''Ravanayan'' is a ten-part comic series based on the

Hindu epic Mahākāvya (lit. great kāvya, court epic), also known as ''sargabandha'', is a genre of Indian epic poetry in Classical Sanskrit. The genre is characterised by ornate and elaborate descriptions of scenery, love, battles and so on — in short, ev ...

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...

'' released by Holy Cow Entertainment in July 2011 with

Ravana Ravana (; , , ) is a rakshasa king of the island of Lanka, and the chief antagonist of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana'' and its adaptations. In the ''Ramayana'', Ravana is described to be the eldest son of sage Vishrava and rakshasi Kaikesi. He a ...

as the chief protagonist. Its creators are

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

-based artist Vivek Goel and

-based writer Vijayendra "Vimoh" Mohanty.

Overview

''Ravanayan'' is divided into twelve chapters spread over ten issues. It is an imaginative take on the life of

, the antagonist of ''Ramayana''. ''Ravanayan'' is an independent 10- chapter (7 issue) comic book series project being undertaken by Vijayendra Mohanty (writer) and Vivek Goel (artist).

Characters and contents

Apart from Ravana being the chief protagonist instead of

Rama Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular '' avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Bein ...

, ''Ravanayan'' departs from ''Ramayana'' in other ways. The creators of ''Ravanayan'' address Ravana with the honorific title of 'Lord' because, as they reason out, his kingdom had flourished under his able rule. Physical appearance of most characters has also been re-imagined. Ravana has been depicted as "handsome, muscular man with flowing locks of white hair ... He is also clean-shaven, without the 'clichéd, ugly moustache'" which is traditionally used to depict any asura. Most prominently, Ravana, as is the case with popular depictions, has not been shown with ten heads, but instead, the ten qualities that each of the heads stood for have been incorporated in his personality. Again in contrast with the original ''Ramayana'', creators have focused less on characters related to Rama and more on those related to Ravana. They have made an attempt in the second chapter to explain how a small incident gave glimpses of future personality of the three brothers –

Kumbhakarna Kumbhakarna (Sanskrit: कुम्भकर्ण, lit. ''pot-eared'') is a powerful rakshasa and younger brother of Ravana from the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. Despite his gigantic size and appetite, he is described as a virtuous character an ...

Vibhishana Vibhishana () is the younger brother of Ravana, the King of Lanka, in the ancient Indian epic Ramayana. Though a rakshasa himself, Vibhishana turned his back on Ravana, and defected to Rama's side, owing to his dharma. After Rama defeated Ra ...

and Ravana.

Research for the project

The creators had consulted

Valmiki Valmiki (; Sanskrit: वाल्मीकि, ) is celebrated as the wikt:harbinger, harbinger-poet in Sanskrit literature. The epic ''Ramayana'', dated variously from the 5th century BCE to first century BCE, is attributed to him, based on ...

's original ''Ramayana'', and apart from that Arshia Sattar, Devdutt Pattanaik, Penguin Books' ''Guide to Ramayana''. The creators have also used their imagination to re-interpret the characters.

External links

''Ravanayan''
on Flipkart
''Ravanayan'' at the official home page of Holy Cow Entertainment

References

{{Ramayana Comic book limited series Works based on the Ramayana Indian comics titles

Overview

Characters and contents

Research for the project

See also

External links

References