A Classic Reimagined

MEENA ARORA NAYAK'S NEW RETELLING BRINGS THE TALES OF THE VETALA PANCHAVIMSHATI TO LIFE WITH TRADEMARK CLARITY AND DEEP SCHOLARSHIP

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THE UNDEAD GHOUL AND THE CLEVER RAJA

Twenty-five Tales of the Vetala Panchavimshati

By Meena Arora Nayak

ALEPH BOOK COMPANY ₹699; 224 pages

I love everything about Meena Arora Nayak's retellings: her language, the stories she chooses, the cover design of the book, the cover illustration, the layout of the pages. What I admire most is the enormous erudition that lies behind the deceptively simple and light tone in which she presents her stories and her critical material. Much as I have taken pleasure in all of Arora Nayak’s books, I suspect The Undead Ghoul is going to be my favourite.

The Vetala Panchavimshati is a wonderful cycle of tales held within a truly compelling frame story of a face-off between a mysterious mendicant and a beloved king. It contains an endless universe of characters and events that allow for narrative arcs that Arora Nayak describes as “… light, capricious, and humorous, with unexpected plot twists and themes that explore life, love, sexuality, desires, relationships, and human behaviours…” The stories are filled with deceptions, betrayals and criminal acts as well as true love and the deeds of honourable men and women. And yet, as Arora Nayak points out, the stories do not lead us to judge the morality of the characters. They encourage us to think about dharma not as absolute and unbending, but as “ambiguous, often unknowable, and a matter of individual perception”.