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![Ahalya's Awakening by [Kavita Kane]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51fnu5GlYdL._SY346_.jpg)
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Ahalya's Awakening Kindle Edition
Kavita Kane
(Author)
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Kindle Edition
₹ 0.00 This title and over 1 million more available with Kindle Unlimited ₹ 149.00 to buy -
Paperback
₹ 228.00
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LanguageEnglish
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PublisherWestland
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Publication date27 August 2019
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File size4779 KB
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Product description
About the Author
Kavita Kané is a former journalist and the bestselling author of five books. She is considered a revolutionary force in Indian writing because she has brought in feminism where it is most needed—mythology. Her five novels are all based on women in Indian mythology: Karna’s Wife (2013); Sita’s Sister (2014), on Ramayana’s most neglected character, Urmila; Menaka’s Choice (2015), on the apsara, Menaka; Lanka’s Princess (2016), on the female antagonist in the Ramayana, Surpanakha; and The Fisher Queen’s Dynasty (2017) on Satyavati, the grand matriarch in the Mahabharata.
After a career of over two decades in Magna and DNA, Kavita quit her job as assistant editor of Times of India to devote herself to writing novels full-time. With a post-graduate degree in English literature as well as in journalism and mass communication, the only skill she has, she confesses, is writing.
Passionate about theatre, cinema and art, she is also a columnist, a screenplay writer and a motivational speaker, having given several talks all across the country in educational and research institutes, corporate and management fora and literary festivals.
Born in Mumbai, with a childhood spent largely in Patna and Delhi, she currently lives in Pune with her mariner husband, Prakash, their two daughters, Kimaya and Amiya, two dogs Chic and Beau, and Cotton, the uncurious cat.
Product details
- ASIN : B07TV7FRN8
- Publisher : Westland (27 August 2019)
- Language : English
- File size : 4779 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 356 pages
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Best Sellers Rank:
#2,029 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #51 in Mythology & Folk Tales
- #93 in Myths, Legends & Sagas
- #157 in Contemporary Fiction (Kindle Store)
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In this sparkling retelling of the well-known legend of Ahalya, Kavita Kane had attempted to answer this questions by tracing her journey from a precocious child to a studious & sheltered princess, to the loving wife of Rishi Gautam & delves into the mind of a woman who yearns to control her own destiny. In her tale lies the story of every woman, even today
Review:
⚜️Although its Ahalya's biography but the author had also added the POVs of rishi Gautam, Devraj Indra & his wife Sachi, which gives a three dimensional perspective of her story.
⚜️The story throws light about Ahalya's life before her turning into stone, --- who she was & who was her parent & family; how was she in her childhood; how she comes into contact with rishi Gautam & fell in love, how they got married & how was their married life; how she caught Indra's eyes who became obsessed of about her.
⚜️ The author had articulately developed Ahalya's character & perfectly captured her transformation from being a pampered princess to a rishi's wife, from being a dutiful wife to an adulteress & ultimately to a Rishika, an awakened one.
⚜️The books answered the questions -- why she commit infidelity? whether it was committed deliberately or unknowingly? Is infidelity committed only physically or it can also be committed through the mind? - which ultimately forces you to empathize with her.
⚜️The story also explores the various social norms of those days & gives an insight into why lust, desire & course of life is everything but also not everything. It is ultimately up to an individual's journey of how they perceive a situation that matters more than the action itself. The mind's eye over the perception of the senses.
⚜️The author had given her own twist in the climax, where instead of turning into a stone, Ahalya withdraw inward, become invisible to the society & harden herself against the judgemental world in order to discover her inner self & thereby turned her curse into a blessing.
⚜️In the preclude which includes her talks with Sita, the famous character from the Ramayan, who like Ahalaya was also cast aside by her husband, but for a supposed defilement is truly a creative angle of bringing out the feminine POV.
There is nothing that I didn’t like about this book. It is a gripping tale indeed which kept me spellbound till the end. So I would like to recommend everyone who likes mythological fiction & want to read about the forgotten women of Indian mythology to read it.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
In this book author Kavita Kane brings out the story of Ahalya who was a determined woman right from childhood. She wanted to study and strongly opposed her mother's desire to get married instead. When she fell in love with Rishi Gautam she again went against her mother's wishes and married him. She was a loving and dutiful wife who expected her own identity and not just someone's wife, daughter or mother.
