Retelling Indian Mythology Through The Novels Of Devdutt Pattnaik

Abstract

Literature is depiction of human life, culture and experiences. Literature engulfs both reality and imagination. Through the lens of Mythology one can experience the age old rich culture, rituals, practices and more. Lexically Mythology refers to sacred tales that is of real and imaginary. Study of myth and mythology enables one to probe more about ancient rituals and practices. Mythologies are of various types and every nation has its own vivid tales. Indian Mythology is not an exception; it has sumptuous tales about gods, goddesses, super natural agents, artistic elements, folklore and more. As ages pass by few tales are drew a blank, still many novelists retained the essence of mythology by retelling such myths in different genres of literature. Novelists such as Chitra Bannerjeee Divakaruni, Amish Tripathi, Kavita Kane, Devdutt Pattnaik and many writers restored the past through their retellings. In this paper I propose to show how mythology been retold in a novel way. Here I have chosen the novels of the eminent writer Devdutt Pattnaik and his works such as 7Secrets of Shiva, The Book of Ram, The Goddess in India, Brahma The Creator, Shikhandi: and other tales, 7 Secrets of the Goddess, Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of The Mahabarata, Myth=Mithya, Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana, My Gita and more. Through his retellings the ancient epics is retouched with the same grandeur and value. This paper aims at showcasing that these retellings can actually bring back the myths to cherish more and imbibe in one’s life. Moreover these folklores and myths also have answers to many unsolved puzzles like Queer identity, laws of karma, nature’s connection with mankind, and more.