Tara’s Truce is Kavita Kané’s modern fictional retelling centered on Tara, the queen of Vali and mother of Angada. Its title’s suggestion that Tara cursed Rama needs a qualification: the Valmiki Ramayana passage consulted here shows Rama consoling Tara, while a curse appears in some other tellings. The novel should be read as a contemporary interpretation, not a translation of a single definitive Ramayana.
What is Tara’s Truce?
Tara’s Truce is a novel by Kavita Kané, published by Rupa Publications. Scroll.in identified the book and published an excerpt on 22 December 2023. That excerpt establishes the book’s identity, but it is not a full plot synopsis or a review of the entire novel. Read the Scroll.in excerpt.
Kané’s book gives a modern fictional retelling centered on Tara. That framing matters: details developed in a novel may expand Tara’s interior life, but should not be mistaken for facts stated in the ancient source text.
Who was Tara in the Valmiki Ramayana?
In the Kishkindha Kanda of the Valmiki Ramayana, Tara is Vali’s queen and Angada’s mother. She is not merely a figure who appears after Vali’s death: she recognizes the danger in Sugriva’s renewed challenge and advises Vali, then grieves when Rama’s arrow kills him. The Yale-hosted index to the complete English translation tracks her counsel, grief, concern for Angada, and later relationship with Sugriva. Consult the Yale-hosted Ramayana translation index.
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After Vali falls, Rama comforts Tara and tells her that Angada will be made crown prince. In a translation edited by Desiraju Hanumanta Rao, Rama says: “You will get paramount appeasement as before, and your son will become the crown prince, God has ordained destiny only in that way.” The wording is the translator’s English rendering, not a fixed original English formulation. Read the translated Sarga 24 passage.
Did Tara curse Rama?
It depends on the telling. The cited Valmiki Sarga 24 passage presents Rama consoling Tara; it does not include her cursing him. A secondary overview describes a curse in some Ramayana legends and connects it to a later consequence for Rama. It also notes differing accounts of Tara’s origins, underscoring that Ramayana traditions vary rather than forming one uniform account. Read the overview of Tara traditions.
So the headline’s curse claim is not a detail to attribute universally to “the Ramayana,” or to the cited Valmiki episode. It belongs to some tellings; the available overview does not establish that every tradition includes it.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to distinguish the novel from its source traditions
The source material supports comparing the book and Ramayana traditions along several useful lines, but the available excerpt is not enough to settle how the full novel handles each one:
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- Point of view: How much interior life does the novel give Tara compared with her appearances in a source tradition?
- Her roles: How does it develop her as counselor, queen, and mother?
- Succession and aftermath: How does it handle the transition from Vali to Sugriva and Tara’s later place in the story?
- The curse: Does it include the curse, and if so, which telling or regional tradition does it invoke?
These are questions for reading the novel alongside a clearly identified Ramayana version, not grounds for claiming details about Kané’s complete plot or assessing the whole book from an excerpt.
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- Illustrated tale features over 100 colorful full-spread illustrations a detailed pictorial glossary of the cast of characters who make up the epic tale and sketches of the work in progress|An ancient mythology with timeless essential and meaningful themes|Sanjay Patel is the author of The Little Book of Hindu Deities while an animator and storyboard artist for Pixar Animation Studios he worked on numerous films including Monsters Inc. ; A Bug's Life; Toy Story 2; Ratatouille; The Incredibles; and Toy Story 3. His short film Sanjay's Super Team was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film|Great book for the entire family to enjoy together|An engaging way to teach children about Hindu mythology
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