Jaishankar Prasad’s Kamayani a Hindi classic published in 1937 is an ambitious modern epic based on the story of how Manu, the first man, procreated mankind after the great Deluge had subsided and the world with its varied forms of life emerged out of the chaos. The book is of a symbolic nature and all its characters, Manu, Shradha, Ida etc are but different mental attributes, couched in human shape. It shows man’s endeavor to rise from the basic animal stage to the stage of perfection, through enormous trials and tribulations. The onward march of the human self from elemental passions to the height of sublimation has been depicted in the poem with consummate skill. The absorbing poetic images, the solemn music and the dignified sweep of rhythm keep the reader spellbound to the last. Though there is an abstract hard-core of philosophy embedded in mythology, it is nowhere apparent, nor it impairs the easy flow of the narrative. Kamayani is an epic in which science, philosophy and ethnology joined hands. That is why this should be looked upon as a precious gem, Indian literature should be proud of.
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