Author | R. K. Narayan |
---|---|
Language | English |
Genre | Novel |
Publication date | 1990 |
Publication place | India |
Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
Preceded by | A Writer's Nightmare |
Followed by | The World of Malgudi |
The World of Nagaraj (1990) is a classic piece of literature by R. K. Narayan. It is based in Malgudi, a fictional small town in South India.
Nagaraj's world is comfortable. Living in his family's spacious house with only his wife, Sita, and his widowed mother for company, he fills his day writing letters, drinking coffee, doing some leisurely book-keeping for his friend Coomar's Boeing Sari Company, and sitting on his verandah watching the world and planning the book he intends to write about the life of the great sage Narada.
But everything is disturbed when Tim, the son of his ambitious land-owning brother Gopu, decides to leave home and come to live with Nagaraj. Forced to take responsibility for the boy, puzzled by his secret late-night activities and by the strong smell of spirits which lingers behind him, Nagaraj finds his days suddenly filled with unwelcome complication and turbulence, which threaten to forever alter the contented tranquility of his world.
Nagaraj : A mild mannered man belonging to a wealthy aristocratic family based in Kabir Street. Bereft of any children himself, he develops a fondness for his elder brother's son, christened Krishnaji, but generally known as Tim. He leads a tranquil life in his ancestral house and nurses grandiloquent plans to write a book on the life of the Sage Narada.
Sita: Nagaraj's wife, sometimes seems very sharp and farsighted.
Gopu: Nagaraj's elder brother, ambitious, and always self-centered man.
Other characters include -
Jayaraj, the photographer, whose shop is located at the Market archway. He sleeps on a wooden bench in front of his shop because he feels his camera lens might get stolen and is woken up by Nagaraj every day.
Kanni the Paan-wala, the old absent minded priest,
Bari the stationery owner and the drunkard engineer and Talkative Man.
The Ramayana, also known as Valmiki Ramayana, as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text from ancient India, one of the two important epics of Hinduism known as the Itihasas, the other being the Mahabharata. The epic narrates the life of Rama, the seventh avatar of the Hindu deity Vishnu, who is a prince of Ayodhya in the kingdom of Kosala. The epic follows his fourteen-year exile to the forest urged by his father King Dasharatha, on the request of Rama's stepmother Kaikeyi; his travels across forests in the Indian subcontinent with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana; the kidnapping of Sita by Ravana, the king of Lanka, that resulted in war; and Rama's eventual return to Ayodhya along with Sita to be crowned king amidst jubilation and celebration.
Valmiki was a legendary poet who is celebrated as the traditional author of the epic Ramayana, based on the attribution in the text itself. He is revered as Ādi Kavi, the first poet, author of Ramayana, the first epic poem.
Lakshmana, also known as Laxmana, Lakhan, Saumitra, and Ramanuja, is the younger brother of Rama in the Hindu epic Ramayana. He is considered as an incarnation of Shesha, the lord of serpents. Lakshmana was married to Urmila, and is known for his loyalty and dedication towards Rama.
In the Hindu epic Ramayana, Maricha, or Mareecha is a rakshasha, who was killed by Rama, the hero of the epic and an avatar of Vishnu. He is mentioned as an ally of Ravana, the antagonist of the epic. His most notable exploit is his role in the kidnapping of Sita, Rama's wife. His son Kalanemi was killed by Hanuman.
Lava and his elder twin brother Kusha, are the children of Rama and Sita in Hindu tradition. Their story is recounted in the Hindu epic, Ramayana and its other versions. He is said to have a whitish golden complexion like their mother, while Kusha had a blackish complexion like their father.
Ramcharitmanas, is an epic poem in the Awadhi language, composed by the 16th-century Indian bhakti poet Tulsidas. It has many inspirations, the primary being the Ramayana of Valmiki.
Anasuya is an ascetic, and the wife of Sage Atri in Hinduism. She is the daughter of Devahuti and the Prajapati Kardama in Hindu texts. In the Ramayana, she lives with her husband in a small hermitage on the southern border of the Chitrakuta forest. A pious woman who leads an austere life, she is described as having miraculous powers.
Ramayan is an Indian Hindi-language epic television series based on ancient Indian Sanskrit Epic Ramayana. The show was created, written, and directed by Ramanand Sagar. It originally aired between 1987 and 1988 on DD National and it was narrated by Ashok Kumar and the director Ramanand Sagar. The music was composed by Ravindra Jain. During its run, the show became the most watched television series in the world, garnering a viewership of 82 percent. The repeat telecast was aired on 20 different channels in 17 countries on all the five continents at different times. The success of the series was documented well by the media. According to BBC, the serial has been viewed by over 650 million viewers. Each episode of the series reportedly earned DD National ₹40 lakh.
