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Liberation Of Sita
Valmiki's Ramayana is the story of Rama's exile and return to Ayodhya, of a triumphant king who will always do right by his subjects. In Volga's retelling, it is Sita who, after being abandoned by Purushottam Rama, embarks on an arduous journey towards self-realization. Along the way, she meets extraordinary women who have broken free from all that held them back: husbands, sons, and their notions of desire, beauty and chastity. The minor women characters of the epic as we know it -- Surpanakha, Renuka, Urmila and Ahalya -- steer Sita towards an unexpected resolution. Meanwhile, Rama too must reconsider and weigh his roles as the king of Ayodhya and as a man deeply in love with his wife. A powerful subversion of India's most popular tale of morality, choice and sacrifice, The Liberation of Sita opens up new spaces within the old discourse, enabling women to review their lives and experiences afresh. This is Volga at her feminist best.
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On the Banks of the Pampa
Sabari's encounter with Rama is an important episode in the Ramayana. But who was Sabari, a forest-dweller who became Rama's ardent devotee? In On the Banks of the Pampa, award-winning writer Volga narrates the tale of Sabari, born of aranyavasis, once forced into slavery by a power-seeking state, which she breaks free from. It traces the journey of her spiritual awakening and birth into a voice of dissent for the oppressed and dispossessed. Sabari's is a narrative entwined with the forest along the Pampa river - one she comes to dwell in and is at one with. Poignant and piercing, this concluding volume in Volga's trilogy of feminist retellings of the Indian epics drives us to reconsider the meaning of dharma, and rejects ideologies that legitimize conquest and the exploitation of nature. Powerfully translated into English by Purnima Tammireddy, this is a story of resistance - a story for the times we live in, drawn from the classic tale we know so well.
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Yashodhara (यशोधरा)
या कांदबरीत गौतम बुद्धाच्या प्रत्यक्ष आयुष्यातल्या अशा काही रिकाम्या जागा अत्यंत कल्पकतेने आणि काही तीव्र भावनिक प्रसंगांच्या, भावनिक संघर्षांच्या आधाराने भरून काढण्यात आल्या आहेत. सिद्धार्थला एका वाटिकेत भेटलेली ही तरुणी कोण होती आणि जगाकडे पाहण्याचा तिचा दृष्टिकोन कशामुळे बदलत गेला? वयाच्या सोळाव्या वर्षी तिने सिद्धार्थशी विवाह केला. त्या वेळी तिला कल्पना तरी होती का की, अगदी थोड्याच काळानंतर तिचं वैवाहिक आयुष्य एक अगदी संपूर्ण अपरिचित असं वळण घेणार आहे? या स्त्री-पुरुष समान नात्याचा पुरस्कार करणार्या कादंबरीतून आपल्याला भेटणारी यशोधरा ही बुद्धिमान आणि दयाळू वृत्तीची आहे आणि आध्यात्मिक बाबतीतलं ज्ञान पुरुषांच्या बरोबरीने स्त्रियांनाही मिळायला हवं, हा विचार समाज मनात रुजवून स्त्रियांना त्या वाटा मोकळ्या करून देण्याचा ध्यास तिच्या मनाने घेतलेला आहे.