Mahabharata to Be Retold on Twitter From Villain's Viewpoint

Mahabharata to Be Retold on Twitter From Villain's Viewpoint
Advertisement
A lecturer based in Britain has reimagined the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata for Twitter audiences, spawning a book and spurring a second attempt, this time from the perspective of the main villain.

Chindu Sreedharan began retelling the Mahabharata on the microblogging service in 2009, taking more than four years and nearly 2,700 tweets to finish "Epic Retold", published in December as a book billed as India's first Twitter fiction.

The ancient Sanskrit epic, one of Hinduism's crucial texts built of around 100,000 couplets, tells of a dynastic struggle for power and a cataclysmic war won by the righteous Pandava brothers. Sreedharan's Twitter version is told from the point of view of Bhima, the strongest of the five Pandava warriors.

Now the 41-year-old academic is reading up on Bhima's cousin Duryodhana to present a shorter Twitter narrative from his point of view, turning the antagonist into an anti-hero.

"It's going to be challenging to write Duryodhana too, but there's a quick end in sight," Sreedharan told Reuters in an e-mail interview from Bournemouth, where he teaches journalism.

"I know where it will start and how it will end, much more clearly than when I began Epic Retold."

Such is the appeal of the Mahabharata that when it was first adapted for television in the 1980s, city streets emptied out on Sunday mornings, with most Indians glued to their TV sets.

Even today, politicians fighting election campaigns often identify themselves with one of the heroic Pandava siblings, while characterising opponents as Duryodhana or one of his 99 depraved Kaurava brothers.

Sreedharan's narrative takes occasional liberties with the epic, annoying a few followers of the "Epic Retold" Twitter account with his portrayals of some Mahabharata characters.

For example Yudhisthira, the eldest Pandava brother, and a traditional byword for integrity, proves to be less than honest.

One of Sreedharan's initial reasons for microblogging the Mahabharata was to make it palatable to British colleagues and see how Indians reacted to an epic reinterpreted for Twitter.

"I am curious to see what the conventionalists make of my alternate ending," he said.

Sreedharan, an amateur ballroom dancer with two British national championship titles, juggled teaching and rehearsals while working on "Epic Retold", 140 characters at a time.

Writing for Twitter offers authors a directness "to get on with the story," he said. "Once you get into the swing of it, I think it can be more liberating than limiting."

© Thomson Reuters 2015

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: Mahabharata, Social, Twitter
RadioShack Gets Court Approval for Interim Bankruptcy Loan
LG Partners Google to Launch Free VR for G3 Headset
Share on Facebook Gadgets360 Twitter Share Tweet Snapchat Share Reddit Comment google-newsGoogle News
 
 

Advertisement

Follow Us

Advertisement

© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2024. All rights reserved.
Trending Products »
Latest Tech News »