Avadeshwari - Shankara Mokaashi puNekar

One observation that I have made w.r.t all my book readings till date is that a book written about a female protagonist with strong character is bound to keep you captivated to it till the end. I guess that is the beauty of a story where a woman takes control of the proceedings. Be it maturity, innocence , smartness or failure, a woman adds so much of life to the story that one can relate to and it simply cant be kept the same way by just replacing her with a male protagonist. It might turn out to be good, but not as special!!

With that introduction, I am sure you would have guessed my opinion about the kannada book AVADESHWARI written by SHANKAR MOKAASHI PUNEKAR.  This winner of KarnaTaka saahitya acaDemy award is mostly a factual story set in the times of people / characters who were 30-40 generation before Lord Rama at Ayodhya. The author has done a lot of study on vedic scripts, ancient sculptures, books from different countries, study on different eras of civilization before coming up with this gripping story and provides notes and anecdotes at regular intervals to support his version of the story.

Though the book in general speaks about the politics, caste system, societal norms,  rituals of vedic times, it is narrated keeping the queen purukutsaani as the central character. The story revolves around the life and times of purukutsaani, who is forced to take up the reins of the kingdom due to an incapable king. It highlights the various political , social and marital issues faced by the quuen and how tactfully she gets through them. Tricky situations are thrown at the readers regularly making us wonder what would happen next. You will get so involved in the book that you start looking forward to what will the queen purukutsaani do now?. If an author can make you get involved as a curious spectator all along the story, it just cant get better than that. In AVADESHWARI, Mr. PuNekar does exactly the same with this political drama .

This 350+ page story is too big a canvas to be summarized in this short review. But, it does not have any characters or situations forcibly inserted into the novel. Any open or unrelated situation or character highlighted in the story would be a a missing link which would later complete the puzzle at a later part of th estory. Some characters do stay in your mind even after you finish the book mainly because of the detailed characterizations in the book done over a period of time which will make you relate to the character as though you are observing him/her personally. There are enough gripping situations in the book which will keep you hooked on to the book.  There are even times, when you feel very happy or contentend by the way Purukutsaani faced and resolved a tricky situation in the book. Instead o flisting some of them here, I would like you to read and enjoy it  with the book directly.

In short , this book i sworth reading and something that we have to read if we like reading kannada novels. Just like Mookajjiya kanasugaLu, this is also one book that every kannada  book reader should get hold of...