Luv Kush is an Indian television series that ran from 1988 to 1989. It was created, written, produced, and directed by Ramanand Sagar. It is a follow-up Ramayan, featuring mostly the same cast and production crew. Luv Kush covers the last book — the Uttarakāṇḍa — of the ancient Indian epic Ramayana, following Rama's coronation, especially focusing on his children, twins Kusha and Lava.
Vishnu Puran is an Indian television series, by B. R. Chopra on the Hindu deity Vishnu. It is based on the Bhagavata Purana. Bhagavata Purana tells about the 10 incarnations of Vishnu, as well as other stories, such as the legend of Dhruva. The weekly series first aired Sunday morning, 23 January 2000 on Zee TV. The 124 episodes were later released on DD National.
Bala Kanda is the first Book of the Valmiki Ramayana. The Bala Kanda, in part—if not in its entirety—is generally regarded as an interpolation to the original epic.
Tumburu is the foremost among the gandharvas, the celestial musicians of Hindu mythology. Accounts depict him performing in the courts of the deities Kubera and Indra, and as singing the praises of Vishnu. He is said to lead the gandharvas in their singing.
Śrībhārgavarāghavīyam (2002), literally Of Paraśurāma and Rāma, is a Sanskrit epic poem (Mahākāvya) composed by Jagadguru Rambhadracharya (1950–). It consists of 2121 verses in 40 Sanskrit and Prakrit metres and is divided into 21 cantos (Sargas) of 101 verses each. The epic is the narrative of the two Rāma Avatars – Paraśurāma and Rāma, which is found in the Rāmāyaṇa and other Hindu scriptures. Bhārgava refers to Paraśurāma, as he incarnated in the family of the sage Bhṛgu, while Rāghava refers to Rāma as he incarnated in the royal dynasty of king Raghu. For the work, the poet was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for Sanskrit in 2005, and several other awards.
Śrīsītārāmakelikaumudī (2008), literally The moonlight (elucidation) for the [childhood] pastimes of Sītā and Rāma, is a minor poem in the Braja dialect of Hindi belonging to the Rītikāvya genre. It was composed by Jagadguru Rambhadracharya (1950–) in the years 2007 and 2008. The work is set in the backdrop of the Bālakāṇḍa of Vālmīki's Rāmāyaṇa and Tulasīdāsa's Rāmacaritamānasa, and is an assortment of verses describing the activities, pastimes and major events during the childhood of Sītā and Rāma. Śrīsītārāmakelikaumudī consists of 324 verses divided in three parts of 108 verses each. The verses are composed in seven Prakrit metres, namely Amātrika, Kavitta, Gīta, Ghanākṣarī, Caupaiyā, Drumila, and Mattagajendra.
The Adbhuta Ramayana is a Śāktaḥ Sanskrit work. It is considerably more obscure than both the Valmiki Ramayana as well as Tulsidas’ Awadhi version entitled Ramacharitamanasa, northern India's most popular version of the Ramayana story.
Edhir Paradhathu is a 1954 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film directed by Ch. Narayana Moorthy and written by C. V. Sridhar. The film stars Sivaji Ganesan and Padmini, with V. Nagayya, S. V. Sahasranamam, S. Varalakshmi and Friends Ramasamy in supporting roles. It won the National Film Award for Best Tamil Feature Film – Certificate of Merit. The film was remade in Malayalam as Nithyakanyaka (1963), in Telugu as Ilavelpu (1956) and in Hindi as Sharada (1957).
Ashramvasika Parva, or the "Book of the Hermitage", is the fifteenth of the eighteen books of the Indian epic Mahabharata. It traditionally has 3 parts and 39 chapters. The critical edition has 3 parts and 47 chapters.
Besides the Ashtabharya, Krishna is described to have married several thousand women, he rescued from the demon Narakasura. The Bhagavata Purana and the Mahabharata state that 16,000 women were rescued, however the Vishnu Purana and the Harivamsa differ and set the number as 16,100. Generally all of them are unnamed, however many commentators of the Bhagavata Purana regard Rohini to be their leader, though such an explicit mention is not found in the scripture.
Siya Ke Ram is an Indian television series on Star Plus produced by Nikhil Sinha under the banner of Triangle Film Company. This show presents the epic Ramayana, the story of Rama and Devi Sita from Sita's perspective. The show features Madirakshi Mundle and Ashish Sharma playing as Goddess Sita and Lord Rama, respectively, and Karthik Jayaram as Raavan. It premiered on 16 November 2015 and ended on 4 November 2016.