Read Mahabharata as science fiction: C Radhakrishnan

KOCHI: The Ramayana and Mahabharata should be read as science fiction, and it would be sheer idiocy to view the characters and places mentioned in the texts as real, says writer C. Radhakrishnan.  Making the keynote address at the Krithi International Festival of Books and Authors in Kochi on Saturday, he said the birth of Pandavas and Panchali and the origin of Kauravas are examples of fictional imagination at its best.

Similar is the case with Ramayana filled with Sita disappearing into the depths of the earth, Ravana walking around with ten heads and Hanuman carrying a whole mountain, he said. Lamenting that many people do not realise the depth of the works of Vyasa and Valmiki, he noted that these texts have now become the symbols of the loss of real meaning of literature.

"Vyasa has created Mahabharata to expose the dystopian potential of power," he said, "if anybody sees that they are real then it is nothing but foolishness".  He also expressed the increasing trend of marketing techniques used for the promotion of literature.  "Literature is a wildflower blooming without bothering the time and space. There is no point in trying to grow that with chemical fertiliser," he said.        

The extravaganza will come to a formal end Sunday night. It had one of the largest exhibitions of books with major national and international level publishers.
It also saw the participation of a slew of writers and social scientists deliberating. According to organisers, they have taken a conscious decision not to confine the subjects of the discussions to literature alone.