Buddha: Volume 1: Kapilavastu by Osama Tezuka

 

Graphic novels have always enthralled me. I do not know what it is about them that never fails to amaze me. I guess it could be the illustrations or the fact that they are such page-turners or the underlined known fact that they are not boring. Right from having read Art Spiegelman’s Maus series to Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis I and Embroideries to Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series and sometimes the wayward Indian Author’s Graphic Novel like Corridor, they have been bang on target and worth every single penny [though the penny gets very very expensive for a book-a-holic like me].

I was browsing through Granth last evening [Browsing is never browsing in my book - you either buy or you don't and most of the time I end up buying. Its a chronic disease but more about that in later posts] and right on the new arrivals section were these black and white series of graphic novels that immediately caught my discerning eye. They were written by Osama Tezuka and he is supposed to be the master of graphic art in Japanese Manga comics and surprisingly I had never heard of him. The series is titled “Buddha” and it would not take a genius to know what it is all about, however it does take you by surprise given the structure and the content and the modern approach that is so refreshing that one is just left turning the pages and wanting more. Initially with great trepidition I picked up only the first volume titled, “Buddha: Volume 1: Kapilavastu”. There are seven more volumes to be read and I have reserved every single one of them to go and pick it up on the 1st of December.

The plot of the novel is thread-bare and very simple or so it seems on the surface. It starts with the proclamation of “the greatest god” to be born on the planet. The proclamation is made by Saint Astiva and his disciple sets out to seek the chosen one in the land of Kapilavastu amidst the structures and classes as set by the Brahmins. The book seeks to refute the caste system of India and does it wonderfully.

The main characters of this book are:

Chapra: A slave boy who wants a better life for himself and his mother and wants to break the shackles of society and the way he was born or rather what he was born into.

Tatta: A fictional thief of the ‘Pariah’, making his status even lower than that of the slave caste. As a child, Tatta is very close to nature and has the unique ability to possess animals, which the Brahmin Naradatta takes great advantage of.

Naradatta: Astiva’s disciple and how he understands the meaning of life in this book.

Siddhartha:  The main character of the Buddha series. He is born in book 1, shortly before his mother dies. The first book mentions omens that seemed to symbolize Siddhartha’s future.

The book is brilliant!! I loved it to the bone not only because of the effects or the graphics but because of the story and the way the characters are etched so deep. Looking forward to the second volume…