Book Review : Sita - The Warrior of Mithila by Amish

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Years back, when Indian Mythology was still a highly unexplored topic, a lot of authors came up with their own different versions bringing out a variety of perspectives that one would love to enjoy. Among these authors, there rose a relatively unknown author Amish who came up with the book 'The Immortals of Meluha' which took the Indian readers by storm. The Shiva Trilogy was written solely based on the theory that Mahadev was a human and even he was faced with various complex decisions.
After the trilogy was released, Amish brought out a new book 'The Skion of Ishkvaku' which I believe is a prequel to Shiva trilogy (as there were a lot of mentions of Ramchandra in the Shiva Trilogy). The new book which was the first in the series of many books to come was a different adaptation to Ramayana from the perspective of Ram. The book was followed by 'Sita : The Warrior of Mithila' which brings out the story of Sita to the same point as the previous book and it will be followed by a third book Ravana for the third character followed by another book that will continue the story.
Similar to his previous books, this book turns out to be quite melodramatic giving the readers a notion that the story is written so as to convert it to a Bollywood movie years later. The book starts at the same point where the previous book ended and then takes us to a flashback that brings out the story of Sita from birth to the point where the first book ended.
Sita was adopted by King Janak and Queen Sunaina of Mithila and was well loved by her parents. She was found by the queen in mysterious ways and hence her birth remains a mystery throughout the book. As the book progresses, Sita grows up to be a model child and is discovered by a clan called Mayalaputras. The clan is responsible for search of the next Vishnu along with the Vayaputras who are responsible for search of the Next Mahadev (explained well in the previous trilogy). We come to find that Guru Vishwamitra, the chief Mayalaputra selects and trains Sita as the next Vishnu.
The book follows the story of how Sita handles being a Vishnu to handling her kingdom after her Mother's death followed by her marriage to RAM and her enmity to Raavan.
Every book has its own highs and lows and this book seems to have an equal mix of both. Talking about the positives, the book gives us a well-lit insight on Sita which is generally ignored even in the TV shows which brings out the story of Ramayana. Also, the book eventhough it takes elements from the previous Shiva Trilogy does quite a good job in bringing up the interest of even the new readers. The book does a good job of maintaining a continuity from the previous book which sometimes gets overlooked.
Unfortunately, the high points also brings out the low points of the same book. The book tries hard to maintain the continuity and hence becomes bit of a drag and repetitive. Waiting for the later books also becomes disappointing since it is difficult to recall the previous books and one has to refer them repeatedly to get the reference. Also, the cliffhanger end of the book wasn't as shocking as the author intended to be and was somehow predictable after a point.
A special mention where the book touched me the most was the part where the back story involving Jatayu, a Naga assisting Sita, and Mumba Devi was narrated. The narration of the book at that instant was at its best. Also, one must commend the author on bringing out a lot of issues such as Caste System and to an extent feminism. I would have loved to mention certain quotes from the book but maybe would do that for the third book.
My Rating - 🌟🌟🌟 out of 5


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