Welcome friend! Ariel and I were looking forward to returning to Kritika Rao’s writing in The Legend of Meneka and it did not disappoint! Take a look at the synopsis and then dive into our discussion.
Kritika Rao | Goodreads | The Divine Dancers Duology #1
Across the mortal and immortal realms, celestial dancers known as apsaras are revered for their beauty, allure, and enchanting magic. But Meneka knows that is not all they are. Trained as a weapon—a warrior—Meneka despises leaving each of her marks in thrall to her potent illusions. With every seduction Lord Indra, king of heaven, demands of her for his political gain, she craves her freedom more and more.
When a mortal sage’s growing powers threaten Indra’s supremacy in his own realm, Meneka seizes a rare opportunity. She strikes a deal—if she can seduce this dangerous man, Indra will allow her to forgo future missions. But upon meeting the sage, Kaushika, Meneka finds herself captivated by his energy, ignited by his empathy and passion, even though he threatens everything she’s ever known. Can she overthrow the man who is—little by little—stealing her heart, or is Kaushika seducing her instead? As war looms in the skies, Meneka must choose between her duty to protect her home, and the sage who is showing her what true love can mean.
Romantic, spellbinding, and empowering, The Legend of Meneka breathes new life into Hindu mythology to weave a lustrous tale of a woman discovering the cosmic power within herself. This first book in the Divine Dancers duology is a completely unputdownable adventure for lovers of romantasy and myth retellings.
The Legend of Meneka – Discussion
Kriti: I love reading stories inspired by Hindu mythology and this is the first time I have found centred around the god Indra, who is ever present in other stories. A lot of popular literature is around Vishnu and his reincarnations of Ram and Krishna, as well as the god Shiva. The Legend of Meneka is about one of the apsaras of Indra’s swarga. An apsara is a celestial being with magic from Indra and she is sent on missions to ensure that people continue to worship and pay homage to him, hence keeping swarga and its powers relevant. I liked how the story eventually revealed the origins of the apsaras and how this aligned with my understanding at the start of the book. Ariel, what did you think of these celestial dancers and their devotion to Indra?
Ariel: I enjoyed reading about apsara’s and their role in Indra’s divinity. I don’t have a lot of knowledge about Hindu gods, so this was a cool aspect that I hadn’t seen before. Meneka’s devotion is so great that she doesn’t want to leave Indra’s side, but in doing so she strays from her purpose as an agent of Indra in the mortal realm, creating an engaging conflict and backdrop to the story.
Since you are more widely read in mythologies, do any of them have creatures like apsaras?
Nothing immediately comes to mind– while there are several instances of seduction-oriented creatures like sirens or succubi, most in the Western worldview are associated with evil and things that shouldn’t be wanted (coming from a more Christian/Puritan viewpoint). I liked that Meneka, while a creature of seduction, was also a being of light and good in her own right, even though some people within the mortal realm felt differently about her.
Meneka does not like the work she has to do in her missions, creating illusions that deceive others and manipulate them to do her lord’s bidding. On returning from her latest mission, she asks Indra for the boon to serve him from swarga rather than going on another mission. There is tension brewing in the mortal world that many of the more experienced apsaras have not been able to resolve. When Indra does not grant her wish, Meneka thoughtlessly assigns herself the mission to convert the sage named Kaushika who has been causing Indra trouble. What did you think of Meneka’s reasons to take this mission?
Meneka begins her story by wanting the freedom to choose where she wants to be, and she doesn’t like that whenever she’s in the mortal realm she begins to doubt her mission and the work she is doing for Indra. Her seduction and beauty is ultimately a tool and her desire to not be a pawn in a larger cosmic scheme compels her to take on a much bigger challenge than she realizes.
Though inexperienced in missions compared to her sister apsara, Meneka brings new strategies to the missions to seduce Kaishika. She abandons her magic in an attempt to get to know Kaushika and gain his trust. She isn’t prepared to make friends, find community, and embark on a journey of self exploration. I enjoyed Meneka as the protagonist. She starts off as overly confident and driven to get what she wants and instead ends up being on a journey to get to know herself and the power she has within. She also learns that Kaushika is a complex human whose motivations are situated in his history and the magical political landscape of the time. He is a well-written gray character. He came from a good place but his pursuits weren’t in line with how the cosmos works. What were your thoughts on his wish to dethrone Indra and how he was going to go about it?
