|| Aryavarta Chronicles Book Chat with Krishna Udayasankar || - Page 2

Anu...thanks for taking the initiative for this...
It would be great to have a discussion with an author regarding the characters which mean so much to us...

Will come back here again with my questions... 😊
Thanks again... 😊

thanks a lot Anu for the initiative...tagging

Hello Krishna,
Its nice to interact with you, missed the chat with you last time you were here ,so want to make the most of it
The AC triology has a very interesting plot and characterisations are very earthy and indeed the Kurukshetra wasn't only a battle fought with arms ; it was a clash of ideologies as well ;between the Fire wrights(Angirasa) and First born (Vaaruni) If the first born ones survive this carnage then they are quick learners and if we go by the adage "survival of the fittest", then these first born who had seen the world more than the others, deserve to survive
Coming to the plot of Kurukshetra, Uttara and Abhimanyu get a good footage ,which even the epic doesn't give them as a couple The war is very well described, my personal favorite is the Bhagadatta and his fierce Supratika, causing a tumult in Pandava army ; Shikhandi- Subhadra conversation and how poignantly Shikhandi speaks of Amba being a part of his soul and the battle with Bhishma thereafter.

2) Arjun/Parth being portrayed as a womanizer! Being an admirer of Arjuna its hard to digest that he is portrayed this way and also he gets to know from Uttara about fire tipped and fire tailed arrow, the difference of it?? In Kaurava

Ramayana also has such a tension between Vashishtha (Varuni) and Kaushika Vishwamitra and they(varunis) seem to subdue, destroy any kings who support clans other than them
Any plans to write on Ramayana? That would be interesting as well..
Best wishes in your future endeavors!
Maverick_me

Lovely thread Anu

I have a few queries i have read Govinda and Kaurava

1)From what i have read till now Govinda wanted an empire on the combined might and intelligence of firstborn and firewright respectively?Hence he startegized to make a unified empire under Dharma and Panchali.Why did he choose Dharma for this job?

From what i understand that he wanted a Kaurava to be an emperor due to the combined blood of firewright (satya) and first born(the kuruprinces) that flows in their blood.Please let me know if my understanding is wrong here

But why was the above thing a necessity isn't it more necessary to have a good and powerful king ?

Also Suyodhan would have been a much better choice.Yes Govinda said that i didnt choose Suyodhan because of his brother's and because Suyodhan's father was still the king

but still this reason doesn't seem strong enough to choose some one like Dharma as a king

Govinda Shauri for all his intelligence doesn't seem very intelligent when he gets the woman that he actually wants to make an empress panchali married to such a weak emperor.Are there any other reasons why he choose Dharma?Why so much importance to the lineage rather than the actual character of the emperor?


2)Also wanted to ask as per you is Govinda Shauri a Hero or Villian in Aryavrat Chronicles?For me he is more of an anti hero because i don't agree with his philosophy of destroying things in order to re create it in a better manner ?I dont agree with how he destroyed his own Firewright order so that their knowledge can be utilized in a better manner like what he did in Khandava?So i see him more as an anti hero .So just wanted to know your perspective on this

Ya even i think Yudhishtir's potrayal is a bit unfair

So it brings me to another question for the author

Isn't Yudhishtir's portrayal a bit unfair?I mean the incidents that are not in his favour are tweaked a little bit to make him seem more negative?And the incidents that are in his favour arent mentioned

For example the whole Keechaka and Draupadi scenario.Yes Yudhishtir didnt help her much but what he said to her was that her husbands are watching everything and they will do something about it but not right now.This incident has been tweaked a little bit and Yudhishtir tells her that she needs to give in to Keechaka and please him .This showed him in a highly negative light

Also other incidents that show his intelligence and knowledge like when he saved his brother's from Yama due to his knowledge or when he saved Bhima from Nahusha havent been mentioned.Which i think is slightly unfair to him?

Hello Ms. Krishna Udayasankar, it's nice to meet you here!

You really are a talented person! You have portrayed our well-known epic characters in such a different light that certainly your book has an ability to shake all popular beliefs on them! With an amazing skill you have beautifully implemented epic Yudhishthir's so called' virtues in your noble & well-behaved Syodhan Kauravya, truly speaking, none can stop loving him! On the other hand, you have successfully put all epic Duryodhan's misunderstood' basic nature like arrogance, ruthlessness, ego etc in your Dharma Yudhishthir, again, none can resist hating him! Thus you have brilliantly shown us how the history is being changed when winners are such bad people! I strongly wished that you would have changed the historical climax as well; if such an evil wins at the end then it becomes very painful to watch. Anyway, after reading your book, any Pandava fan will think several times that is their point of view really correct or not. And here lies your greatness! Take a bow!

I have few questions to you; will feel obliged if you kindly provide answers to them!

1) Why is your Panchali childless? Does it not make her incomplete? We could not see her mother side except very little parts around Abhimanyu's death.

2) Why did Dharma not utter any single word of repent in the whole book? As per my little knowledge, even all Yudhishthir haters do agree with the fact that his remorse after dice game & after war was genuine, not an acting. IMO, he is the real villain of your book, & his black sides are very well expressed! But if there was some remorse then it could have given a slightly white shade to his black character, & finally his character would have got an interesting, eye-soothing grey color.

3) Govinda Shauri is not a fool, is he? Then why did he act like such a fool? IMHO, a person like Dharma, who even does not care for his own brothers, wife or nephews, who is so selfish & greedy, a compulsive gambler & has no king material at all, does not deserve the status of an Emperor. Certainly Govinda understands this fact, no? Then why did he make such efforts to put him on the throne again? Only to make Panchali happy? But is it not a stupid act if he supported such an evil in war & pushed whole Aryavarta to a misery under a horrible ruler only because of a woman?

Last but not the least, I want to tell you something more. I agree with both ssroomani & Sabhayata, it is very difficult to discover epic Yudhishthir in AC Dharma. IMHO, he is more similar with epic Duryodhan but not with epic Yudhishthir. I think you wanted to show that history is changed by winners & winner was very bad ruler actually who did not deserve the victory. But I would like to ask that, if real Yudhishthir was so much evil then what is logic behind his 'so called' good activities? I mean, you highlighted his faults in detail but his good sides were totally ignored. Yes he was very bad while staking his brothers, but it was also he who revived their lives by giving correct answers to Yaksha. It was he who saved Bheem from a serpant, it was he who prayed for akshaya patra from Sun God so that his prajas who followed him in exile did not starve! And yes, if he was so bad king then why did prajas want to follow him even in exile like fools? Also, do you think that real Yudhishthir did not love Draupadi? Then why did he fight with Jayadrath's army, despite of being a follower of ahimsa? Also I agree with Sabhayata, he was very angry with Keechak & assured Draupadi that step would be taken, with his comment Bheem also understood that his brother had given permission to him.

Hi

Also another question

i didn't exactly understand the reason why Panchali wanted to go for war in Kaurava?

i havent read Kurushetra yet so not sure if its explained better in Kururshetra but didnt understand that part in Kaurava

Panchali and Govinda have a long conversation before this wherein she says that she finally understands what Govinda did and why that it was for the betterment of Aryavrata

but how will a waR now help?

Aryavrata is now unified(except Matsya) under a better emperor in Suyodhan ok he isnt emperor now but he will be eventually

so how is a war with suyodhan helping Aryavrat now ?Didn't understand?