Readomania is delighted to announce the acquisition of the worldwide publishing rights to Anupama Jain’s retelling of stories from ‘Kathāsaritsāgara’.
Titled, ‘Kings, Saviours, and Scoundrels’, the book is rooted in the traditional storytelling of Indian legends, mythical heroes, brave women, and their splendid adventures.
Anupama Jain is the author of ‘When Padma Bani Paula’ and ‘Masala Mix - A Potpourri of Shorts’. She has also contributed to multiple anthologies under Readomania, is a successful award-winning blogger, and is the administrator of the hugely successful online community, ‘Senior School Moms’. In her earlier avatar, she has been a successful entrepreneur running her own software company.
As per Wikipedia, the Kathāsaritsāgara ("Ocean of the Streams of Stories") is a famous 11th-century collection of Indian legends, fairy tales and folk tales as retold in Sanskrit by the Shaivite Somadeva.
Kathāsaritsāgara contains multiple layers of story within a story and is said to have been adopted from Guṇāḍhya's Bṛhatkathā, which was written in a poorly-understood language known as Paiśācī. The work is no longer extant but several later adaptations still exist — the Kathāsaritsāgara, Bṛhatkathamanjari and Bṛhatkathāślokasaṃgraha. However, none of these recensions necessarily derives directly from Gunadhya, and each may have intermediate versions. Scholars compare Guṇāḍhya with Vyasa and Valmiki even though he did not write the now long-lost Bṛhatkathā in Sanskrit. Presently available are its two Sanskrit recensions, the Bṛhatkathamanjari by Kṣemendra and the Kathāsaritsāgara by Somadeva.
Jain says, ‘Penning this book has been a truly rewarding experience. Revisiting those classic tales on kinship, bravery, treachery, and stoicism and retelling them for the current generation has pushed me out of my comfort zone thereby enriching me as an author. These stories have immense relevance, especially in these vexing times.’
The book is expected to hit the stores in the next few months.
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