Mythology - Part 2

After my previous post on Indian mythology (http://khadloya.blogspot.com/2019/10/mythology.html), many asked how to go about educating their children, why certain section of people always have issues with introduction of Indian mythology in education and professional lives, why is there a perception that younger generation  wants to distance themselves from India mythology, how close are new age authors like Amish Tripathi, etc., writing to the Indian epics

It took some time to find time to pen my thoughts, here you go:

How to enlighten kids on Indian mythology on my own:

Apart from parents and grandparents themselves educating the children, I believe following are few other easiest and fastest way: 

Amar Chitra Katha (ACK): ACK comics continues to be the best source on Indian mythology. Adults too find them captivating. ACK had the knack of breaking down large events into small and simple comic book fashion story telling. Buy them in stores or online or lend from libraries, your choice, but do not miss it. From my own personal experience, some of the prominent collections are

• “Mythology Collection”: This collection contains 71 volumes of ACK comics, with various events from Indian Puranas and Epics. 

• “Valmiki’s Ramayana”: This “box set” is a collection of 6 volumes covering Ramayan

• “Mahabharata”: This “box set” is a collection of 3 volumes, covering birth of Pandav’s and Kaurav’s, going on all the way till Kurukshetra war

• “Panchatantra”: Don’t forget to pick up comics or story books on Panchatantra. Market is flooded with books on Panchatantra, pick your choice. Again, ACK has an excellent collection. 

TV Serials: Ramanand Sagar and BR Chopra were the first to bring Ramayan (78 episodes) and Mahabharath (94 episodes) respectively to house hold via television in late 1980’s to early 1990’s. Buy DVDs or watch on you-tube, your choice, but these are excellent source of information about these epics. You-tube also has excellent collection on other snippets from these epics / Panchatantra

          

What Next?: After completing the above mentioned ACK books and TV serials, one can search for books on other Indian epics / mythology / heroes / rulers etc., on their own. ACK itself has a vast collection, search online for list of ACK comics. There could be video games (PC or console) based on Indian mythology. There could also be online certification courses 😊. Check out online if you are seriously interested. Should you have any recommendations, feel free to add in the comments section below. 

Why resistance to introduce Indian Epics in education and other wake of life?

Lot has been written and discussed about this, including in mainstream media like News channels and newspapers. I’m not going to include any link in my post, you can search on internet on your own. 

My views are simple:

• Indian epics are extremely ancient, well rounded with all-inclusiveness from ages. While current Indian citizens come from different wake of life, with different ethos bringing in lot more vibrancy in our country, it is completely un-fair to equate rich and ancient Indian culture with newbies and then talk of stopping awareness of Indian epics because few others do not relate to it or they will get hurt!

• Most of the individuals associate and respect what they follow or believe but that does not mean they should come in way of letting Indians know of Indian epics and mythology in India. That’s absurd. 

• Folks should stop giving everything a religions angle. They ought to accept Indian epics and mythology existed even before birth of many other civilizations or believers or religions. All-inclusiveness does not mean forgetting Indian mythology to make few others comfortable. If Indians do not take care of their ancient epics and mythology, who will? 

• Politics: Leave the politics to politicians. They have their own compulsions, ideologies, vote bank politics, etc., Politicians (doesn’t matter ruling party or opposition party or multitudes of wannabe parties) will continue to indulge in politics, don’t take up their job. 

• Also, the new age fad of not believing / not caring / rebellious streak / mimicking everything that is “cool” or from west also has become a roadblock. As stated earlier, many of these folks probably know everything about Game Of Thrones, Lust Stories, Sacred Games, Avengers, Friends etc., but has an aversion to our own Vedas, Ramayan, Mahabharath, Bhagwat Gita, Panchatantra or even the relatively recent ones like Vikram and Betal, Tenali Rama , etc., etc., If this new or old generation does not believe in out epics, mythology, events, so be it. Instead of looking for reason in everything, enjoy these ancient epics as any other “fiction” like Harry Potter or Game of Thrones but do not become an hindrance to knowing and letting others know what our parents, grand-parents and great grand-parents grew up with!

• Most of our educational textbooks still glorify invaders who destroyed India or have more stories written by folks with no connection to India. Until our education system changes to give atleast equal (if not more) importance to writers with connect to India and talk about Indian epics / mythology, Indian rulers, history of ancient India etc., Indians will never understand and most importantly respect Indian mythology, epics and cultural values.

What about new age authors spinning their tales on Indian epics and mythology?

Simply Awesome! Some of the authors spinning their own version of fiction around India epics have done a great job. Works of Amish Tripathi on Shiva Trilogy, Ram Charita Manas and Shatrujeet Nath’s Vikramaditya Veergatha have been great reads. Having said that, let’s try to understand “Fan Fiction”

As per Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_fiction), Fan fiction is a type of fictional text written by fans of any work of fiction where the author uses established characters, settings, or other intellectual properties from an original creator as a basis for their writing. Fan fiction ranges from a couple of sentences to an entire novel, and fans can both keep the creator's characters and settings or add their own. 

Fan fiction is rarely commissioned or authorized by the original work's creator or publisher and is rarely professionally published. It may infringe on the original author's copyright, depending on the jurisdiction and on such questions as for whether it qualifies as "fair use". Attitudes of authors and copyright owners of original works to fan fiction have ranged from indifference to encouragement or rejection. Copyright owners have occasionally responded with legal action”.

New age authors are doing a great job in spreading awareness on their own version of Indian mythology but they depict the events differently and many times, creating completely new events which contradicts with the way we always knew our epics. It makes sense for them to change the events from traditionally known version because no one is going to buy their novels/works if they re-tell events the same way ACK comics has been depicting or Ramanand Sagar / BR Chopra has already covered them.

Also, we no longer have Valmiki or Ved Vyas or their legal representative or acknowledged descendants of any of the stake holders around to raise any concerns 😊. The new age fan fiction writers in India have taken the creative liberty of churning out fan fictions with their own interpretations. They have valid arguments that no one “owns” these ancient epics but can they write commercial novels on Marvel’s characters like Iron Man or Captain America or Avengers etc., or can they write commercial novels on DC characters such as Super Man, Bat Man etc., without being sued by battery of lawyers

I’m not against these authors. I have read many of these new novels and have loved their story telling style. Also, if the law of land allows it, they should definitely go ahead with their works but perhaps they can do lot more than just writing one liner like “… these are work of fiction or their imagination and has nothing to do with epics the way we know…”. 

• Perhaps, they should include reference to the original work, the version most of us know, by calling out books or novels or other reference materials on our epics. 
• Perhaps, they also need to create awareness and keep their audience engaged on the original epics on their social media handle (like Twitter or Facebook or Instagram etc,).
• Question is, will the new age authors do any of these or anything else to propagate Indian epics the way we have known it for ages? Probably not cause there is no gain for these authors and moreover, they probably might lose if they ask readers to read something else for a more authentic version!

Still, if you do nothing and keep waiting for government or someone else to enlighten your kids or next generation on our epics/mythology, millennials and next generation will soon forget the ancient epics the way we know and current (and future) fan fictions will become more authentic version of the epics 😊. Remember, knowingly / un-knowingly every such new author has their own “bias” that will influence their writing. This “bias” is not about right or wrong, it is more about what twist they provide to the events and how good or bad it is from the traditionally known version.