Culture Course by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Culture Course

by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

category: mythology, religion, fiction

Age: 8-12years

Reviewed by: Anika

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Weak in history? Well here's a way to learn history easily and in a fun way. Read the Culture Course to improve your learning. This set of books are a lot like the Purna Vidya series that were mentioned in the April edition. The Culture Course series narrate around 15 stories in each book. Based on each story there are 6-7 questions. There is only one difference between the Purna Vidya series and the Culture Course. Purna Vidya mostly talk about stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata whereas the Culture Course books narrate stories about folk tales, Mahabharata and Ramayana stories, stories about great rishis, the foundation of holy places, rituals, etc. These books talk a lot about the holy places in India and rituals performed there. They also talk about stuff from different religions. These books teach you a lot about Hindu culture and at the same time they are very interesting. I enjoy reading and answering the questions in this series.

[this is included in our January 2018 edition of eGranth, our monthly books newsletter]

© 2018, Anika Agarwal. All rights reserved.

Sita’s Sister by Kavita Kane

 Sita’s Sister

by Kavita Kane

category: mythology, religion, fiction

Age: 8-12years

Buy from: Amazon US, Amazon IN

This book is about Urmila. She is a character from the Ramayana who we don’t know much about. Urmila is most commonly mentioned when Lakshman decides to go for exile with Ram. Sometimes we wonder why didn’t Urmila go for exile with Lakshman. She chose to be separated from her husband for fourteen years, rather than to go with him. The Ramayana never really does talk about Urmila. Every time I read the Ramayana, it talks about Ram, Lakshman, Sita, Ravan, Dasharatha, Kaikeyi etc. It never specifically tells us how did Urmila bear these years of separation, and how did she feel when Lakshman decided to go to the forest, leaving her behind. I think Urmila, also known as Sita’s sister was an exceptionally brave woman to bear this separation. This book gives an answer to one of my many questions when I read the Ramayana. The author Kavita Kane knows how to bring out the true feelings of a person in her books. So far, I have read three books of hers and all three of them concentrate on the feelings and thoughts of the person. All her books have been on female characters from the Ramayana or Mahabharata. In this book, it concentrates on all that Urmila feels and thinks. I only felt that it could have done without the romance between Urmila and Lakshman. Otherwise I feel that it was a nice book and I enjoyed reading it. Between the three of Kavita Kane’s books, this was my favourite.

[this is included in our January 2018 edition of eGranth, our monthly books newsletter]

© 2018, Anika Agarwal. All rights reserved.

Purna Vidya Series

Purna Vidya (series)

by Swamini Pramananda, Sri Dhira Chaitanya

category: mythology, religion, fiction

Age: 8-12years

Buy from: Amazon US, Amazon IN

 Purna Vidya is a series of books that explain to us our Hindu Culture, our epics and various stories. They have many books in the series. This particular book is the fifth in the series. Each of the books are on a topic related to Hinduism. This book is on the Mahabharata. It is divided into 18 chapters each one on of the parvas in the Mahabharata. One of the parvas would be given at the start in the form of a story after that there would be questions and activities. It was fun to do the activities. Purna Vidya has many activities that also help us have fun as well as learn our culture. These books that should be read to a child from childhood.

[this is included in our January 2018 edition of eGranth, our monthly books newsletter]

© 2018, Anika Agarwal. All rights reserved.

The Puranas Translated by Bibek Debroy

The Puranas

Translated by Bibek Debroy

category: mythology, religion, fiction

Age: 8-12years

Buy from: Amazon US, Amazon IN

A Purana is a sacred text. There are many Puranas. It is believed that Vedvyasa or Krishna Dvaipayana had written them. The Puranas together make one crore shlokas. Since this number was too much for mere mortals to read, he summarized it to 4 lakh shlokas. The truth is that no one person wrote the Puranas. Many people wrote them. The eighteen main ones are the ones that Vedvyasa wrote. Puranas are divided into three categories. They are satvik (puranas that glorify Vishnu), tamsik (puranas that glorify Shiva) and rajsik (puranas that glorify Brahma). The Puranas have many stories in them. Most of them are related to the Ramayana and Mahabharata. They also have new and different stories which I have not heard or read them before. Bibek Debroy has translated the Puranas to English abridged versions. Each of the versions have a particular part of the Purana as it would be very tough to give the whole version. They are short and easy to read. I find it very easy to understand as they use simple English. I have also reviewed these abridged versions. So far, I have read and reviewed 13 puranas. They are on my blog. I enjoyed reading the Puranas and look forward to reading all of them.

