Indian Mythology from the Perspective of Bharati Mukherjee and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

About the Book This book explores mythical beliefs and legendry characters of ancient stories, in the works of Bharati Mukherjee and Chitra Banerjee. Mukherjee highlight such kinds of stories in her characters' life. But many myths only made for women not for men. Divakaruni explores mythical stories in her characters' life in a very modern way. Most of her characters live with mythical beliefs. People out traditional mind set take it as their responsibility to accept those myths and legends either they exist or not.

Their characters are shifted to foreign lands but they believed on myths because their roots are linked with those mythical stories and legends. People start living with those myths and think, this is their fortune. All the characters of these writers are from modern society but they still believe in traditional stories of God, Goddess, Demons and Ancient Heroes.

Bharati Mukherjee and Chitra Banerjee's writing are very much similar to cach other and most of their themes are very common. They both wrote on Indian culture, tradition, myths, social and cultural issues. All their characters are settled in foreign lands but they are deeply rooted with their native lands. But in The modern time, concept of myths, legends culture, tradition, values, and principles have now been changed. The leading characters of Bharati Mukherjee and Chitra Banerjee are gradually attracted towards modern life but they still believed on their social myths.

Preface Indian people have great regards towards the concept of mythological tales, magic and legends. This has included many communities, cultures, and the ways of living life. The origin and development of human civilization in India has been considered since ancient times. By now this land has become the homeland of many peoples and communities who had contributed to develop Indian cultural heritage. This creates a difference between rural and urban cultures. India has great religious manuscripts' collection of knowledge in form of Vedas, Upanishads, and great epics (Mahabharata and Ramayana). Through these manuscripts people aware about the ancient mythical stories and heroes of that time. In India, there are a number of religions and ideas to increase, different cultures and languages to develop different kind of ideologies. There are many cultures in India, and every culture has its myths and legends. But the concept of myths and legends change according to different culture and community. In Indian society, myths and legends have a different identity which is famous all over the world because India is a land of multicultural society. Hence, varieties of myths are also seen here, that is why Indian society has been recognized all over the world for its unity and integrity. If there is a lack of unity and fraternity in any society, then that society can never develop. India sets an example for the world in terms of social empowerment this is why Indian society is constantly moving forward on the path of progress.

This book deals with two Indian English Diasporic Novelists and their works. This work tries to discover myths and legends in the works of Bharati Mukherjee and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni in a brief manner. The second chapter explores the critical analysis of Indian Writing in English which discusses about the history of Indian English literature in India from pre-independence to post independence.

Introduction Indian Writing in English is a form of literature which is written in English by Indian authors who have Indian languages as their native tongue. It also includes the body of works in English by Indian Diaspora who are settled in different countries like UK, Canada, USA, Germany and Australia. It has a long history of growth and development as it involves several historical events and distinguished personalities. Indian English literature has attained an independent status in the realm of world literature. Wide ranges of themes are dealt in Indian Writing in English, while this literature continues to reflect Indian culture, tradition, social values and even Indian history through the depiction of life in India and Indians living elsewhere, recent Indian English fiction has been trying to give expressions to the Indian experiences of the modern predicaments.

A Critical Analysis of Indian Writing in English discusses about growth of English Language in India before Independence. It tells about how English Language introduces India. So, the first time English Language came to India by traders. In 1600, the East India Company starts trading and from these traders' English language comes. Gradually, it starts growing and becomes part of English literature. Before freedom writers wrote in their own languages as Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi, and Urdu these all are dialectical languages which were very popular in that time. But nobody could write anything in English Language. When English language comes to India it becomes part of these languages and many writers translated their works into English language. Like Rabindranath Tagore, Bankim Chandra, Aurobindo Ghosh, Nirad C. Chaudhari, Sarojini Naidu and Toru Dutt all these Indian writers translated their works in English. Gradually, Indian writing becomes an important part of English literature.

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