"Nal Damayanti (नल दमयंती)" a Marathi book by Jayant Joglekar. The book is published in 2011 by Vihang Prakashan and has about 140 pages.
As the name suggests, this book is the story of Nal and Damayanti. We all know their story of how they fell in love without ever seeing each other, how a swan acted as their messenger and how Damayanti choose Nal over Gods in swayamvar(स्वयंवर). However many do not know what happened after their marriage. This book starts before their marriage and tells story of their life after marriage.
Kali (कली), is livid that Damayanti rejected him. He enters Nal's body. Pushkar, jealous cousin of Nal, wins his kingdom and money in gamble, with Kali's help, and asks him and Damayanti to go away with only one cloth. They start living happily in the jungle, when Nal loses his only cloth while trying to catch a swan. He takes half cloth from Damayanti while she is asleep and leaves her.
Where will Damayanti go? Can she survive? Will any hunter force himself on her? Will wild animals eat her? Will any king make her his bhogdasi (भोगदासी)? Can she see her children? Where has Nal gone? Why did he abandon his beloved wife? Can he come out of Kali's influence? Can he see her again? Can they reunite?
This is a love story alright. The story takes us on the roller coaster ride of love between Nal and Damayanti. The ride includes smitten feeling, the joy, the anticipation, happiness, differences, sorrow, suffering, abandonment, difficulties, sacrifices and reunion.
It is said that this is one of the first ever love stories written. Although the names are well known, the story is not. Hence the writer decided to pen it for the benefit of readers. I would say he was mostly successful. Author could have made the story much more spicy but chose to let the opportunity go. However what he wrote is decent. The language used for the book is"period" language. Author had succeeded in creating the atmosphere of yester years.
Special mention should go to the fabulous cover of this book. Two reasons for purchasing the book were the fame of the story and the cover. And I was not disappointed.
A good book. Recommend reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment