Prince of Ayodhya (Book One of the Ramayana) [Paperback] [Jan 01, 2005] Ashok K. Banker

by Ashok K. Banker

Book Overview

The first volume in a series of graphic novel adaptations of Ashok Banker's epic retelling of the Ramayana. Prince of Ayodhya begins with Rama and Lakshman's youth. Accompanied by Rishi Vishwamitra,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143033336
• ISBN13: 9780143033332
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Penguin Books,India
• Length: 522 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.9" x 1.6" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Cool magic trick, Mr. Banker, reinventing the Ramayan!

Let's be clear. This is not a great novel. But it is a great pulp novel. Especially if the Ramayan is new to you, this selection off the sword and sorcery shelf will live up to the hype of "freshly imagined", because it is just that: an update of an old tale for the 21st century. One that has not been over exploited. For the English language fantasy genre, its action is reminiscent of E.R. Eddison's tales of heroes and lovers with sharp pointy black beards. (Liars: it is nothing like Tolkien's sexless Saxon toffee.) Instead, its style and empirical reality are more like David Drake's: plain slang, with TV fast-cut scenes and Dungeons-and-Dragons magical sensibility. In fact, it has almost the same formula ratio of parts exciting, annoying and pedantic as David Drake's fantasy trilogy, Lord of the Isles, which borrowed from Assyria, Virgil's Georgics, and D & D! For Prince of Ayodhya, it is the heroes' sentimental morals, fight choreography, and occasional love of singing, plus the weird demonic gore, that put an original tang in this yarn. Maybe that's why Banker's other book is _Bollywood_.

Awesome

i am an ABCD (ha, ha - indians will get it) but i am very familiar with the Ramayana, having read it in various editions that are true to the original sanskrit. i also watched the tv series as well (yuk, too histrionic). all i have to say is this. the Ramayana was first spoken. i'm sure when the Ramayana was written down in Sanskrit, it was a sacrilege. when Tulsidas wrote the Ramayana in Hindi, that was considered a sacrilege. Then at some point it was translated into English. When it was made into a comic book, it was considered a sacrilege. When they made it into a tv show, egads! it was a mortifying sacrilege.here's what a lot of the naysayers don't get. People aren't even reading the Ramayana anymore! so many of my friends here in the US are CLUELESS about it. they know nothing about it. they are real american-born-confused-desis. Mr. Banker's retelling of this story does not hurt it. it is an excellent job and it will get more of our kids to read again. hopefully, creative artists will also create a video game for it and a movie, a la Harry Potter. what people don't realize is that the Ramayana is a mixture of religion, mythology, and history. we have to get past the mythology, which can't be proven. we have to get past the history, which was 1000s of years ago. we have to aspire to the divinity. Let's understand that Rama had to make some incredibly difficult choices in his life. He is the most heroic, virtuous man who may have ever lived. Let's keep his glory alive.People, get over it. Please! this is a great book. Thank you, Mr. Banker

The first fantasy tale ever composed

In India, where my family comes from originally, the Ramayan is called adi-kavya. This means 'first poem'. The first parts of the story take place in the great city of ayodhya and is very realistic. The second half of the story is in the forest where Ram and his wife Sita and brother Lakshmann are living in exile and many fantastic things happen. So the Ramayan was actually the first fantasy story ever written. It's easy for Westerners to call it 'epic fantasy' andtalk about Tolkein as if he invented the whole genre, but infact it was first created in India because in thos etimes such wonderful and magical things truly happened as we believe. Ashok Kumar Banker has done a great thing by rewriting the story in his book Prince of Ayodhya. I think there are some more parts to come because his first book only tells the story of Ram's life upto his fight with demoness Tataka and training under the guru Vishwamitra. It is actually a small and very short part of the early story but mr Banker makes it seem so exciting and vivid. HIs writing is very detailed and tells you all about life in ancient Arya-varta (which later was called Bharat-varsha, not India which is a corruption given by Britishers during their rule). He tells you about the clothes tey wore, way the yspoke, lived, everything. it is exciting to read the story told in so much good detail.One point about some other reviews I was reading here: Someone said Rajaji's version was the best. I like Rajaji's version very much, but Rajaji wrote in Tamil in weekly parts for a Tamil children's magazine. so his Ramayan is very childish and simple. Even the more advanced versions like Arshia Sattar say clearly it is 'abridged'. I always wanted to read the full version, like the 'director's cut' in movies. But I have never found any such version until now.Prince of ayodhya is a very good way to read about ancient life in the great land we now call India, and to know the life-story of a very great legend called Ram, who is a god to all of us now but when he lived he was a man who had to suffer many difficulties and problems but still he perseverred and overcome them agasint all odds...that's why he's called by Tulsidas inhis Awadhi version Maryada Purshottum Ram. I recommend this book very much, giving it full 5 stars, and I cannot wait for Mr Banker to publish the second and other parts quickly. I also like other Indian authors like Jhumpa Lahiri (even though she says she is American not Indian) and Rohinton Mistry and Amitav Ghosh. But Ashok Kumar Banker is the first Indian writer I have read who writes in such an exciting and entertainnig style. I am sure his book will be read happily by every Indian everywhere, and maybe by other readers who love good fantasy also.

