The Mahabharata is among the many most advanced epic poems ever written. Probably the most foundational and influential items of literature in historical past, this masterpiece of historic India has been translated, analyzed, deconstructed and reconstructed numerous instances. Within the afterword to Vaishnavi Patel’s reimagining of the poem, Goddess of the River, the writer states she has not tried to complicate an already sophisticated narrative. As a substitute, Patel simplifies it by centering on one key relationship throughout the Mahabharata: that between the river goddess Ganga and her mortal son, Devavrata, who will turn into Bhishma, one of many poem’s iconic heroes. In doing so, Patel distills the mythic fall of the Kaurava household right into a deeply private and painfully human tragedy, one the place the defiantly chaotic mom and her dogmatically lawful son are doomed to all the time battle towards their very own natures.
Goddess of the River is superbly crafted. Patel strikes between Bhishma’s childhood and the top of his life with limpid fluidity, by no means dropping her cohesive narrative construction. No shift in time is with out function, no dramatic irony is unintentional. Other than Ganga and Bhishma, nearly each different character is static, every emblematic of their very own specific mythological trope. This slim focus just isn’t a detriment; somewhat, it solely highlights Ganga and Bhishma’s advanced relationship and the way they arrive to resemble one another regardless of their seemingly reverse natures.
Learn our starred evaluation of ‘Kaikeyi’ by Vaishnavi Patel.
Goddess of the River has an intriguing ethical ambiguity that readers accustomed to the Mahabharata will acknowledge. None of Patel’s characters are actually good or evil. All of them have clear objectives, with some being motivated by precept and others by selfishness or caprice. Goddess of the River is a messy story about messy individuals and even messier gods, all simply attempting to make the most effective selections they will to make these they take care of pleased with them. Thus, Patel makes regardless of Ganga and Bhishma eminently relatable regardless of their larger-than-life natures: Whereas neither can repair every thing that’s damaged inside their world, they will not less than do some issues proper alongside the way in which.