Book Review: Punyam by Ritesh Gupta

Indian mythology is a repository of fantastic tales. No matter how many times you read and listen to tales from the Holy Scriptures like Ramayana, Mahabharata, Puranas, and Upanishads – their compelling and intriguing storytelling aspects take you to a different level.

Punyam means good karma or merit. The book Punyam is a collection of twenty-five short stories from scriptures like Puranas, Upanishads, Ramayana, and Mahabharata. The book takes a dive into the greatness of the characters in the form of highly elevated spirits, gods, demi-gods, and saints. Through the stories, you can come to know the level of dedication and sacrifice and righteousness our mythological ancestors have had to lead their life.

It is a very delightful read, all stories are positive, and impart a sense of lesson, morale enhancement, spiritual rejig, and so on. Stories are divided as per the sources. If you have read Ramayana and Mahabharata, some of the stories may sound like a revisit. However, the stories are not exactly re-telling, but they highlight the other aspects.

In the book runs concurrent discussion of lord Shiva, Parvati, Vishnu, Rama, Sita, Narad, and Asuras, Rakshas, and many more figures. Readers will feel vibrant while reading this book and they may find the narration easy to connect with their past learning and visualization.

Anecdotes of battles, power and wisdom of gods, curse and penance of Asura and Rakshasas and women – it is medley of everything. There could be many short stories in the mythology genre, but this one is great in its essence.

Punyam by Ritesh Gupta saves you from investing a lot of dedicated time into the vastness of Indian Mythology, this book serves you the best with notes in the end of the each chapter. Inspiring stories of gods’ greatness in personal and impersonal forms are retold through simple lucid words, making this book an absolutely delightful read. It should be read by readers interested in the Indian mythological books.

Buy from Amazon/Kindle.

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