[this is included in our January 2018 edition of eGranth, our monthly books newsletter]


© 2018, Anika Agarwal. All rights reserved.

Lanka’s Princess by Kavita Kane

Lanka’s Princess

by Kavita Kane

category: mythology, religion, fiction

Age: 8-12years

Buy from: Amazon US, Amazon IN

Lanka’s Princess is about Surpanakha, also called Lanka’s princess. Surpanakha means hard as nails. The youngest and the least cared for in her family, she is the sister of the mighty Ravan. Ravan is an asura and the villain of the great epic the Ramayana. The first opinion that forms in your head, if you have read the Ramayana, is that Surpanakha is an evil shape-shifting monster. She had tried to kill Sita, but had her nose and ears sliced of by Lakshmana, brother of Ram. If you are hearing about the Ramayana for the first time, then after reading this, you too would have formed a bad opinion about her. However, instead of just imagining a shape-shifting witch, try to think from Surpanakha’s point of view. I did this and a question came to my mind. Was Surpanakha evil from the start or did she turn evil later? I read this book and got my answer. The author, Kavita Kane, has tried to sympathize with Surpanakha while being fair to Ram and Lakshman. In this way she has shown both sides of the story. She has succeeded in doing so. I, as a kid, think the book could have done well without the overwhelming romance between Surpanakha and Vidyujiva (Surpanakha’s husband). Others might find this important or interesting, but I didn’t care much. In the book, Kavita Kane describes the small and trivial, yet important events in Surpanakha’s life that has not been written in the different versions of the Ramayana. She has described most of the story from Surpanakha’s eyes, concentrating on her emotions. It has been a nice experience reading this book. This is one of my favourite Indian books. I learnt a lot about a little-known character through this book. I have also reviewed it on my blog, so you can go there for more information on this book.

[this is included in our January 2018 edition of eGranth, our monthly books newsletter]


© 2018, Anika Agarwal. All rights reserved.

Bookasura #2: Koobandhee by Arundhati Venkatesh

Bookasura #2: Koobandhee

by Arundhati Venkatesh

category: children, fiction, adventure

Age: 8-12years

Buy from: Amazon US, Amazon IN

Koobandhee talks about a boy named Bala who loves reading. Unfortunately, his books are terrorized by his book-eating sister. The summer holidays start and Bala is shipped off to Melagam with his sister to live with their grandparents. Bala feels that things can’t get any worse but they do when he meets the monster Koobandhee. She eats and barfs books. She also farts a lot. She blames Bala for her problems as he had destroyed her descendant, Bookasura. This had caused all the future generations to develop problems. Bala is very scared of her. Unfortunately, she lives right next to his grandparent’s house. One day while visiting Navneet Uncle he leaves his books in Koobandhee’s cave! How will Bala survive his summer? Most importantly how will he rescue his books before Mrs. Shashee, his librarian finds out? This book was very funny. The plot was very simple and nice. The illustrations were funny too. I decided to read it because I had read the first book in the series. Since, I liked the first book I decided to read the second book too. It was a very funny story. My favourite character was Meera, the younger sister of Bala. She was so cute. It was a nice experience reading this book.

[this is included in our January 2018 edition of eGranth, our monthly books newsletter]

  © 2017, Anika Agarwal. All rights reserved.

