• Home
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Career
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Disclaimer

HOME INDIA

Welcome to HOME India

BOOK REVIEW: THE KATHASARITASAGARA OF SOMADEVA BY MEENA ARORA NAYAK

  • ISBN: 978-8194874157
  • Genre: Fiction, Mythological fiction, Legends
  • Publisher: Aleph Book Company (10 December 2020)
  • Price: INR 999/-

Contents

  • 1 About the Book
  • 2 About the Author
  • 3 Book Review

About the Book

One of India’s greatest epics, The Kathasaritsagara is thought to have been compiled around 1070 CE by Somadeva Bhatt, during the reign of Raja Ananta of the Lohara dynasty of Kashmir. Even though this extraordinary work is one of the longest creations in Indian and world literature, it is considered to be only a small part of an even longer work called Brihatkatha, composed by Gunadhya in a lost language known as Paisachi. Somadeva collected and retold the stories of The Kathasaritsagara in Sanskrit to entertain Raja Ananta’s wife, Suryavati. This masterpiece is foundational for many of India’s best-loved folk tale traditions, such as Vetala Pachisi and Panchatantra, and it has influenced many of the world’s best-known classics, including One Thousand and One Nights, The Decameron, and The Canterbury Tales.
In addition, contemporary writers like Salman Rushdie have drawn from the work in books like Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Within its vast frame, The Kathasaritsagara has several hundred stories that owe their origin to India’s limitless storehouse of myth, scripture, and folklore. Snake gods rub shoulders with enchanted princesses, and heroic warrior-kings battle rakshasas tall as the sky and wide as the ocean. Celestial apsaras seduce handsome princes, wise prostitutes counsel errant husbands, fools parley with ghouls, and riddlers and talking monkeys pace through the tales.
Here you will find talking birds and swindlers, beggars and conjurers, sages and polymaths, divine beings and semidivine vidyadharas, yakshas and yoginis, walking corpses and sleeping giants, and a host of other remarkable creatures mingling with ordinary men and women in a multitude of magical kingdoms, enchanted islands, and forbidding forests in the three worlds—heaven, earth, and the netherworld. And through this skein of stories contained in eighteen books, Somadeva spins tales of love, infidelity, death, rebirth, sacrifice, fulfilment, courage, cowardliness, honesty, untruth, separation, togetherness, joy, sadness, and much, much more. The central story of this epic revolves around the son of the famed Raja Udayana, Naravahanadatta, and his marital quests, in the course of which he acquires numerous wives, encounters a host of memorable characters, and wins supremacy over the mystical vidyadharas. Meena Arora Nayak’s brilliant new retelling of The Kathasaritsagara, the first major rendition of the epic in a quarter century, closely follows the adventures of Naravahanadatta and brings these ancient tales to new and enthralling life.

About the Author

Meena Arora Nayak is the author of The Blue Lotus: Myths and Folktales of India; three novels, Endless Rain, About Daddy, and In the Aftermath; a children’s book, The Puffin Book of Legendary Lives; and a monograph, Evil in the Mahabharata. Her stories are included in the anthologies The City of Sin and Splendour and Enhanced Gravity.

Book Review

I remember being told about the Kathasaritasagara of Somadeva by my grandfather when I was a kid. Though I might not remember the stories he narrated from this, I do remember the thrill these stories brought to our minds. Summer afternoons spent lazing on the huge swing in the main room of the old house at my granny’s place with endless sessions of story-telling – surrounded by my cousins these memories were rekindled when I read this book.
To begin with, I would like to comment on the beautiful cover of the book. It is a brilliant design, extremely eyecatching in shades of gold and blue which does ample justice to the whole theme of these stories. Also, a small note – this book is a heavy read both in terms of size and content. One needs to be patient to enjoy the beauty of the stories and the book.

Meena Arora Nayak’s efforts at recreating these stories without losing out on their essence and retain the enthralling element in each one of them are truly commendable. Though the stories end with a moral, they are not preachy in the sense of making a reader feel uncomfortable. The lessons are deeply imbibed in the narrative in a manner that leaves the reader thinking.

The stories are narrated by a character to another and the chain keeps continuing till the end. This adds to the layers of the narrative with characters reappearing and there is a strange continuity within these stories which is extremely engaging. Interlacing themes like love, hatred, death, life, and other nuances of life with finer detailing, these stories strike a chord effortlessly for a reader.

