Kala Krishnan’s Lyrical Prose in Mahasena Harmonizes the Novel’s Striking Elements, Creating an Undying Ode in the Reverence of the God of War and Victory
Book Review by Dhiraj Sindhi
Mahasena: Part One of the Murugan Trilogy by Kala Krishnan
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| Mahasena by Kala Krishnan |
Author: Kala Krishnan
ISBN: 978-9390679133
Genre: Myths, Legends & Sagas
Length: 264 Pages
Publication
Date: 19th July 2021
Publisher: Context – An Imprint of Westland
Publications Private Limited
Cover
Design: Saurabh Garge
Cover
Designer: Website: theaoi.com/ | Instagram: @garge_saurabh
Order your copy
right now: https://amzn.to/2YaUKS8
About the author:
Kala Krishnan works in Bengaluru. She is the author of two books of poetry, He Is Honey, Salt and the Most Perfect Grammar and Offer Him All Things Charred, Burned and Cindered, in which the god Murugan appears in surprising versions.
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| Kala Krishnan (PC: Kinshuk Rawat) |
Instagram: @poetkala
Website: poetry.sangamhouse.org/
The Hindu Article: ‘I see Murugan as language’
Disclaimer: This review is only intended for initiating discussions. The opinions and views presented in this article are my own and do not reflect anything about the book's author.
REVIEW
Not
long ago that I came to know of the associations between my hometown and the
young lord Kartikeya. While there is only a single prominent temple in Gujarat
that is dedicated to Balamurugan, one of the Mahapuranas tells a wholly
different story. According to the local legend, as mentioned in the Skanda
Purana, a golden pillar was fixed at the place along with the Shivaling (Stambheshwar Mahadev, a
temple in Kavi that hosts thousands of pilgrims after its redevelopment, on the
full moon and the new moon of every month)
on the battlefield where Tarakasur was slain by Kumara—the young God of
War, to celebrate the victory. This place was then a much-revered pilgrimage
region called Kumarika Kshetra where the Mahi River met with the sea, thus
Mahisagara-Sangam Tirtha, also known as Gupta Kshetra, which is now represented
by Khambhat—a town on the coast of Gulf of Cambay, Kavi—a town on the other
side of the gulf and the neighbouring region. That is how Khambhat has received
its name, after applying phonetic laws with contraction, assimilation and
elimination; the Sanskrit name ‘Stambhtirth
(The Pillar Shrine)’ was transformed into modern-day Gujarati name ‘Khambhat’. I’m saving the details for
some other blog, now, let’s see how the poet and author, Kala Krishnan pays ‘a
homage to a cherished boy-god’—as Sharanya Manivannan says—as well as to the
language of the South in a unique way and probably the perfect way for the
modern world era, something that is essential to preserve and uphold the
cultures cascading through centuries of generational changes.
Mahasena by Kala Krishnan—a mythological fiction, is a synthesis of several literary and non-literary elements that are emphasized to achieve an effect, a sense of high regard and admiration for the Lord Murugan and everything he touches in his lifespan; woven together as one lyrical phenomenon that flows rhythmically like a river, gushing down from its source at higher altitudes to the plains where it’s much needed, cutting through the grounds, rocks, valleys, mountains called Skanda, Kartikeya, Guha, Mahasena, Kandhan, Murugan, Kumara and ceaselessly thrives not knowing how many lives depend upon it in myriad aspects; it is thus the exceptionally beautiful, written in rich prose, a musical story of the God of Tamizh from his birth to battlefield, from Kumara to Mahasena, and most importantly from ‘ the Kumaras’ language’ to the fully-developed rich culture of Tamil people.
Let me now shed light on the five major elements that are seamlessly ingrained in the text and into one another, which bursts open the floodgates for lively imagination and even wilder creativity.
