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:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who

2. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/science_fiction

3. http://www.webbervilleschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Literary-Genres.pdf

4. https://www.goodreads.com/work/shelves/17970410

5. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fairy%20tale

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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