However, the stories need not be read in a sequence. I found this collection to be like Pandora’s box. I picked any story randomly and started reading it, only to be amazed by the narrative. These stories have a voice of their own, the characters though intertwined, have a shape of their own and their voices is what connects deeply with the reader.

There were many portions when I was transported back to my childhood as they reminded me of Panchtantra and Hitopedesha stories. This collection has the power to make you forget everything around you and simply mesmerize you with its powerful storytelling.

This book is an amazing retelling and the Nayak deserves full credits for her efforts to bring this project to fruition. This is one gift that every book lover would cherish and love to pass onto future generations as a keep sake. These stories need to be read, experienced, and re-read only to retold again.

Such collections are a beautiful reminder of our classics which are on the verge of extinction. And for this, I have always commended Aleph Book Company. Their ability to bring up collections of stories from Indian writing ranging from translations to retellings is simply mind-blowing. They are a name to reckon with if you are looking for quality literature in Indian Writing.

Book Review

Post navigation

BOOK REVIEW: THE ART OF WRITING – FOUR PRINCIPLES FOR GREAT WRITING THAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW BY PETER YANG → ← BOOK REVIEW: SORRY YOU ARE NOT MY TYPE BY SUDEEP NAGARKAR

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending Now

BOOK REVIEW: BUSINESS SUTRA – A VERY INDIAN APPROACH TO MANAGEMENT BY DEVDUTT PATTANAIK

BOOK REVIEW: BUSINESS SUTRA – A VERY INDIAN APPROACH TO MANAGEMENT BY DEVDUTT PATTANAIK

Contents1 Introduction2  About the Author3 ‘Me’ Thinks Introduction  ISBN: 978-81-923280-7-2 Category: Business Publishers: Aleph Price: Rs. 695/-  ( I got this book from Blog Adda for review) As [...]

More Info
BOOK REVIEW: 99 THOUGHTS ON GANESHA ~ DEVDUTT PATTANAIK

BOOK REVIEW: 99 THOUGHTS ON GANESHA ~ DEVDUTT PATTANAIK

Contents1 Introduction2 Behind the book3  About the Author4 Me thinks Introduction We follow a lot of traditions and rituals when we pray to God but how many of us really […]

More Info
BOOK REVIEW: GANGA – THE GODDESS BY ANUJA CHANDRAMOULI

BOOK REVIEW: GANGA – THE GODDESS BY ANUJA CHANDRAMOULI

Introduction ISBN:978-9353332686 Genre: Fiction / Mythology Publishers: Rupa Publications Price: Rs. 295/- (I got the book for review from the publisher) Behind the Book Believed to be the liquid [...]

More Info
BOOK REVIEW: PRITHVIRAJ CHAUHAN – THE EMPEROR OF HEARTS BY ANUJA CHANDRAMOULI

BOOK REVIEW: PRITHVIRAJ CHAUHAN – THE EMPEROR OF HEARTS BY ANUJA CHANDRAMOULI

Introduction ISBN: 9780143441199 Genre: Fiction/ Historical Fiction Publishers: Penguin Random House Price: Rs. 299/-  ( I got the book for review from the author) Behind the Book Prithviraj [...]

More Info
BOOK REVIEW: COBALT BLUE BY SACHIN KUNDALKAR TRANSLATED BY JERRY PINTO

BOOK REVIEW: COBALT BLUE BY SACHIN KUNDALKAR TRANSLATED BY JERRY PINTO

Contents1 Introduction2 About the Author3 ‘Me’ Thinks Introduction ISBN #978-0-670-08684-9 Category: Fiction Publishers : Penguin India Price : Rs. 399/- Indian Fiction happens to be [...]

More Info
BOOK REVIEW: THE FALLEN BY DAVID BALDACCI

BOOK REVIEW: THE FALLEN BY DAVID BALDACCI

Introduction ISBN:  978-1509874262 Genre: Fiction  Publishers: Pan Macmillan India Price: Rs. 599/-  ( I got the book for review from the publisher) Behind the Book Amos Decker, David [...]

