Mandodari

Mandodari is one of the Ramayana's quietest figures, a name most readers know only as Ravana's wife. This novel hands her the narration. It draws on the Jaina Ramayana of Sanghadasa, a version of the epic far less familiar than the one most people grew up with, and tells the war for Lanka from inside the palace of the king who lost it.

She is described as one of the loveliest of the apsaras, and she is married to Ravana, the formidable ruler of Lanka. Marriage brings her no easy contentment. She speaks candidly about her insecurities and the difficult early years, and about a devout nature that increasingly set her at odds with a husband whose ambitions kept growing. From her place beside him, she watches his power expand and sees the mistakes that would eventually bring Lanka down.

Mandodari never stops loving Ravana, flaws and all, and she urges him again and again to choose the path of righteousness. The story, as usually told, makes him a villain after his defeat in a war that lasted thirteen days. Here that verdict is open to question. What if, on his own side, he was the hero? What if his fall was engineered by people who wanted him out of power? Her account invites readers to look again at a story they thought they knew.