The story focuses on her journey, her constant struggle with her family, with Indra who was obsessed with her, and also later husband. It greatly details what lead up to her curse and her outlook to it. I really appreciate that the author brought out the side of a woman which is much needed. I appreciate that every character was well written both main and protagonist. I always had an interest in the story of Ahalya and I am deeply satisfied with the book. I also liked the character of Sachi, wife of Indra, whose struggles were also portrayed well. How much her love for Indra cost her.
The book is beginner friendly, though lengthy but still it grasped the readers. The book also shows how everyone is quick to jump into judgement for woman but is willing to give another chance to a man. I finished the book very fast because it was so unputtdownable. This is a perfect read for mythology lovers.
Rate 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 /5
Top reviews from other countries

The book didn’t start off too well, a too-perfect Ahalya grating on the nerves. There were anachronisms galore; people behaving like they belong to modern times, mentions of books and universities in a way that sounded just not right. At one point even ‘six o’clock’ was mentioned! Just to be clear, Ahalya’s story belongs to Treta Yuga, the time of Ramayana. So these modern touches and blatant laziness to get the atmosphere right seriously rankled. Then there’s the mixup of time periods: Bharata-a king of Dwapara Yuga and the ancestor of the heroes of the Mahabharata is mentioned in a story of Treta Yuga, and moreover in a story where his own distant ancestor Nahusha is being told the story where he, the descendant, is already dead and gone! That’s some crazy time travel stuff. But that’s just nitpicking for people who have read the scriptures, so let’s move on.
The obsession of Indra and Ahalya’s treatment of it has been handled badly. Seriously, I have read much better. It’s juvenile the way things are handled up to the actual marriage of Ahalya, the swayamvara scene a very melodramatic and farcical depiction. But then, right after that, the story picks up. The post marriage scenario has been written so much better. It’s both mature and interesting. The lives of Ahalya, Gautama and Indra are brought out quite well. There’s even a pattern to it, where when Ahalya is happy Indra is not and vice versa. But it fails to show the actual reason for Gautama’s sudden apathy. It’s been told, but not depicted well as we are never privy to Gautama’s thoughts after a while. Love scenes have been handled well, a feat most female authors writing mytho fiction fail miserably at, so kudos to Kane there.
But again, the end doesn’t quite do justice to the anticipation a good middle part had built up. The curse part was done a bit too brown in philosophy and not enough on simply feelings. Ahalya’s journey to self realization wasn’t deep or clear enough. In the end, although she claims to have found herself, she comes across as a bitter woman mourning for what was lost, which is at odds with her proclaimed happiness with her life. I would’ve loved to have seen her more philosophical and nuanced than a feminist waving the flag of ‘abla nari’. Surely the years of meditation should have come to something! And rightfully the story should have come full circle, ending where it started from as a narration. So the pity party at the end, while dramatic as it brings two heroines together, is not really the end I was looking for, because it left a lot of loose threads.
As for characterizations, Ahalya remains irritating before her marriage as she’s too perfect to be believable, but her discontent and a bit of self absorption later redeems her. Gautama is interesting, but loses out later as his voice is silenced, so after marriage we never know what he’s thinking, reducing him to a caricature. Indra is, ironically, the most reviled as well as the most developed character. He is shown as unabashedly and unapologetically self serving, but frankly he’s too interesting to be hated. After the ‘perfection’ of Ahalya, he’s a welcome relief. Sachi is delightful, though not much developed. Mudgal, Nalayani and Divodasa are walking anachronisms, because frankly the way they behave is like modern and yet slightly traditional people would behave.
What I did not like about this book was the inability, or disinterest, on the part of the author to get the atmosphere right. This is something that could have elevated the book so much! I never felt like I was reading a story that is several millennia old. Six o’clock, seriously!
What I liked about the book is the way Kane handled the part post marriage. It’s mature, lucid, interesting and shows character development for everyone. Ahalya’s loneliness, a want for companionship, the need to feel ‘wanted’ is well captured. Her response to Indra is well captured, until it’s spoiled by reducing an honest emotion to a fantasy to maintain the ‘righteousness’ of the heroine. The circumstances in which Kane put her Ahalya in, nobody would blame her for wanting and going for some happiness, so there was no need to worry about maintaining the virtue of her heroine and making her holier than thou even in sin.
All in all, a good book and much, much better than Karna’s Wife. Kane has certainly grown as a writer.


You get so captivated by Ahalyas life..its like you start living it through the book..
I was on tears at the end of the book.
Thank you for the telling us the story of Ahalya..