Hyderabad :

Ravana is not the villain that he is made out to be. There is his side of the story too. A city engineer has given Sri Lanka just the kind of account they would like to read about Ravana. Bala Sankuratri, who has authored the book ‘My Name is Ravana’, gets Ravana to tell his story from his perspective. Next on agenda is a translation of the entire Ramayana in a way that Ravana is understood in context.

To unveil the book, Isura Devapriya, chief minister of Western Province, Sri Lanka, flew down to Hyderabad on November 25.

It will soon be released in Sri Lanka. Telugu version is also in the pipeline.

“My name is Ravana. Yes, I am the Ravana. I was the one who abducted Sita. I was the one who set fire to Anjaneya’s tail and I was the one who fought with Rama. You may think I am mad. I don’t care. You may think, being me is bad. I still don’t care…Fact is, I am The Great and being me is next to impossible,” book begins with Ravana introducing himself.

“Every action of Ravana is justified. He has a reason for his behaviour. He allowed himself to be misunderstood and even for this there was a reason,” Sankuratri told TOI. To understand Ravana, Sankuratri read Valmiki’s Ramayana and other versions also.

He also got to understand the legends surrounding Ravana in Sri Lanka, of which he was the king. “I made three trips to Sri Lanka and found out from the people there what understanding they had of Ravana. The research took five years,” he said.

So why did Ravana detain Sita? Wasn’t that what brought him a bad name? “There cannot be any suspicion about the character of Ravana. He had no evil thoughts about Sita,” Sankuratri said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Hyderabad News / by Ch. Sushil Rao / TNN / December 29th, 2017