Ashok Banker has visited Bangalore over the decades. The Los Angeles-based author says, “the once beautiful garden city has become more crowded and commercialized. But the people remain awesome as always.”
The 53-year-old author of the internationally-acclaimed Ramayana series, turns to historical fiction with Ashoka Lion of Maurya (Westland).
The first of a trilogy, the book follows Ashoka as he negotiates palace intrigues and conspiracies.
In this interview, Ashok talks of his fondness for historical fiction and why he chose to write about his namesake. Excerpts.
Why did you choose to tell Ashoka’s story?
My parentage is Irish-Portuguese-Indian, with my mother’s side coming from Sri Lanka via Chennai. In the column for Religion/Caste on my birth certificate, my mother put “Indian” and named me “Ashok Kumar” after Ashoka because he was tolerant toward all religions and turned to non-violence in later years.
It was a name that would allow me to convert to Hinduism later if I wished (though I never did so) or Buddhist or even embrace Christianity or Islam, as she did. Naturally, I grew up fascinated by my historical namesake.
A precocious reader, I began reading voraciously from the age of seven onwards and my favourite subjects were history and mythology.
I was disappointed with the paucity of factual information about Ashoka and resolved someday to write a book about him. After a lifetime of reading and researching,
I finally gathered the courage to embark on the story.
Did you decide to write a trilogy from the start or has the story grown in the telling?
I love big books that involve you completely, weaving a world that you can inhabit for days, and which remain in your memory long after you turn the last page.
Each book in my upcoming epic fantasy series Upon A Burning Throne (publishing in 2018 from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) is over 1,000 pages long. But Indian readers prefer shorter books that are lower priced. The Ashoka trilogy takes us through his youthful years. There will be two more books covering his ascendancy to the throne and the later years of his reign.
Your Ashoka is very different from the blood-thirsty conqueror he is usually depicted as...
Human beings are fully rounded characters, with weakness, quirks, contradictions.
Indian history has been reduced to one-dimensional caricatures by comic books and TV shows. These are not only historically inaccurate, they are irresponsible and quite simply, badly written. My attempt was to show the evolution of Ashoka from a young boy mistreated by his siblings, neglected and ignored by his father, watching his mother endure humiliation in palace politics, to the brutal tyrant he’s often portrayed as.
This is the difference between good historical fiction and badly written TV serials.
Your mention of the caste system reveals that nothing has changed through history...
This is simply fact. The history of Hindu India is a history awash in the blood of lower castes, the underprivileged. The reason for the rise of Buddhism and Jainism was because of the tyranny of caste. Today, these same problems continue to fester in our society.
Kautilya’s comment that gender is not binary, and the general dealing with sexuality is liberal. Is this how it might have been before the Victorians?
Kautilya was a master of the scriptures and a great observer of natural reality. It’s a scientific fact that gender is not binary, nor is sexuality. Though our scriptures are all unfortunately written by men, even those allegedly celibate brahmins couldn’t conceal their obsession with sexuality and gender. This is how it was before modern Hindutva, dating back to the early 16th century, began to misappropriate Victorian ideas of sexuality and gender. Gender and sexuality have long been a convenient means for patriarchy to suppress women and control their mothers, wives, daughters, sisters. It’s a pathetically obvious attempt at male domination.
Is there any historical evidence for the Chandikas?
Very much so. The name Chandikas was invented by me but Kautilya did in fact install an all-female cadre of personal bodyguards for Chandragupta Maurya. He considered women to be superior warriors, far more loyal and more emotionally stable than men.
Why did you choose to make the Greeks the villains of the piece?
There are no clear villains and heroes. The Greeks were very much present in our country, those are historical facts, and they came here with the clear intention of conquering and ruling — Indian territories were included in Greek maps of that era. But it was an era when everyone was fighting everyone else. It was one of the most violent periods of Indian history.
Do you have any thoughts on how you will approach Ashoka’s Road to Damascus moment?
I’ve already written it. But I would rather that readers wait and read it themselves through Ashoka’s point of view rather than mine!
Could you talk about the research?
There is still very little actual archaeological and historical data available on the Mauryan period.
An indispensible book is Navjyot Lahiri’s Ashoka . Many of the older books are now outdated and inaccurate because of assumptions based on incomplete findings. I’ve taken the known provable facts and then woven incidents, dialogue, interactions that are plausible based on my research.
Why is Ashoka such a popular figure?
He was India’s first and greatest known emperor. He united the territories that we now call India. He was a fascinating, contradictory personality, ranging from a brutal demon-king (as the Buddhist scriptures depict him) to a benevolent messenger of non-violence and disseminator of the religion that first preached ahimsa to the world, Buddhism.
What are the pros and cons of writing historical fiction?
Hilary Mantel, who is one of my favourite authors, once said, “For a person who seeks safety and authority, history is the wrong place to look. Any worthwhile history is in a constant state of self-questioning, just as any worthwhile fiction is.
If the reader asks the writer, “Have you evidence to back your story?” the answer should be yes: but you hope the reader will be wise to the many kinds of evidence there are, and how they can be used.” She said it better than I can.
