Customer Reviews

One Billion Indians Can't be Wrong - By: Quicksilver, 09 Apr 2008
I recently completed Ashok Banker's excellent Ramayana sequence, which I can't recommend highly enough & I wanted to read a more traditional retelling. I was thrilled to discover one of India's literary giants had written a version of this compelling epic & pleased to say it didn't disappoint.

The story is 2,500 years old; that it is told, retold & loved by generations of Hindus, is recommendation enough. The Ramayana is a wonderful fable full of heroic deeds, poweful armies & vengeful demons. It demands to be read.

Ashok Banker's version is about 3600 pages & Narayan's about 150 so there obviously some differences! Narayan's retelling is quite sparse but the language he uses is wonderful. Most of the book is told as a narrative but often at the end of a chapter the author has added an explanation of the chapter's events or brief synopsis of events that take the reader up to the beginning of the next chapter.

I preferred the longer retelling but if you don't have time to plough through six books then this version is well worth reading. It is sure to whet your appetite & entice you to delve further into the expolits of Rama & Sita.