NEUTRALIZING STEREOTYPES IN ANAND NEELAKANTAN’S AJAYA: THE ROLE OF THE DICE

Registration ID: IJNRD_183575

Published ID: IJNRD2210146

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R. Ramya Devi, Dr. A. BHAGYALAKSHMI

Mythology, Re-telling of myth, post-modernism, stereotypes, Mahabharata

Literature has ever served a companion to mankind and remained close to the beliefs was ever considered as a guiding light to the whole of life. Mythology particularly in India is intertwined with the customs, beliefs and practices that every Indian would have witnessed. That’s the reason why mythological fictions took their turns in literary history to win the minds and attention of the readers. While Jaya by Devdutt Patnaik speaks about the victorious and virtuous Pandavas, Ajaya by Anand Neelakantan speaks about the antagonist and much averted Su(Dhur)yodhana and his qualities unknown to the general audience. In his treatment with the Myths, Anand Neelakantan has taken a liberal choice of demythifying and made the characters take a more human form rather than Gods and Demi-Gods. The author also attempts to break the classical stereotyping of the characters. Draupadhi, Subadhra, Aswathama, Karna all have their own virtues and vices stated as the story proceeds. Duryodhana is a kind hearted man who always wonders about the voidness of the concept of varna – caste differences. He doesn’t rush to get a good name from his teacher but is more poised and even tends the bird that becomes a prey of Arjuna’s arrow. Arjuna to display his skill to the world ruthlessly aims at the eye of the bird. This study underlines the fact that the definition of so called dharma by so called great Brahmins are always circumstantial in nature. In the treatment of the author’s retelling, each character is given their space to break stereotypical characteristics and portrays both good and evil equally in all the characters of this great epic. This perspective actually enhances the critical thinking in younger generation readers actually encourages a skeptical view on every fact that confronts them.

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R. Ramya Devi & Dr. A. BHAGYALAKSHMI (October-2022). NEUTRALIZING STEREOTYPES IN ANAND NEELAKANTAN’S AJAYA: THE ROLE OF THE DICE. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NOVEL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, 7(10), 179-182. https://ijnrd.org/papers/IJNRD2210146.pdf

Volume 7 Issue 10, October-2022

Pages : 179-182

Paper Reg. ID: IJNRD_183575

Published Paper Id: IJNRD2210146

Downloads: 000122253

Research Area: Arts

Author Type: Indian Author

Country: Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu, India

Published Paper PDF: https://ijnrd.org/papers/IJNRD2210146.pdf

Published Paper URL: https://ijnrd.org/viewpaperforall?paper=IJNRD2210146

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