Aditi Banerjee on her new book The Vow of Parvati: ‘I wanted to write a relatable Shiva and Parvati love story'

The love story of Shiva and Parvati is considered the most unique, even by celestial standards. It has to be. After all, he is Mahadeva, who reigns supreme over all others. And she is Shakti, the life force that powers everything. Imagine a union among two divine entities as starkly opposite and fiercely individualistic as these two. Now, imagine them raising a family. It will have to be one of a kind too. And it is.

Aditi Banerjee, the author of The Curse of Gandhari, brings to fore this fabled love story of Rudra and Sati and the coming together of their family in her new book The Vow of Parvati. A practicing attorney at a Fortune 500 financial services company, she writes with great lucidity about their time and trials, and in telling their tale, humanises them for the contemporary reader. The protagonists and the people she writes about are divine and yet they face the same conundrums as we do and battle tumultuous emotions not too different.

In this exclusive interview, Banerjee reveals her motivations behind writing this book. She also discusses at length her fascination with Shiva and Parvati’s story, its significance in her personal life, her prep for the book, how she arrived at the title, the challenges she faced while writing it, and the sustained popularity of Indian mythological fiction.

Why write a story that’s already so popular and well-documented?

The inspiration for this story was personal. My husband and I married at Triyuginarayan, a small ancient temple near Kedarnath, at the end of 2019. It is said that Shiva and Parvati were married there and the fire from their ceremony still burns today – we took our saptapadi, our seven sacred circumambulations, around that very fire. Also, for some years before the wedding, I had been practising the somavar vrata in the worship of Shiva-Shakti. And so, I felt a deep connection with them during my wedding—that my marriage was blessed and my relationship consecrated through their blessings. I wanted to write this book as a tribute to them, out of a sense of reverence and gratitude.

It is also different from other narrations of Shiva and Sati/Parvati’s story. I really wanted to write this as a relatable love story. I wanted to preserve the sanctity of their bond but also find a language and a narrative that modern readers, many of whom are no longer as familiar with the Puranic accounts of Shiva and Devi, could easily connect with.

How extensive was your research? What were the principal sources?

My primary source was the Shiva Purana. I have been steeped in the stories of devas, including Shiva and Devi, throughout my life. So I was already intimately familiar with the incidents that I wanted to write about. However, I wanted to imbue the story with as much ethos as possible from the Shiva Purana. I, therefore, read it closely before writing the book. I have also interwoven into the tale other stories from various Puranas and folklore. But I must admit that a lot of the story also came from my own imagination.

The book narrates several key incidents in Shiva and Sati’s life. It could have had very different titles. How did you arrive at The Vow of Parvati?

The publisher and I had a lot of back-and-forth about the title, actually. It was difficult to find one title that encapsulates all the aspects of their relationship and the story of their connection. We experimented with several different working titles and ultimately settled on this one. In the end, I think The Vow of Parvati does capture the essence of the story and the turning point for Sati/Parvati. With the vow to win over Shiva, she acknowledges what she wants and assumes responsibility for herself and her life, even if it meant going against convention and the will of her mother, for instance.

The power of this vow or vrata is such that not only did it work for Parvati but also for so many thousands of years, women have been worshipping Parvati in remembrance of this vrata to bless their own marriages and families. So, it is one of the most important and iconic moments in Shiva and Devi’s story.

What was the most difficult bit about weaving a story around mythological characters as loved and revered as Shiva and Parvati?

For me, Shiva and Parvati are divine; they are Mahadeva and Devi. Sometimes it feels like sacrilege to write fictionalised accounts of what is to us not mythology but truth. A more fundamental and ‘real’ truth than history, even. So, there is always this fear of distortion, of tampering with that which is holy and sacred.

Also, this story walks a tightrope of maintaining the divinity of Shiva and Parvati and also narrating the stories of their relationship in a way that feels very human and relatable. The biggest challenge of writing this book was keeping that balance between the two. There is a reason why Hindus idealise Shiva and Parvati as the Ideal Couple, why the Shiva Parivar with Karthik and Ganesha, is the iconic divine family, not replicated by any of our other devas or devis. We are meant to worship them, yet also relate to them. In Bengal, for example, Durga Pujo is the time of the year when Ma comes back home to visit us and reunite with her children – it is divine and it is familiar, all at the same time. That was the bhava I wanted to elicit through this book.

You’ve used simple, contemporary, and lucid English to narrate a story as old as time. What was the thought behind it?

The way we consume stories has drastically changed. Thousands of years ago, the oral tradition and nature of epic literature, such as the Puranas and Itihaasa, meant that a few terse lines served to capture the story of a character or a relationship. In the modern-day, we long to experience stories vicariously – to delve into the interiority of what a character is thinking or feeling and engage with the story with all of their senses. This requires developing a richly detailed narrative that is immersive for the reader. So, I wanted to translate Shiva and Parvati’s story from the epic and ancient sensibility to a modern one without compromising or diluting its essence.

The book is richly peopled by several beloved devas and devis. Who is your favourite?

In this book, I particularly enjoyed the sisterhood among Sati, Saraswati, and Lakshmi. They can, of course, be conceived of as different aspects of the one ultimate Devi, but I liked exploring the very close relationship among three very different but equally strong and divine personalities.

The first part of the book that’s devoted to Sati is rich in descriptions and takes time to build. The story gains momentum in the second part about Parvati. By the time it reaches the third part about the family, it’s only highlights. Were these drastic shifts in pace intentional?

Yes, it was intentional. The first part establishes the core conflict and dilemma for Shiva and Sati, individually as well as a couple, which culminates in the tragedy of the Daksha-yajna. It is in the second part that Parvati with her vow and vrata overcomes and resolves that central conflict with Shiva. In a sense, the story could end with the wedding of Shiva and Parvati. However, I could not resist adding the third part dealing with their children – the idea of Shiva and Parvati, who are so fiercely independent and strong in their own right, becoming parents and establishing a family that is at once harmonious yet also fraught with challenges, such as the sibling rivalry between Ganesha and Karthik, was something I felt compelled to explore.

There are so many anecdotes and incidents popular about Ganesha and Karthik. However, in the book, you’ve included only a few. How did you decide which ones to choose?

It was not possible to cover all of the incidents in the lives of Ganesha and Karthik in one part of a book – each of them deserves one or more books to tell their stories properly. So, I had to be selective and focus on those episodes that draw out the thematic elements already present in the relationship between Shiva and Parvati – balancing isolation and family life, finding harmony across different personality types that seemingly conflict, and showing how relationships can make even the devas evolve and grow.

The readership of Indian mythological fiction has been growing. What do you think is the reason behind this sustained increase in popularity?

What we refer to as ‘mythological’ fiction is sacred literature from the Puranas and Itihaasa. All of our arts, literature, and music derive from these stories. These stories are not just or even primarily for entertainment; for thousands of years, they have informed our values, worldview, philosophy, and metaphysical understanding. They have become part of our civilizational and cultural DNA. At the same time, over the past few generations, many Indians have lost touch with that storytelling tradition – we used to be surrounded by these stories through our grandparents, through the dramatic arts, through katha, and festivals celebrating this lore. A lot of that has dissipated with urbanization and modernization. Yet, the thirst for these stories and curiosity about them remains strong, which is why we are seeing this increase in popularity, I believe.

When not reading books or watching films, Sneha Bengani writes about them. She tweets at @benganiwrites.

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