Edited by – Robin Bhuyan (Editor-in-Chief)
Interviewed by – Shubhi Agrawal
Written by – Nirjher Kumar Patel
Ami Ganatra is an Indian author, speaker, and management professional known for her work on Indian history, mythologies and epics. Her notable works include Ramayana Unravelled, Mahabharata Unravelled, and Mahabharata Unravelled II, in which she explores the two famous Indian epics from original Sanskrit texts and commentaries. She provides a deeper understanding of these stories and characters. Over the past few years, her work has been hugely appreciated for bringing a fresh perspective to these sacred texts and making them accessible to modern audiences.
In this interview, she talks about problems with Indian TV shows and movies like Adipurush and Kalki 2898. She shares a few interesting stories from the epics, further explaining how narratives change with time and place. Read on to know more about Ami Ganatra, her work, and understand the Ramayan and Mahabharat better.
First of all, we would like to know what was it that inspired you to explore Indian epics in such detail.
I was born and raised in Gujarat. Since childhood, due to my mother’s wishes, I was asked to read literature, magazines, and newspapers in our native language rather than in English. It exposed me to our culture, literature, and art from a very young age. It expanded my mind and made me realize that there can be more than one cultural anchor. There can be more views on the same scripture. Also, TV serials and movies played a significant role.
Eventually, debates between friends and classmates made me curious to explore more. When I read the original scripture, I found out how different they were from what I had learned earlier.
There are a few myths in Indian households, like “The Mahabharat should not be kept at home”, and more like this. What do you feel about this?
The Mahabharat is a dharma shastra and it is important that we remove this kind of superstitions around them. They cause a lot of harm to us. We blame the British and the Mughals for destroying our culture, but at the same time, we ourselves cling on to superstitutions that reading our scriptures would invite calamity.
What differences do you find between the original text and the current texts?
Due to numerous translations since ancient times, the texts have been changed and misinterpreted. They have also changed due to the geography of the country. The character of Shri Ram, as described by Valmiki Ramayan, is very strong, and he was not always calm and smiling. Also, Karna in the actual Mahabharat is depicted in a much different light than what is known to today’s audiences.
Can you give an example and explain it in detail? Today many TV shows and movies seem to glorify Karna, despite him being a villain.
Karna was allowed to learn archery along with his brothers, which shows that there was no such discrimination as people claim. He didn’t belong to some poor family like it is shown today in TV serials. There is a term known as “Suta.” People think they were low-caste people who were not allowed to fight a war and study, like the “Shudras.” But the term has a different meaning. Actually, it was used for people who were a mixed breed of ‘Brahman’ and ‘Kshatriya’. They were allowed to do all the work of their predecessors. They were charioteers, soldiers, playwrights, etc. Karna belonged to the Suta community, and he exercised all those rights.
What is the reason for such narratives, and how do they get public acceptance? Also, there are examples of Ravan being glorified—how do such things come up?
See, the public sympathizes with underdogs. Karna was abandoned at birth, which portrayed him as a poor fellow left at the mercy of the world. This narrative had to be continued to make him more appealing. Although he instigated the disrobing of Draupadi, as well as instigated Duryodhana to fight the war, people unfortunately still look up to him due to false narratives. I have written about these points in detail in my book. It is not just Karna, but the Pandavas and even Sri Krishna himself had to struggle for a majority of their lives. Therefore, it does not seem right to feel sympathy for him because of this reason. People took his character and started writing fiction around him.
Ravan is also shown as a wise devotee of Shiva, who respected Sita, and fought the war for the honor of his sister, which is not true. In fact, he dared not touch Sita because of a curse—not because he had respect for her.
Now coming to the two movies, Kalki 2898 and Adipurush, what do you have to say about them?
Although I haven’t seen either of the two, I have watched the trailers and am aware of the criticism both movies received. Kalki 2898 is out-and-out fiction, so we can’t really complain about that. Karna and Ashwathama are shown as heroes, which is far from the truth as I mentioned earlier. Ashwathama was not blessed but cursed to live a long life of around 3000 years.
Coming to Adipurush, with all the criticism of dialogues and VFX aside, it did try to change the age-old narrative of Ram being a calm, soft-spoken, and lean fellow who was always smiling. Although Arun Govil did a brilliant job in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan, actually, it is Prabhas’s muscular and chiseled portrayal of Ram, which is more accurate. Ram used to lose his temper on certain occasions, and it even used to make the gods worry.
Alongside, Ravan was shown as a very dark and villainous character, which also goes with the original epic. However, the movie made several blunders, which is why it was such a failure.
However, when Kalki was released, I was tagged on Twitter by my readers in posts directed at Nag Ashwin, the director of Kalki, where they told him that Karna’s portrayal is not right. Such discussion is beneficial to both creators and the audience. This is a change and a good one. It makes me happy to see that my research and my work are making an impact.
What about the new movie on Ramayan (starring Ranbir Kapoor) which is coming in 2-3 years? Do you have any expectations from it?
I don’t have many expectations from the movie. However, I am very happy that filmmakers realized that people love movies based on our culture and our history. Conversations have also started about epics due to this.
There is the character of ‘Bhishma Pitamah’ who took an oath that did a lot of harm in the long run and even made him go against dharma. What do you have to say about Bhishma? And what can we learn from him?
Many put the blame on Bhishma’s oath, as they feel it was this oath that led to the war. But we can’t point to a particular person or event that led to the war of Kurukshetra. It’s not Pitamah’s oath, not Satyavati, and not Draupadi. In hindsight, we can blame Bhishma or someone else. At that time, perhaps, he could not see the larger impact his oath would have on the kingdom. However, till the end, he always tried to prevent the war, but unfortunately, had to side with Hastinapur due to his oath.
In one of your speeches, you had spoken about Runanubandhan. Could you elaborate on it?
It mostly applies to relationships. It goes like this: if we meet anyone, there is a “give and take” between us from an earlier life. So when a relationship ends, it means that the “Runanubandhan” is over. This is why we shouldn’t hold on to things. If someone is going, we should let them go. They were meant for that time period only. Instead of complaining and planning revenge when someone does not try to help us, we should accept that our time with them was only for that limited period.
Yes, but it is easy to say “Let it go,” but hard to actually do it. How do we actually do this?
True, but here spirituality, Bhakti, and devotion come into play. Understanding that you only had this much time and work with the person and things is important. Not everyone can stay with you for a lifetime. If he or she wants to leave, but you are holding on, it causes you more pain than if you let them go. Neither someone’s arrival nor their departure was in your hands. Consider it your stop where you have to change the train. The sooner you do that, the better for both of you. There should be no feelings of sadness, anger, or revenge, as you both might get a better person or outcome than you were expecting.
Lastly, what do you have to say about our education system? We can see how it is negatively impacting youths, and it makes us learn a lot of stuff that eventually doesn’t benefit us in our career, nor in the spiritual realm. Do you think that going back to the gurukul system of the past would make sense?
In parts of India, a few Gurukuls are still there. Illiteracy can be ended only after issues of poverty and unemployment are solved. I feel the government is working towards that. Earlier, these ‘Gurukuls’ used to run on charity in a prosperous society, which might not be possible today.
Fortunately, an Indic knowledge system has been started by the National Education Policy by policymakers. This will help students immensely in going back to our roots and not forgetting our “Indianness.”
The previous generation, i.e., our parents and grandparents, were focused mostly on survival and securing themselves financially, as after colonial rule, our country was in poverty. Thankfully, today, things have improved quite a bit, which is why our generation is able to think about spirituality, and why going back to our roots is more important!