Nature: The free-flowing nature, something that is boundless and limitless, the flora and fauna, the earth, the sky, the fourteen worlds in the universe, the rivers, the mountains, the seasons and the likes of it, all are depicted as natural it could get. It is quite responsive and sensitive that it reacts to everything the Gods do. While it is not bound by time, space or any living being, the very presence of the divine being comforts nature and it starts moving as if dancing to the rhythm of Murugan’s heartbeats. This is because, of course, Murugan treats himself as an inseparable part of it, which is evident by the breath-taking scenes where the boy-god is shown playing with snakes and where “Kandhan was mud” and the creatures—“worms, bugs, caterpillars, bees, butterflies, dragonflies—were swimming into him, passing through skin and swimming out.”
Music: Music and the art of writing and reciting poems, verses, and the likes is the second thing that is given utmost importance in Mahasena, the first being the language of the South, Tamizh. The music is accommodated in the storyline as well as the writing style from the very beginning before the younger brother of Ganesha was born. The music comes to Lord Murugan as naturally as Dance comes to Shambhu and Shakti to Parvathy. Murugan always has the anklets of music wrapped around his feet and gravely condemns any flaw he recognises, which he always does. The author has cleverly ensured that the two leaders on the battlefield are equal, no more, no less. The Dashagriva Ravana also plays a small part along with the opponent of Murugan—Surapadman. As these Asuras are depicted as engineers and experimenters, they also have achieved perfection in the art of music.
Tamizh Language: The Tamizh language is one of the most prominent aspects of the novel. This language is portrayed as the most natural language that can occur to any being; that also goes hand in hand with everything from people to objects. The grammar, the words and the phonetics of this language are such that the words or noises a child barely a year old would make on seeing a newborn and that would be in none other than Tamizh. Murugan makes the language perpetual and never-ending by teaching it to Kuru Muni Akaththi, also known as Agastya or Akattiyam, who in turn, spreads it across the land of the South with the help of grammarians, poets, bards and scholars, where it “grew surer and more adventurous, it sank roots, and like a giant tree…and on its branches perched the mighty-winged birds of poetry, grammar and music.” And thus Kartikeya gets yet another name—Tamizh Theivan means the God of Tamizh.
Magical Realism: It is debatable that whether to treat the fantastical elements in mythology as pure miracles or as elements of magical realism. Well, I have chosen to call it magical realism because even in the set boundary of mythology some things go beyond comprehension and reasoning. Some of the magical realism devices are communication via dreams, epiphanies, the very birth of Kartikeya, his ability to speak to the anklets as if using a similar mellifluous sound.
Reconstructed Myths, Legends and Sagas with Freshly-developed Characters and Unique Working Mechanism: The author Kala Krishnan has developed her own mythology world that has its own creation story and own way of functioning. I am utterly in love with how she has presented the enigmatic images of the gods and goddesses; they are depicted as human-like as they can get and at the same time, they never lose or stop radiating the god-like aura of divine energy. It is also absolutely remarkable how the author has detailed the relationships between the siblings—Ganesha and Kartikeya, Murugan and Aambal, and one that has no equal in the universe—Shiva and Parvathy, the Mother and Father of Creation, whose relationship is just as Kala Krishnan describes it—“you couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began.”
I will be eagerly waiting for the next part in the Murugan Trilogy to uncover the secret behind ‘Mahasena’, a name given to Murugan by Indra’s daughter Devyani, also known as Devasena or as Murugan calls her, ‘Theivanai’, which is also the title of the next book.
Mahasena by Kala Krishnan—a mythological fiction, is a synthesis of several literary and non-literary elements that are emphasized to achieve an effect, a sense of high regard and admiration for the Lord Murugan and everything he touches in his lifespan; woven together as one lyrical phenomenon that flows rhythmically like a river, gushing down from its source at higher altitudes to the plains where it’s much needed, cutting through the grounds, rocks, valleys, mountains called Skanda, Kartikeya, Guha, Mahasena, Kandhan, Murugan, Kumara and ceaselessly thrives not knowing how many lives depend upon it in myriad aspects; it is thus the exceptionally beautiful, written in rich prose, a musical story of the God of Tamizh from his birth to battlefield, from Kumara to Mahasena, and most importantly from ‘ the Kumaras’ language’ to the fully-developed rich culture of Tamil people.
