Retelling the Ramayana: Author’s Introduction to the Indian Editions now online!
Dec 22nd, 2007 by Ashok
I’ve finally been able to post the full text of The Author’s Introduction to the Indian editions of my Ramayana series online.
Just click on the link above.
Those of you who have read the Indian editions of the paperback or hardcover versions of the series will find the text almost exactly the same, barring a couple of corrections.
Those of you who have read editions other than the Indian ones–well, you’ve not actually read the correct text of the books themselves then, and should correct that oversight soon–will get your first opportunity to read this personal essay. It tells you about some of the choices I made when attempting my retelling, and my approach in writing the books.
The essay is in fact only an excerpt from a much longer essay titled ‘Retelling the Ramayana’ which I intend to collect someday in a book of personal essays. The book will describe several interesting experiences in writing, publishing and in the aftermath of publication of my Ramayana series, as well as take long meandering side-trips into my own career as a writer, my personal life and thoughts and views, and several other related and unrelated topics. It’s one of the several titles I hope to see published under my forthcoming //epic india// label.
Meanwhile, read the essay and it may help you better understand why and how a former journalist, scriptwriter and crime novelist decided one day in his mid-Thirties to attempt the most ambitious English-language retelling of the Ramayana ever attempted. It won’t tell you a lot of things, such as the struggle to get the books published, the personal attacks by Indian critics on me (rather than crticial appraisals of the books themselves), the difficulties I faced with the American editors of the first book and their subsequent cancellation of the series when I refused to give in to their demands, and a whole boat-load of other problems and conflicts that were involved in simply writing, and getting published this six-book series. All those will have to wait for another day.
