Publication

Abstract : Asura: Tale of the Vanquished the story of Ravana and his people (2012), by Anand Neelakantan, is an attempt to deconstruct and reconstruct the myth of The Ramayana. In the epic, The Ramayana, Rama is portrayed as the personification of good and Ravana is considered evil. This novel brings out a different perspective to the familiar epic, The Ramayana, by narrating the story from the point of view of Ravana. The analysis focuses mainly on Ravana as an ideal father to his daughter Sita. The cultural identity of the Asura Ravana is re-written by Anand Neelakantan using the epic The Ramayana. This paper attempts to study the rewriting of the epic Ramayana, in the contemporary postcolonial context of writing back to the centre- and to debate on the identity of Ravana, the anti-hero. This paper explores Ravana as a subaltern and also the dual identity of subaltern and re- assessment of native cultural identity. The purpose of the paper is to analyse the complexities of Ravana’s political and cultural identity and to initiate a new discourse on subaltern by raising the issues of the dual identity of Ravana.