Let me now shed light on the five major elements that are seamlessly ingrained in the text and into one another, which bursts open the floodgates for lively imagination and even wilder creativity.
Nature: The free-flowing nature, something that is boundless and limitless, the flora and fauna, the earth, the sky, the fourteen worlds in the universe, the rivers, the mountains, the seasons and the likes of it, all are depicted as natural it could get. It is quite responsive and sensitive that it reacts to everything the Gods do. While it is not bound by time, space or any living being, the very presence of the divine being comforts nature and it starts moving as if dancing to the rhythm of Murugan’s heartbeats. This is because, of course, Murugan treats himself as an inseparable part of it, which is evident by the breath-taking scenes where the boy-god is shown playing with snakes and where “Kandhan was mud” and the creatures—“worms, bugs, caterpillars, bees, butterflies, dragonflies—were swimming into him, passing through skin and swimming out.”
Music: Music and the art of writing and reciting poems, verses, and the likes is the second thing that is given utmost importance in Mahasena, the first being the language of the South, Tamizh. The music is accommodated in the storyline as well as the writing style from the very beginning before the younger brother of Ganesha was born. The music comes to Lord Murugan as naturally as Dance comes to Shambhu and Shakti to Parvathy. Murugan always has the anklets of music wrapped around his feet and gravely condemns any flaw he recognises, which he always does. The author has cleverly ensured that the two leaders on the battlefield are equal, no more, no less. The Dashagriva Ravana also plays a small part along with the opponent of Murugan—Surapadman. As these Asuras are depicted as engineers and experimenters, they also have achieved perfection in the art of music.
Tamizh Language: The Tamizh language is one of the most prominent aspects of the novel. This language is portrayed as the most natural language that can occur to any being; that also goes hand in hand with everything from people to objects. The grammar, the words and the phonetics of this language are such that the words or noises a child barely a year old would make on seeing a newborn and that would be in none other than Tamizh. Murugan makes the language perpetual and never-ending by teaching it to Kuru Muni Akaththi, also known as Agastya or Akattiyam, who in turn, spreads it across the land of the South with the help of grammarians, poets, bards and scholars, where it “grew surer and more adventurous, it sank roots, and like a giant tree…and on its branches perched the mighty-winged birds of poetry, grammar and music.” And thus Kartikeya gets yet another name—Tamizh Theivan means the God of Tamizh.
Magical Realism: It is debatable that whether to treat the fantastical elements in mythology as pure miracles or as elements of magical realism. Well, I have chosen to call it magical realism because even in the set boundary of mythology some things go beyond comprehension and reasoning. Some of the magical realism devices are communication via dreams, epiphanies, the very birth of Kartikeya, his ability to speak to the anklets as if using a similar mellifluous sound.
Reconstructed Myths, Legends and Sagas with Freshly-developed Characters and Unique Working Mechanism: The author Kala Krishnan has developed her own mythology world that has its own creation story and own way of functioning. I am utterly in love with how she has presented the enigmatic images of the gods and goddesses; they are depicted as human-like as they can get and at the same time, they never lose or stop radiating the god-like aura of divine energy. It is also absolutely remarkable how the author has detailed the relationships between the siblings—Ganesha and Kartikeya, Murugan and Aambal, and one that has no equal in the universe—Shiva and Parvathy, the Mother and Father of Creation, whose relationship is just as Kala Krishnan describes it—“you couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began.”
I will be eagerly waiting for the next part in the Murugan Trilogy to uncover the secret behind ‘Mahasena’, a name given to Murugan by Indra’s daughter Devyani, also known as Devasena or as Murugan calls her, ‘Theivanai’, which is also the title of the next book.
Happy Reading!
Thank you @vivekisms for the review copy!
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