Dharmic Fiction: The birth of a new literary genre
Dharmic Fiction: The birth of a new literary genre
“It’s bigger on the inside!” any new ‘human’ visitor invited
inside The Doctor’s TARDIS – his time machine - is bound to exclaim. The
Doctor is a ‘Time-lord’, a species hailing from a planet called Gallifrey1.
The Doctor is not a real man but a science fiction character who, despite his
imaginary status, has shaped many lives. Science-fiction stories were a favored
staple of my childhood diet . My love for the art of story-telling has continued well into
my adulthood and, lately, I have been fascinated by books inspired by Hindu kathas
(कथा) and Puranas
(पुराण). One of the
first such books I came across was Amish’s ‘Shiva Trilogy’, to which I happily
dedicated a few weekends. Keen readers have probably noticed a recent literary varsha
(वर्षा;rain) of
such books, and Amish’s ‘Shiva Triology’ now has many companions. Prime among
related that I have read are: Vamsee Juluri’s “Saraswati’s Intelligence”, Saiswaroopa Iiyer’s “Abhaya”, Rashmi Chendvankar’s “The Rigveda Code” and Ashwin Sanghi’s “The Krishna Key”. However, there are literally dozens of similarly themed
books that I have not yet been able to read but hope to read one day. Given the
multitude of books with themes borrowed from Hindu kathas, it is not
far-fetched to claim that a new writing genre has been born. However, unlike
science-fiction stories, this new genre is yet to accorded a unique classification
within the distinguished annals of fictional literature. How should we classify
such books?
Genres like science-fiction are well defined. The Oxford
dictionary defines it as “fiction based on imagined future scientific or technological advances
and major social or environmental changes, frequently portraying space or time
travel and life on other planets”2. But the new genre of writing
inspired by Hindu kathas does not seem to have been definitively classified.
Proper genre classification is extremely useful in categorizing literary
material3 and is regularly used in resource management. From your
local book shop to Netflix, all rely on such categories to facilitate consumer
browsing through genres relevant to their interests. In the absence of proper
classification, books such as Shiva Trilogy are often listed under genres such
as ‘Fairy Tales’, ‘Mythology & Fairy Tales’4 etc.
I posit that these books deserve a new genre
classification since current genre names are not relevant to their content. Furthermore,
I propose the genre category ‘Dharmic Fiction’ to classify such books. Having
proposed a new name, I will also answer three vital questions in this essay: (i)
Why do we need a new name? (ii) Why the specific name ‘Dharmic Fiction’? and
(iii) Do I have the adhikara (अधिकार; right) for such namkaran
(नामकरण; Naming ceremony).
Why a new name?
Why lobby for a new name? Is there an
issue with borrowing existing words such as mythological fiction, fantasy and
epic-fantasy? The simple answer is yes, there is an issue – borrowing these
words is a sign of intellectual laziness.
Terms such as fairy-tale and fantasy are
defined through western literature. For example, Merriam-Webster defines
fairy-tale as “a
story (as for children) involving fantastic forces and beings (such as fairies,
wizards, and goblins)”5. The definition is obviously ill-suited to
describe the literature under discussion.
Just like quantum mechanics phenomena are
best understood by names given by the quantum physics community, dharmic ideas
are also best understood through the lens of Sanskrit terms. This idea has been
referred to as the non-translatable nature of Sanskrit terms by Rajiv Malhotra6.
Puranas and Hindu kathas such as Ramayan (रामायण) and Mahabharat (महाभारत) encompass a sacred geography, philosophy and concepts, which
words such as ‘epic’ and ‘mythology’ cannot adequately signify. Similarly, the
word dharma (धर्म) has no English equivalent, although people often use terms
such as righteous path to refer to dharma. Allow me to illustrate this with an
even more concrete example. Take the term devas (देव), which is often loosely translated as
demi-gods or gods (with a small g) in English. Both these terms are poor
translations of devas because there exists an entire galaxy of celestial
beings, such as yaksas (यक्ष) and gandharvas (गन्धर्व), for which there could be no meaningful description
should you accept ‘god’ or demi-god as an equivalent term for devas. Use
of non-Sanskrit terms restricts the inherent diversity of Sanskrit literature
and, in the long term, will prove counter-productive.
Thus, this new breed of fictional stories warrants
a Sanskrit name so that the higher dimensional elements of Hindu kathas
are not ‘lost in translation’. The name Dharmic fiction meets this objective.
Why the name dharmic fiction?
Before I proposed this name, I considered
other names such as Puranic fiction or Itihasic fiction. These
names all describe certain aspects of the new literature. For example, the name
Itihasic fiction would imply any fantastical story based on Hindu Itihasa
(इतिहास) literature. While
this name certainly has a wide scope, it would become restrictive when novels
based on Upanishads, and other elements of Hindu thought, external to Itihasa
literature are introduced. Two things need to be considered when naming a new
genre: (a) the name should be broad enough to represent the least common
denominator of all possible literary works in that genre and (b) the name
should be precise enough to have a definitive identity. Given these
constraints, I believe the name ‘dharmic fiction’ is best suited to describe
this new-born genre. The other advantage of this name is that novels which utilize
elements of Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism etc. also can be legitimately considered
for membership in this genre.
Hence, we define Dharmic fiction as fiction based on aspect(s)
of the dharmic Jeevan darshans (धार्मिक जीवन दर्शन) and/or dharmic literature such as Puranic
literature.
The adhikara for naamkaran
Finally, what right do I have to assume
genre naming rights? As an avid reader and consumer of this category, I am
invested in the proper categorization of literary works. Hence, my adhikara
is that of a reader and consumer. I would also point that most commercial
sectors regard ‘Consumers as King’ and if these privileges are extended to me, then I claim the right to identify and propose naming of this new genre.
Having said that, to be truly acceptable
it is imperative that I have buy-in from the authors of the texts themselves.
Hence, I would like to invite them to discuss, critique and hopefully accept my
proposition.
Reference
& Notes:
4. https://www.goodreads.com/work/shelves/17970410
6. Malhotra, Rajiv. Being different: An Indian
challenge to western universalism. HarperCollins Publishers India a joint
venture with The India Today Group, 2013.
Disclaimer: All posts should be treated as personal opinion of the author, unless explicitly stated otherwise. All material is copyright of Dr. Aloke Kumar, unless stated otherwise.
Conflict of Interest: There is no conflict of interest to declare.
About the author: Dr. Aloke Kumar is currently an Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Twitter handle: @aalokelab
Update: This article was subsequently published with slight modifications by Swarajya Magazine. The link to that essay is here - https://swarajyamag.com/ideas/the-time-is-right-for-a-new-literary-genre-dharmic-fiction
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