chandra series, we get to know Raavan. We get to learn his deepest desires and his biggest fears and his strongest characteristics. The author has managed to make us invested in this villain more than he was able to get us interested in the heroes. We grow up with Raavan, and Kumbhakarna, in a fantastical Lanka and go on an epic journey of love, anguish, desires and the eternal internal battle we all wage within ourselves between our better angels and the monsters. A must read for everyone. This book should have been the first to release, but a MUST Read nevertheless.

I have so far read The Immortals of Meluha, Ram: Scion of Ikshvaku, Sita: Warrior of Mithila and Raavan: Enemy of Aryavarta from Amish. Melhua is one of the best reads and is clearly a classic of his style. Being very keen of Ramchandra series, I read all of them within first few months of their launch and found Scion.. the best among three.

Raavan however disappoints and feels as if written in hurry. While story is interesting and well prepared, there are pages and pages of dialogs those do not add anything significant to the story line and feel bored after a while and I flipped almost all of them. Hopefully in next book of the series, Amish improves on the story instead of long conversations.

The true marvel of a fiction is taking the characters that we have read/seen/heard from ancient scribes and giving a backstory to that character and to make the readers understand as to why that character is important in the perspective of the whole story. Amish ticks all these boxes yet again in this beautiful, well written novel.

And now we know why every hero needs a good villain and even a villain has lots of good qualities in him. And after reading the novel it was quite understandable as to why Amish changed the name of the novel from Orphan of Aryavarta to Enemy of Aryavarta though in all likelihood after reading the novel you might fell that he was neither orphan nor enemy rather he was manipulated to be a pawn by Aryavarta to raise the designated person to the stature of Vishnu.

How do you sympathize with a villain like Raavan? He was a scholar, a musician, an astrology expert, a great politician, an even greater leader and a warrior unparalleled by most heroes. All of the greatest traits of Raavan are in full display in this book, along with a very plausible and understandable setting for the reason behind his rise to power as a villain of ancient India as opposed to being a hero for India. If you always wondered how a man with the qualities of a great hero could go on to become the most feared and hated man in India, this book may be able to help you understand what drives such great men. I only wish that the delay in the book’s release and all the aplomb that went with the marketing and thrill that was generated before it’s release were somehow reflected in the book. There could have been many more instances when the book could have explained or demonstrated the decision that went behind the kidnapping of Sita or how the two brothers unraveled the secret of their kidnapped victim. The ending felt rushed and not as powerful as I had expected. Let’s hope the fourth book can fill in some of the gaps and jumps this book had made in the end as the story of the true planning and scheming that went behind the scenes is uncovered. Fingers crossed!! I can’t wait!!

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