Scan barcode
A review by tbr_the_unconquered
Kurukshetra by Krishna Udayasankar
1.0
18 days was what it took to redraw the entire landscape of ancient India according to Mahabharata. A never before seen danse macabre was played out on the killing fields of Kurukshetra and the world was never the same again. These 18 days have inspired countless artists and writers over the ages and provided fuel for their creative fires. In the discourse of the Gita before the war, Krishna tells Arjuna : Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds. 18 days later you realize how much of foresight Krishna would had while telling the Pandava prince these words.
Reflect a bit on the Kurukshetra war and look beyond the grandiloquent images, action and larger-than-life characters while beneath all this lies a war fought in the name of three of the most sought after things : power, real estate and a woman. A series of incidents centred around these three escalated to finally result in a cataclysmic war that left the survivors with ashes in their mouth. In the third and concluding part of her series, Krishna Udayasankar attempts her hand at recreating the Kurukshetra war and its aftermath. To me this was amusing in a lesser measure and frustrating in greater part.
The best parts first : Udayasankar’s Aryavarta chronicles capture the characters of the Mahabharata with a great degree of complexity. Over the last three books she has laid down the groundwork for the characters and their intentions which all comes to a finale here. While it does not capture all of the wide range of emotions these characters carry, these books do not have a blue eyed gaze at the Pandavas, the Kauravas or the other supporting characters. They are portrayed as men and women of flesh and blood and not as gods and demi-gods. The third book is also relatively the best of the series in terms of the language employed. Udayasankar writes in language which is neither too archaic nor too hip although she has the habit of overwriting at certain points which does more harm than good. This is all that I could think of.
If there is one thing that pissed me off about this series, then it is the rambling. In the midst of action, the characters begin talking about moral, philosophical and strategic nuances which can sometimes extend for three or more pages at a stretch. The funny thing is that once they come back from the conversation, the earlier thread is nowhere to be seen. Long and pointless conversations on the aspects of right and wrong only served to confuse me further and served no other purpose. Next, in a book that is about the granddaddy of all epic wars the reader expects a heavy focus on how the war was fought. What I got instead was the author skipping over a lot of topics, conveniently explaining off others and in general only serving a half plate of the offering. For instance, the first seven days of the war with Bhishma as the general are only hinted at until the time Shikhandi faces off with the aging patriarch and the times of Drona’s generalship also fares no better in terms of the storytelling. The death of some of the key characters are only in the background, the most notable being the deaths of Drona and Dushasana. You only hear that they died and Udayasankar declines from giving us too many details of how it happened. Then there is also the deus ex machina : firewright technology. The weapons employed during the war would have made a mere mortal wonder if they were of divine origin with the effects they produced. This throws a challenge at the storyteller on how they want to explain the weapons. Udayasankar takes the easier way out and has a wishy-washy logic way by saying "because…firewright technology !" which in no way is satisfactory.
Also, while the characters are complex enough their outlook on life and their mind-sets speak differently. None of the characters here have a mind-set that stems from the Vedic period. They all talk and think like individuals of the 20th century. The external appearances of the characters are all in place but their core doesn’t lie in the right place or the right time. Also, the Mahabharata has a lot of focus on three women : Kunti, Panchali and Gandhari who act as the loci from which the entire forest of stories spread out. In Udayasankar’s narrative there is only Draupadi and the others are mere shadows.
As a series, I feel dissatisfied with this one. The insanely long ramblings and the manifold diversions have driven me to the wall here.
Not recommended.
Reflect a bit on the Kurukshetra war and look beyond the grandiloquent images, action and larger-than-life characters while beneath all this lies a war fought in the name of three of the most sought after things : power, real estate and a woman. A series of incidents centred around these three escalated to finally result in a cataclysmic war that left the survivors with ashes in their mouth. In the third and concluding part of her series, Krishna Udayasankar attempts her hand at recreating the Kurukshetra war and its aftermath. To me this was amusing in a lesser measure and frustrating in greater part.
The best parts first : Udayasankar’s Aryavarta chronicles capture the characters of the Mahabharata with a great degree of complexity. Over the last three books she has laid down the groundwork for the characters and their intentions which all comes to a finale here. While it does not capture all of the wide range of emotions these characters carry, these books do not have a blue eyed gaze at the Pandavas, the Kauravas or the other supporting characters. They are portrayed as men and women of flesh and blood and not as gods and demi-gods. The third book is also relatively the best of the series in terms of the language employed. Udayasankar writes in language which is neither too archaic nor too hip although she has the habit of overwriting at certain points which does more harm than good. This is all that I could think of.
If there is one thing that pissed me off about this series, then it is the rambling. In the midst of action, the characters begin talking about moral, philosophical and strategic nuances which can sometimes extend for three or more pages at a stretch. The funny thing is that once they come back from the conversation, the earlier thread is nowhere to be seen. Long and pointless conversations on the aspects of right and wrong only served to confuse me further and served no other purpose. Next, in a book that is about the granddaddy of all epic wars the reader expects a heavy focus on how the war was fought. What I got instead was the author skipping over a lot of topics, conveniently explaining off others and in general only serving a half plate of the offering. For instance, the first seven days of the war with Bhishma as the general are only hinted at until the time Shikhandi faces off with the aging patriarch and the times of Drona’s generalship also fares no better in terms of the storytelling. The death of some of the key characters are only in the background, the most notable being the deaths of Drona and Dushasana. You only hear that they died and Udayasankar declines from giving us too many details of how it happened. Then there is also the deus ex machina : firewright technology. The weapons employed during the war would have made a mere mortal wonder if they were of divine origin with the effects they produced. This throws a challenge at the storyteller on how they want to explain the weapons. Udayasankar takes the easier way out and has a wishy-washy logic way by saying "because…firewright technology !" which in no way is satisfactory.
Also, while the characters are complex enough their outlook on life and their mind-sets speak differently. None of the characters here have a mind-set that stems from the Vedic period. They all talk and think like individuals of the 20th century. The external appearances of the characters are all in place but their core doesn’t lie in the right place or the right time. Also, the Mahabharata has a lot of focus on three women : Kunti, Panchali and Gandhari who act as the loci from which the entire forest of stories spread out. In Udayasankar’s narrative there is only Draupadi and the others are mere shadows.
As a series, I feel dissatisfied with this one. The insanely long ramblings and the manifold diversions have driven me to the wall here.
Not recommended.