The Mahabharata retold as ‘Sons of Gods’

The Shaping of Guyanese Literature

By Petamber Persaud

(An extract from an interview  with Sharon Maas, who talked about her most recent novel “Sons of Gods”, November 2012 in Georgetown, Guyana. Her other novels include “Of Marriageable Age”, set in India and Guyana, “Peacocks Dancing” set in Guyana and India, and “The Speech of Angels” set in India and Europe).

Author Sharon Maas writing as Aruna Sharan

PP: The first set of Indians that were brought to Guyana came with their traditions in their heart and their head. But they also brought with them their sacred books, and it was those books that gave validity and credence to their traditions, festivals and religious practices. One of those religious books, of which there are many – and we would talk about the others as this conversation unfolds – one of those books is the Mahabharata.
The Mahabharata is an enormous book, labelled as the world’s longest literary work. Despite that, or in spite of its length, (you like to write lengthy books) you have undertaken the task of retelling the story of the Mahabharata in a way that it would be easily digested by the lay person, and challenge the academics.
As I said earlier, it is a huge volume, requiring a lot of work; why have you taken on the task?
SM: It goes back to the time when I first read the Mahabharata, and that was a long time ago – more than forty years ago while I was living in India.  I got hold of a huge retelling of the Mahabharata; it was a condensation retold as a novel by Kamala Subramaniam. I was reading it day and night until I finished it – it really fascinated me. It moved me to the depths; but in my opinion it was badly written. It was written in a very childish style – perhaps it was written for children. So I thought I’d look for another version of it; [Mahabharata] a more adult version, but I didn’t find any. After version after version, I found some were too limited, some too intellectual, or there were too many interventions by their respective authors.
PP: The bottom line was you were not satisfied with how the story of the Mahabharata was retold.
SM: No, because I thought this was such a huge book and the story so magnificent – and that’s a word I wouldn’t use lightly. The story is so magnificent; it should be brought to life…
PP: It needed a new treatment, a new approach.
SM: Yes, because in these huge eighteen volumes, there are lots of repetitions and narrative diversions, so there was a need to get the central essence of the book to make the story stronger for the readers, and for the readers to be moved like I was moved.
PP: How did you approach the rewriting? You have written three…four novels, and published a few. Did you approach the rewriting through the eye of a novelist? From what perspective have you retold the story?
SM: For me, what I noticed from all the versions I’ve read, with a few exceptions, was that one of the more fascinating  characters was not highlighted as I think he ought to be, and that is the character of Karna.
Karna is caught between two worlds – it’s a story between bad and good. Karna is like the outcast; he goes over to the bad side. But he is a really courageous, honest, upright…a really great character.  He is actually the son of the sun god, so he is actually of a high status. But nobody knows this; nobody recognises who he really is.
PP: You have labelled this retelling the “Sons of Gods”.
SM: Yes, because the main son is the sun god. Yet nobody knows it, so he, Karna, is an outcast when in fact he is the real hero of the story. And this is what I wanted to bring out in my version – to give Karna his due. The other characters are just as important – there is Arjuna and Krishna; they are the central figures of the Bhagavad Gita and everyone seems to know them. And Arjuna – everyone loves him. But Karna deserves more. This is what I try to do, not as a main character but as a strong pull towards Arjuna. Not only Arjuna needs attention but Karna also.
PP: We have gone straight into the story and the rewriting; it is about time for us to get the gist of the story.
SM: Yes, basically, as I said before, it’s a story of good versus evil. It’s a family divided; the good part of the family are five brothers, all fathered by various gods, and they are the rightful heirs to the throne, but their cousin has usurped the throne and managed to get them exiled. So the whole surface story is for them to fight to regain the throne.
But for me it is more than that. It is a story of ourselves, of what we should strive for, of what makes a person noble, of what makes a person realise his or her potential. And this is what I try to bring out – this underlying endeavour of the human to be the best they can.
PP: And we could follow you in this new book “Sons of Gods” that reads like a novel?
SM: Yes.
PP: Let’s see how that novel goes, from beginning to end.
SM: Well, its beginning is unusual because no other version of the Mahabharata starts with the birth of Karna…
(TO BE CONTINUED)