Indian writers take epics global

Adam and Ulysses are people that many of us grew up with as are the fairies and elves from British folklore thanks to Western writers and film-makers dabbling in Greek and Roman mythology, Biblical stories and myths and folklore to capture the imagination of modern readers and audiences. And in India, too, vernacular writers have turned to our very own epics, history and mythology to recreate them as popular writing. Now, it's the turn of Indian writers writing in English, who have already made their presence felt in world literature, to take our epics global to readers of fiction.Ashok K Banker's Prince of Ayodhya, Book One of the Ramayana, which was recently released in India by Penguin is a journey in that direction. "The original Ramayana was written three thousand years ago by a reformed thief-turned-sage named Valmiki. Now, with breathtaking imagination and brilliant storytelling, Banker has recreated this epic tale for modern readers everywhere," says the book's cover. And the author himself is upbeat about this mammoth exercise that he has embarked on. "After I finish the seven books of the Ramayana, I intend to write the Mahabharata, the Book of Krishna and finally the book of Kalki and Ganesha, which in a sense will be coming back to the beginning of creation,'' he says. In fact, he has fin-ished writing the first four books of the Ramayana over the last four years and has sold the rights for all the seven books to Orbit publishers in UK.Banker, however, stresses that it was not really a motivation to create popular fiction and take Indian epics global that has driven him. "For me there was no external motivation of money, social context or political circumstances. I was writing from personal obsession and a childhood love of epic story-telling. I wanted to take all the great leg-ends of Indian history and retell them. In the West history and my-thology has been told and retold millions of times. Even today popular fiction and films and even science fiction, TV are recreating them,'' he says.Efforts to recreate history and mythology are obviously well re-ceived by historians and teachers of history in India. Feels Dr Samita Sen, Reader, Department of History, Calcutta University, a recipient of the prize fellowship at Trinity College (Cambridge University) in 1990-94: "Both mythology and history are cultural resources available to us for creative re-engagement. It is not only possible but even desirable that we draw on these resources and involve ourselves in a 'modern' engagement. The absence of such engagements have resulted in a near-monopoly of obscurantist and crassly commercial approaches. There is, of course, a long tradition of literary engagements with my-thology, rather more than history. Expectedly, however, these have been more in regional languages than in English. It is to be remem-bered that 'Indian writing in English' may have a long history but it is only very recently that it has leapt to prominence. This means that

A triumph in cultural storytelling

Prince of Ayodhya is a wonderful story based on the Indian classic poem the Ramayana. It's a re-telling of the tale made flesh by Ashok Bankers' lush imagination. Those that have studied the Ramayana will enjoy their favorite characters as they come to life and take on dimensions that the poem could never touch. However, no particular knowledge of Indian history and culture is needed to enjoy this book. Mr. Banker has written this story to be enjoyed with little or no background knowledge of its' history.The Prince of Ayodhya is fantasy and high adventure set in a world that most westerners have never experienced. If you love fantasy, adventure and historical fiction, you'll love this book. A new and original voice has stepped into the world of fantasy and adventure! Bravo Mr. Banker, I can hardly wait for the next installment!