I liked the layers of the overall conflict between Kaushika and Indra. On one hand, Indra is an immortal god far above the mortals, and views them as such, even though he heavily relies on mortal worship to retain his power. It’s a dynamic of servitude and power imbalance, and so long as that is freely given by mortals, there aren’t any issues. However, as soon as mortals start to get other ideas and choose other alternatives, Indra compels servitude by mortals through force and manipulation via his apsaras. On the other hand, Kaushika is approaching this from a mortal perspective. If mortals aren’t freely choosing to worship Indra, what right does Indra have to compel worship of him if mortals can do exactly what he does and strive to be better without the threat of compulsion and violence? It’s a matter of perspective: one immortal and infinite versus mortal and finite, and I loved how Meneka experienced both.
I want to touch on the magic system in The Legend of Meneka. I had not thought about the differences between the magic of the sages like Kaushika and beings like Meneka until I read this book and haven’t come across anything like it in other books so far – The worldly magic that mortals can access through tapasya and the cosmic magic that comes from Indra based on merit. Meneka learning about one from Kaushika was a good way to introduce us readers to it.
At the start of the book, it’s explained to us that Meneka gets her power from Indra and with each successful mission, she is given a piece of jewellery that is a token of Indra’s power and magic. To keep her cover in the hermitage, Meneka must forego her magic from Indra. Instead, she is exposed to a completely different magic that comes from within that the mortals are able to tap into with serious and extreme meditation. It was a cool comparison and it was part of what develops Meneka as a character to see even more that Indra isn’t all-powerful and she is faced with the uncomfortable truths to know that she may not need to rely on Indra forever as she always thought.
How does this book compare to other Hindu gods represented in other books we’ve read like The Goddess of the River and Kaikeyi?
This was quite unique! My readings have been limited to retellings of the epics of Mahabharat and Ramayana, neither of which actually involve mortals coming head-to-head with gods. Both epics have some gods reincarnated but the battles are between mortals, some with magic. Indra comes up in both epics as kings often pray to the gods of swarg – Indra, Vayu, Surya, etc – to ask for boons. Indra is depicted as the spiritual father of Bali, the monkey king, in the Ramayana and Arjuna in the Mahabharata. Hence, his role is fairly limited. It was unique to see Indra in this setting, as a ruler and leader, with a magical army at his fingertips. What did you think of him and his court?
I thought it was really cool to see that direct conflict between mortals and gods. Like we had read in Kaikeyi or Goddess of the River, both centered the gods and while critically approached them in a feminist way, the gods were still cosmic beings above mortals. For Kaushika to challenge Indra as a peer was a great perspective to explore what it means to be mortal versus a celestial being.
Kaushika worships Shiva who in the hierarchy of Hindu gods is one of the main ones. There are books about him too, Amish Tripathi’s Shiva Trilogy being the most famous. I really liked how he was portrayed in The Legend of Meneka and it made me think of his role in The Goddess of the River. In contrast to how Indra affects the mortal realm, Shiva is discrete and impartial. He doesn’t care about having a following. What do you think about these two deities?
It seems that while Indra directly gets his power from mortals and their worship/regard of him, Shiva is much more beyond that and gets his power directly from the cosmos and beyond. Kaushika taps into that cosmic power through his worship of Shiva, and it elevates him to a much higher meditative state. Being reliant on humans as a god limits Indra, making him much more involved in the day-to-day of mortals even though it seems like he doesn’t want to be. We see this dynamic in other mythologies, especially in Greek mythologies, where the gods are petty and jealous and fight each other for mortal worship through various strategies.
Kritika Rao brings alive the celestial court, the conflicts between sages and gods in this beautifully written story about a divine dancer who creates illusions. She did a great job of creating rich nuanced characters in both Meneka and Kaushika. What did you think of them as a pair?
I thought it was a beautiful contrasting dynamic. Meneka is forced to look inward instead of through Indra’s worldview, and Kaushika is shown that maybe being tethered to this earth isn’t always a bad thing either. Their relationship takes a few steps forward and backwards throughout the story and I’m very much looking forward to how the duology concludes! Thanks for buddy reading this with me, Kriti 🙂 it was a wonderful discussion!
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