Review : Rise of the Sun Prince (Ramayana: The Game of Life #1)

Title: Rise of the Sun Prince

Pages: 256 Paperback
Genre: Mythology | Ramayana

Series: Ramayana - The Game of Life #1

Author: Shubha Vilas

Publisher: Jaico Publishing House

Release : December 2013

Ramayana: The Game of Life (Book 1), one of the world's great literary masterpieces, skillfully retold for modern audiences. Epics like the Ramayana have been recounted infinite times. Is there a need for another chronicle in the presence of so many? How is this one different? And is it relevant to our ever-changing modern lives?

Yes, there is a need, yes this is different and yes, it is relevant. This new series of books, each following one khand of the Ramayana, decodes the eternal wisdom of that poetic scripture through gripping narrative and thought-provoking instruction. In the time-honored custom of spreading wisdom through tales, every fascinating story in the epic is retold here and every character unfolded to captivate your heart and open your mind to life's deepest questions.

The narrative closely follows Valmiki's Ramayana, gently weaving in folk tales as well as the beautiful analogies of the Kamba Ramayana. The first of this six-volume series, Rise of the Sun Prince, takes you through the divine story of Lord Rama from His birth up to His marriage. Through these pages are revealed the tales of Dasaratha's leadership, Vishwamitra's quest for power and the intriguing story of a little-known stone maiden. Ramayana: The Game of Life has all of this and much more - food for contemporary thought drawn from an enduring masterpiece.

Recounting an epic masterpiece saga like Ramayana which is already engraved in the souls of many of us is not an easy job, specially doing justice to it is unfathomable. The author Shubh Vilas of the book 'rise of the sun prince' has done an exemplary justice to the treasures saga Ramayana.

Ramayana is an humongous epic poem of India which narrates the journey of Virtue to annihilate vice, it is ascribes to the Hindu sage Valmiki, Srimad Valmiki Ramayana is composed of verses called Sloka, in Sanskrit language, which is an ancient language from India and a complex meter called Anustup. These verses are grouped into individual chapters called Sargas, wherein a specific event or intent is told. These chapters or sargas are grouped into books called Kaandas where Kaanda means the inter-node stem of sugar cane, or also a particular phase of the story or an event in the course of story telling. Ramayana contains 24,000 verses [sloka] arranged into numerous cantos [sarga] which are contained in 6 books as mentioned earlier.

This is the first installment by Shubh Vilas in the series of six books as per the Valmiki Ramayana. This one chiefly focuses on the "book of youth" Bal kand of Ramayana i.e. the birth period and before the birth of Lord Rama (an avatar of Hindu Supreme god Vishnu) to his marriage with Sita (Avatar of Hindu goddess Lakshmi).

What makes this book different to the numerous recounts is the language author used, it is ideal for the modern readers of this era who don't essentially understand Hindi, sanskrit or ancient language well. Author made sure to keep the commentary simple yet creating a spellbinding strings of episodes that takes a reader to the era where the story actually took place (Treta yug). Although book is not suitable for the in-depth study of Ramayana which I suppose is the purpose of the author, to keep it light and less-complex so that the reader can easily grasp the story in a proper sequence of events. It is an splendid option for kids or readers who wants to brush up their knowledge of Ramayana or those who wants to read Ramayana without having to consult Google all along. Plus the author has weaved the folks tales and Kamba Ramayana to this book connecting the dots.

I specially liked it because with this I hope Author takes the Ramayana to the regions and nations which are still not awakened by the complete thought-provoking epic because this is just not a story but it's a learning, it's understanding the way of life, it's decoding the essence of our birth's meaning and it's an actual tonic for our souls. This book offers a lot which humankind desperately needs. With the unfortunate happenings going around the globe, this version of Ramayana may have a lot to offer to uphold rightness because the ultimate lesson of Ramayana teaches that.

The book is so breathtaking that I couldn't take my eyes off it. It's detailing is absolutely brilliant. I loved it.

It''s hard to rate this book. Please know that this rating is strictly based on this book, not the original sage Valmiki Ramayana.