More Info
BOOK REVIEW: LANKA’S PRINCESS BY KAVITA KANÉ

BOOK REVIEW: LANKA’S PRINCESS BY KAVITA KANÉ

Introduction ISBN: 9788129144515 Genre: Fiction / Mythology Publishers: Rupa Price: Rs.295/- (I got this book from the publisher for a review) Surpanakha, Ravan’s infamous sister—ugly and [...]

More Info
BOOK REVIEW : A JAPANESE WIFE

BOOK REVIEW : A JAPANESE WIFE

Haunting and mysterious are the first two words that strike your mind as flip through the pages of The Japanese Wife, by Kunal Basu. This book has generated a lot of […]

More Info
BOOK REVIEW: YOU ARE THE BEST WIFE – A TRUE LOVE STORY BY AJAY K PANDEY

BOOK REVIEW: YOU ARE THE BEST WIFE – A TRUE LOVE STORY BY AJAY K PANDEY

Introduction ISBN: 978-9382665540 Genre:  Fiction Publishers: Srishti Publishing Price: Rs. 375/- ( I got the book from Writer’s Melon for a review) Ajay believes in living for himself; [...]

More Info
BOOK REVIEW: LIKE A BIRD ON THE WIRE BY CHHAVI BHARDWAJ

BOOK REVIEW: LIKE A BIRD ON THE WIRE BY CHHAVI BHARDWAJ

Introduction ISBN:  978-93873-836-78 Genre: Fiction  Publishers: Amaryllis Price: Rs. 399/-  ( I got the book for review from the publisher) Behind the Book Nethra Kaul is sharp, efficient, [...]

More Info
BOOK REVIEW: THE GREATEST HINDI STORIES EVER TOLD BY POONAM SAXENA

BOOK REVIEW: THE GREATEST HINDI STORIES EVER TOLD BY POONAM SAXENA

Publisher : Aleph Book Company Year of Publishing: 10 October 2020 Genre: Anthology, Translations, Collected Short Stories, Hindi Short Stories, Classic, ISBN-13 : 978-8194735304 Price: INR 699/- [...]

More Info
BOOK REVIEW: RAU -THE GREAT LOVE STORY OF BAJIRAO MASTANI BY N.S. INAMDAR (TRANSLATED BY VIKRANT PANDE)

BOOK REVIEW: RAU -THE GREAT LOVE STORY OF BAJIRAO MASTANI BY N.S. INAMDAR (TRANSLATED BY VIKRANT PANDE)

Introduction ISIN:  978-9382616801 Genre: Historical Fiction / Romance / Drama Publishers: Pan McMillan India Price: Rs. 399/- (I got this book from the publisher for a review) ‘My eyes, they [...]

More Info
BOOK REVIEW: THE LAST OF THE FIREDRAKES (THE AVALONIA CHRONICLES #1) BY FARAH OOMERBHOY

BOOK REVIEW: THE LAST OF THE FIREDRAKES (THE AVALONIA CHRONICLES #1) BY FARAH OOMERBHOY

Introduction ISIN:  978-1940014715 Genre: Children / Young Adult / Fantasy Fiction Publishers: Wise Ink Creative Publishing Price: Rs. 349 /- (I got this book from the b00k r3vi3w for a review) [...]

More Info
BOOK REVIEW ~THE KRISHNA KEY BY ASHWIN SANGHI

BOOK REVIEW ~THE KRISHNA KEY BY ASHWIN SANGHI

Contents1 Introduction2 Behind the book3  About the Author4 ‘Me’ Thinks Introduction ISBN: 978-93-81626-68-9 Category: Thriller Publishers: Westland Ltd Price: Rs. 250/-  Once in a while you come [...]

More Info
BOOK REVIEW : RATNO DHOLI – THE BEST STORIES OF DHUMKETU BY JENNY BHATT

BOOK REVIEW : RATNO DHOLI – THE BEST STORIES OF DHUMKETU BY JENNY BHATT

ISBN–13 : 978-9390327782 Genre: Fiction, Anthology Short Stories, Translated Literature, Contemporary Fiction Publisher : Harper Collins India Price: INR 399/- Contents1 Book Blurb2 About [...]

More Info
BOOK REVIEW: HOW NOT TO MAKE MONEY BY RAJ KUNDRA

BOOK REVIEW: HOW NOT TO MAKE MONEY BY RAJ KUNDRA

Introduction ISBN – 9788184003970 Genre: Fiction / Thriller Publishers: Random House Publishers Price: Rs. 299/- (I got this book from the publisher for a review) When booze smugglers Jai and [...]