Cosmo and the Great Witch Escape, by Gwyneth Rees

Cosmo and the Great Witch Escape

by Gwyneth Rees

category: fantasy, Fiction, Adventure

Age: 12+years

Buy from: Amazon US, Amazon IN

My sister had borrowed this book and had said it was nice, so I decided to read it. The story was nice and interesting. It talks about Cosmo, a witch-cat (a cat that had magic sneezes) who lives with his parents and his owners, the Two-Shoes family. The Two-Shoes family were having a baby named Spike but after he comes back from getting weighed, his toenails were clipped off. This had happened in the whole ward of new born witch-babies (children of witches). This was very bad as the toenails prevented the babies from getting sick or ill. Cosmo and his friend Mia decide to investigate it. While this was happening Cleo Cattrap, the famous organizer of cat catwalks happened to pass by and decided to organize a catwalk. Most of the cats were participating in it and the fee was a flea less hairball. Ten cats and kittens were selected for the final. Cosmo and Mia are selected too. Unfortunately, the next day one of the adult cat finalists and Mia disappear. Scarlett, the elder sister of Spike also disappears. Cosmo remembers that he had seen a cottage that had belonged to two evil witches on a ride with Scarlett. That cottage now belonged to another evil witch named Selina Slaughter who was a friend of Cosmo’s previous owner, Sybil (she is now in the Bad Witches Prison). They had seen a witch with toenail clippings enter the cottage which was very fishy. They decide to investigate and discover a horrifying thing. The plot was very simple and easy to understand. My favourite character was Cosmo because he used his brain and was very helpful. There are two other books in this series and I can’t wait to read them.

[this is included in our January 2018 edition of eGranth, our monthly books newsletter]

© 2018, Anika Agarwal. All rights reserved.

Linga Purana translated by Bibek Debroy

Linga Purana

translated by Bibek Debroy

category: mythology, religion, fiction

Age: 8-12years

Buy from: Amazon US, Amazon IN 

This is one of the 13 puranas that I have read. The Linga Purana is number 11 in the list of the eighteen Mahapuranas. This Purana is a tamsik Purana, a Purana that glorifies Shiva. The Linga Purana is a comparatively short Purana because it is just eleven thousand shlokas long. It is divided into two parts. The first part is known as Purva bhaga and has one hundred and eight chapters. The second part is known as Uttara bhaga and has fifty-five chapters.

This Purana like most other Puranas is narrated by Sauti or Lomaharshana, a disciple of Vedvyasa to some sages living in the Namisharanya forest.

There were many interesting stories in the Purana. The Linga Purana was very interesting to read. Compared to the other Puranas that I have read; this Purana comes at number 3. This Purana concentrates more on the creation and destruction of the Universe. It also talks a lot about the geography of the Earth. The Linga Purana has less stories and most of them have been mentioned in other Puranas. In a few stories, there is a twist which is added to glorify Shiva. It was nice reading this Purana. I have also reviewed it on my blog.

[this is included in our January 2018 edition of eGranth, our monthly books newsletter]


© 2018, Anika Agarwal. All rights reserved.

Skanda Purana - review

Skanda Purana, translated by Bibek Debroy

This is the thirteenth Purana that I am reviewing. I realized that there were only a few Puranas left for me to review. I decided to do one part at a time. I thought that I would first review the tamsik puranas that were left (3 now 2), then I would review the satvik puranas left (2) and then the rajsika puranas left (2). So, here I am writing a tamsik purana, the Skanda Purana. The Skanda Purana is the longest Purana. It is more that eighty-one thousand shlokas long. It is huge. I also found out something. It comes thirteenth in the list of Mahapuranas and this is my thirteenth purana review! It was a coincidence which I didn’t realize until I started writing the review. Let us get into the review now.
There are seven sections or khandas in the Purana. They are:

1. Maheshwara khanda – the khanda related to Shiva.
2. Vishnu khanda - the khanda related to Vishnu.
3. Brahma khanda – the khanda related to Brahma
4. Kashi khanda – the khanda talking about the city of Kashi.
5. Avanti khanda - the khanda talking about the city of Avanti.
6. Nagara khanda – the khanda elating to cities.
7. Prabhasa khanda – the khanda talking about the city Prabhasa.

Bhavishya Purana - Review

Bhavishya Purana (abridged), translated by Bibek Debroy, Dipavali Debroy

This is the twelfth Purana that I am reviewing. Woah! I didn’t realize that I had read so many Puranas. The Bhavishya Purana is a rajasik purana, a purana that glorifies Brahma. It comes ninth in the list of Mahapuranas. This Purana is actually quite short. It has only fourteen thousand shlokas. These shlokas are divided into five sections. They are the:

1. Brahma parva
2. Vaishnava parva
3. Rudra parva
4. Soura parva
5. Pratisarga parva

One day, a disciple of Vedavyasa named Shatanika was asked to recite something about the righteous forms of good conduct. However, he had not learnt this. He asked Vedavyasa what should he do. The great rishi asked him to go to Sumantu, another one of his disciples and gain that knowledge from him. Sumantu and Shatanika had a long discussion and the Bhavishya Purana was also related in this discussion.
Let us get into the review now