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Literary Review
Mythology in modern idiom
ONE of the lingering memories of childhood is listening to stories from parents and grandparents. Besides being a way of engaging the attention of children and entertaining them, story telling has been a vibrant cultural tradition down the ages, absorbing the winds of change that blew across the passage of time to cater to the interest of every new generation. This necessitated the growth of a branch of religious literature, the Puranas, and works based on them for popular appeal, in which the core spiritual and philosophical teachings are encased in myth, romance, fantasy and adventure to capture the imagination of the young and the old alike.
The Puranas were written by sages exclusively for narration and generations have grown up listening to them. Amazingly, neither their novelty nor their popularity has waned. In fact, it has only increased in this age of multimedia communication, virtually spawning a number of books, films, audio and video cassettes on mythological themes. Hence it needs either bravado or a creative spark to attempt yet another literary work on this subject as Sheela Balaji has done in her latest book for children Tales of Everywhere. And for sure she has come up with a "Winwin".
This lovely gold-embossed, handmade, hardbound limited edition brought out by Writers Workshop is a collection of seven short stories for children recreated from the Bhagavata Purana, which Sage Veda Vyasa composed at the instance of the celestial sage, Narada. Even after writing his magnum opus, the Mahabharata, the other Puranas and codifying the Vedas, Vyasa felt depressed. And, it was to bring home the truth that the purpose of all religious literature is to instil devotion in the heart that Narada made him recount exclusively the incarnations of Lord Vishnu in the world in yet another work — the Bhagavata Purana.
One can be forgiven if one expected to find stories from all over the world going by the title of the book. The contemporary idiom, which is the basis for this recreation of the Bhagavata, begins right with the title. The hero, Lord Vishnu, being all-pervasive has been named Everywhere here. The liberties Sheela has taken with tradition like renaming the characters in English based on their Sanskrit names and the lighter vein in which it has been written have not in any way detracted from the sanctity of approaching a sacred work. She has achieved the objective she had set for herself of making children relate to God as one who is endearing and approachable in these stories.
She has chosen the first five of the 10 incarnations of Lord Vishnu — Matsya (fish), Kurma (tortoise), Varaha (boar), Narasimha (half-man and half-lion) and Vamana (dwarf). The other two stories are related to these incarnations, which are about the distribution of nectar and the guards of heaven. The Devas, personifying the elements in nature, are the bright forces and hence named the Shinings while the Asuras, who are the obstructing forces, are called the Shadows. Lord Shiva, meaning auspicious, is Osphishus and Lord Brahma, who is the creative force and thus has to be knowledgeable, named the Lord of the Books.
"The Guards of Heaven" is a story about the two gatekeepers of Vaikunta, Lord Vishnu's abode, Jaya and Vijaya . Jaya is Win and Vijaya is Winwin . They incurred the curse of the Saptarishis, the seven celestial sages, for which they were cursed to be born in the world as God-haters . But as promised by Lord Vishnu they were liberated after three births during His incarnations. The stories have been illustrated by Premalatha Seshadri, who has captured the spirit of the different characters very well. Ideal for bedtime reading or for reading aloud to children.
Tales of Everywhere, Sheela Balaji, Writers Workshop, 2003, Hardbound, price not stated.
SUDHAKSHINA RANGASWAMI
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