More Info
BOOK REVIEW: NOBODY CAN LOVE YOU MORE BY MAYANK AUSTEN SOOFI

BOOK REVIEW: NOBODY CAN LOVE YOU MORE BY MAYANK AUSTEN SOOFI

Contents1 Introduction2 About the Author3 ‘Me’ Thinks Introduction ISBN # 978-0-670-08414-2 Genre: Non-Fiction Price: Rs. 399/- Publishers: Penguin Books India No. of pages : 226 The [...]

More Info
BOOK REVIEW: THINK AND WIN LIKE DHONI BY SFURTI SAHARE

BOOK REVIEW: THINK AND WIN LIKE DHONI BY SFURTI SAHARE

Introduction ISBN: 978184958904 Genre: Non-Fiction / Self help Publishers: Jaico Books Price: Rs.199/-  ( I got the book for review from the publisher) 5 Success SecretsDo you tend to buckle [...]

More Info
BOOK REVIEW: A HUNDRED LITTLE FLAMES BY PREETI SHENOY

BOOK REVIEW: A HUNDRED LITTLE FLAMES BY PREETI SHENOY

Introduction ISBN:  978-9386850423 Genre: Fiction  Publishers: Westland Price: Rs. 299/-  ( I got the book for review from the publisher) Behind the Book Sometimes, a journey back is a step [...]

More Info
NOSTALGIC NOTES: A GALLERY OF RASCALS BY RUSKIN BOND

NOSTALGIC NOTES: A GALLERY OF RASCALS BY RUSKIN BOND

Ruskin Bond is the most addictive and entertaining writer in modern Indian literature. The author of over a hundred novels and short-story collections, his fiction is especially celebrated for [...]

More Info
BOOK REVIEW: THE ART OF WRITING – FOUR PRINCIPLES FOR GREAT WRITING THAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW BY PETER YANG

BOOK REVIEW: THE ART OF WRITING – FOUR PRINCIPLES FOR GREAT WRITING THAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW BY PETER YANG

ISBN: 978-1631610769 Publisher : Tck Publishing Price: INR 99/- ( Kindle copy) Genre: Nonfiction, Creative Writing, Writing Guide Contents1 Book Blurb2 About the Author3 Review Book Blurb [...]

More Info
BOOK REVIEW: SORRY YOU ARE NOT MY TYPE BY SUDEEP NAGARKAR

BOOK REVIEW: SORRY YOU ARE NOT MY TYPE BY SUDEEP NAGARKAR

Introduction ISBN – 9788184004908 Genre: Fiction Publishers: Random House Price: Rs. 150/- (I got this book from the publisher for a review) A brand new love story from the bestselling author of [...]

More Info
BOOK REVIEW: SANJAY DUTT – THE CRAZY UNTOLD STORY OF BOLLYWOOD’S BAD BOY BY YASSER USMAN

BOOK REVIEW: SANJAY DUTT – THE CRAZY UNTOLD STORY OF BOLLYWOOD’S BAD BOY BY YASSER USMAN

Introduction ISBN:  978-9386228581 Genre: Non-Fiction / Biography Publishers: Juggernaut  Price: Rs. 499/-  ( I got the book for review from the publisher) Behind the Book India’s top Bollywood [...]

More Info
BOOK REVIEW: THE DEVIL’S PRAYER BY LUKE GRACIAS

BOOK REVIEW: THE DEVIL’S PRAYER BY LUKE GRACIAS

Introduction ASIN: B01BXR4838 Genre: Fantasy / Horror/ Science Fiction Publishers: Australian Ebook Publisher Price: Rs. 201- (I got this book from the author for a review) A nun commits suicide [...]

More Info
BOOK REVIEW: KESHAVA: A MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION BY BHAWANA SOMAAYA

BOOK REVIEW: KESHAVA: A MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION BY BHAWANA SOMAAYA

Introduction ISBN:  978-9387779396 Genre: Non-Fiction/Religion Publishers: Fingerprint! Publishing Price: Rs. 299/-  ( I got the book for review from the publisher) Behind the Book Everyone [...]

More Info
Buy Now
Buy This Product Now
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Career
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Disclaimer
Powered by HOME India | © All Rights Reserved Privacy Policy