Reading the hand behind Aryavarta

An interview with Krishna Udayasankar :

By Dilshan Boange

Part 2

Continuing from the previous instalment of this feature interview of Indian novelist Krishna Udayasankar the best selling author of the ‘Aryavarta Chronicles’, this segment discusses with the multi-talented writer of diverse professional and academic interests, how her bestselling series was crafted and the deeper underpinnings of how ‘genre’ and related literary factors can be viewed in relation to her own themes, and what is at the heart of her renderings of history coalesced with mythology in her fiction.

Question: The first book of the series reached bestseller status. Did you have a feeling that there would be a good response from literature lovers to your debut novel? Are there any unforgettable comments you got as feedback from readers or critics you would care to share?

Answer: To be honest, I was too stunned, way too much in a daze to expect anything! I’m only grateful to the readers for having given a first-time writer so much support. Of course, there were unforgettable comments – both positive and negative.

The most memorable one have been the caustically negative ones, the ones that deride my work and me as complete rubbish, a dark smear on culture and literature, because I attempt to question traditional paradigms and interpretations. Who was it that said something along the lines of “If you’re not offending anyone, you’re doing something wrong…?”

Research

Q: Quite evidently a substantial amount of research has gone into your conceptualisation of the Aryavarta Chronicles and the merits the stories have for reflections of historical fact and Indian lore.

Can you tell us about the amount of research that was involved? What are your main sources to get material to build the stories on?

A: Basically, as someone trained in social sciences research, I have tried my best to bring that strength to my books when coming to conclusions on why or how events, or relationships, happened in a particular way.

Research helps build a story that is logically consistent.

Reality has that kind of consistency or internal validity. Good fiction, IMHO, is about creating alternate realities that still have the consistency and believability of our ‘primary’ Reality.

And here, I get lucky, for I stand on the shoulders of giants – the amount of material that is out there – both popular and scholarly - which deals with the epic and the epic ages both are simply astounding.

It took many months of painstaking work trying to reconcile legend with logic and scholarly evidence and variations in popular narratives across India and other parts of Asia too.

I’m very much inspired by the scientific approach of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and many other stalwarts that I discuss in my note on references in the book and there are some essays on the research process on The Aryavarta Chronicles website as well.

I know that doesn’t fully answer your question, but to take about the sources in detail would take a book, in its own right!

Sources

Q: From online sources I read about the premise of the Aryavarta Chronicles and it seems very intricately woven to what is today classified as ‘history’ and ‘mythology’, both these generic classifications of textual narratives being based on approaches of western logicality applicable to a text in its closeness to ‘reality’ or what is ‘rational’.

Your approach in writing these stories seem to be a blend of these two genres history and mythology. Can you offer your own insight and interpretation, about how you perceive history and mythology?

A: In my mind, what I am trying to arrive at is a reconstruction of a story that has taken root in collective consciousness as myth, keeping in mind two parameters: First, the extension of scientific principles that we consider as truth, today, need to have held good in the past as well.

I don’t mean to say that people might not consider natural phenomena as supernatural events, but we need to distinguish perception from fact.

Indeed, I find the scriptures tend to contain much scientific knowledge, and not so much that is mystical or esoteric.

My second parameter is that any narrative or version that I so (re) construct must have a fair probability of having come to pass. This is possible only we ensure that there is a logical consistency, an internal validity to the construction of events, leaving little room for explanations such as ‘divine will’ or ‘predestination.’

Magic and science

Q: Aryavarta is a place where magic and science co-exist without disqualifying the other, as do gods and men without any incongruity. It sounds somewhat ‘magically real’ if I may allude to the genre famed by the works of Gabriel Marcia Marquez –‘Magical realism’.

How did you set about in your craft of narrative technique to develop the world of Aryavarta? When writing the stories did you feel like it was a fantastic world or something that was almost plausible to your senses?

A: On the contrary, I wanted to present these stories as tales of humanity, not divinity; as something that could have been history and not some improbable magical, fantasy-tale that defied all logic and science.

My attempt has been to reconstruct the entire narrative as a non-magical, socio-historical story. While there is a fantasy-type structure to the story: competing orders of scholars and scientists who form the background for the rise and fall of a great empire, there is no magic whatsoever in the book, nor are there any gods descended to earth. I strongly believe that much of what is today considered scripture or religious text has a wide range of secular and rational applications, ranging from philosophy to politics and science.

And that is what the conflict in The Aryavarta Chronicles is all about: the debate between religion and science, or between moral imperative and rational choice. The only thing magical, to paraphrase Govinda Shauri’s words, is the ability of human beings to time and again rise to great heights.

Variations

Q: The origins of Govinda Shauri sound akin to certain variations I’ve read about the origins of Emperor Chandragupta Maurya and also stories of Lord Krishna.

Interestingly the city Govinda is defender of, as the head of its armies, is ‘Dhwarka’ the city that Lord Krishna ruled as per the narrative of the Mahabharata. How much of these characters from Indian history and prehistory have you consciously brought to life through your fictional characters?

A: Yes, The Aryavarta Chronicles is very much based on the epic of Mahabharata. But that is a statement I hesitate to make without qualification, because we need to question our understanding of what we consider the basic story of the Mahabharata – we have become so entrenched with a particular version or narrative because it has been part of our popular culture, to the point that we ignore the obvious as rebellious interpretations, or even an author’s imagination.

But the fact is, the huge number of regional variations of the Mahabharata aside, what is by and large considered the definitive version of Mahabharata - the BORI critical edition – sometimes tells a different story. As someone trained in social sciences research, I have tried my best to draw on that strength, that scientific approach, to look into the various versions and tell a story based on the probabilities of why or how things happened in a particular way. My aim with The Aryavarta Chronicles was to produce something different for what authors before me had attempted with the Mahabharata; something much more than a retelling or a counter-mythology, or even a story told from a specific character’s point of view. I wanted to tell the story of an age of revolution, of society and humanity – just like the story that was told millennia ago.

Trilogy

Q: The Aryavarta Chronicles was originally intended as a trilogy but is now extending to a series beyond three books if I understand correctly? There seems much greater potential than originally conceived. How far do you see this series could expand? Will there be developments as the progeny of principal characters replacing the protagonists and lending to plotlines that span across generations?

A: I plan on extending backwards, if I can use that term – the additions will be in the from prequels, which cover mainly Govinda Shauri’s youth, and his rise to become the man that we see him as, in the first book “Govinda.” The trilogy, as it originally stood had a pretty sad and morbid ending, with the great Mahabharata war. All my favourite characters die, and I just can’t bear to end things on that note!

Q: What do you see ahead in the future, for you as a writer, beyond the Aryavarta Chronicles?

What kind of works apart from the Aryavarta Chronicles can readers expect in time to come?

A: I have one volume of prose-poems that has already been published (Objects of Affection) and am currently working on more poetry pieces. I am also working on a novel based on the legend of Prince Nila Uttama – the founder of Singapore.

It’s quite a myth, and involves a lion and a sea-monster, among other things, but as with Aryavarta, I want to present a demystified account that gets at the socio-political history underlying the myth.