Illustrated Book of Mythology: Curses and Boons, by Deepak MR
Curses and boons are an integral part of Hindu epics and Puranic lore. A curse led Sage Valmiki to compose the first shloka and then the Ramayana. A curse caused King Janamejaya’s sapra satra (snake sacrifice) to stall and thus lead to the first ever public recital of the Mahabharata. A boon led to King Dashratha becoming father to Lord Raama and the other princes, Lakshmana, Bharat, and Shatrughna. A boon led to the births of the Paandavas.
Deepak M.R.’s book is a delightful compendium of these and more fascinating curses and boons from the corpus of Itihaasa and Puranic literature. As a co-author of the anthology, Unsung Valour, and then a full-length novel, Abhimanyu: The Warrior Prince, both published by Bloomsbury in 2020 and 2021, respectively, Deepak has long had a deep interest in the epics. This has been mated with a strong belief in staying faithful to the source material, which is a contrast to some prominent authors who seek to 'interpret' or create their own epic and succeed only in desecrating revered texts for their warped ideological and pecuniary ends. Deepak's book is a welcome change.
It has thirty-two chapters on curses and twenty-four on boons. Each chapter is short, the narration simple, but contains nuggets at the end of the chapters, providing the reader with information about the sources of the boons and curses. To that end, these tidbits serve as doorways to explore these stories and the epics further.
For a person, mostly a sage, to be able to pronounce a curse required an immense store of austerities. The pronouncement of a curse exhausts that reserve. Vishwaamitra found that out, time and again, in his journey to reach the status of a brahmarshi. Conversely, a person cursed had to suffer the misfortunes the imprecation came with. A person cursed twice over suffered not twice over, but an order of magnitude more. Chapters 25 and 31 tell us one such instance. Gaandhaari's curse, pronounced on Krishna and the Vrishni lineage at the end of the Kurukshetra war, was reinforced by the curses of the sages Naarada, Vishwaamitra, and Kanva thirty-six years later. The entire Yaadava clan perished in an internecine fight near Prabhaas.
There is one more instance one can think of where a person was the recipient of not one, two, but three curses. King Kalmaashpaada was cursed by Shakti to become a maneater. Then he was cursed by a braahmana who had requested the king for food, only to be sent food laced with human meat by a now demented king. Finally, the cursed king was cursed a third time, this time by a brahmana's wife. The king finally found redemption at the hands of Sage Vasishtha, who also acceded to the king's request to further his lineage. Why? Because the brahmana's wife had cursed the king to a life of celibacy, under the penalty of death. This particular story, however, is not in the book. What we do have, in Chapter 17, is the story of Paandu’s curse at the hands of Sage Kimdama. Several years later, Paandu would cite Kalmaashpaada’s example to Kunti in his bid to convince her to sire a son.
Even from the Mahabharata, there are some stories that are not found in the core epic. You have to go to the Puranas for them. One example is found in Chapter 32, where Arjuna has to suffer defeat on account of Sage Ashtavakra’s curse. The account of the curse is not to be found in the epic, but as the author tells us, in the Vishnu, Padma, and Brama Puranas. That Raavana did not so much as touch Sita during and after his abduction is well known. Why he did so, not as much. Chapter 7 tells us why Brahma cursed Raavana and what the curse was. Punjikasthala, Vedvati, and Rambha⏤the names of the victims may change, but what remains constant is Raavana’s lecherous proclivities as the trigger for Brahma’s ire and curse.
A highlight of the book is the easy to understand and flowing style. Without getting academic or arcanely philosophical, the author keeps the narrative moving, the stories flowing, and the pages turning. I mentioned two boons and two curses in the opening paragraph of this review. Sage Valmiki cursed a hunter (recounted in Chapter 11). The curse that led to the sarpa satra is recounted in Chapter 14. It was Sage Rishyashringa’s boon that led to King Dashratha becoming the father of Raama (Ch. 34). It was Sage Durvaasa’s boon to Kunti that led to the divine births of the five Paandavas and, many years before that, of Karna (Ch. 46).
Curses and Boons is a delightful collection, written in simple language, stays faithful to the original texts, and can be enjoyed by both adults and children, alike. I enjoyed reading it. You will, too.
This review originally appeared in The Sunday Guardian on the 13th of July, 2025.
© 2025, Abhinav Agarwal (अà¤िनव अग्रवाल). All rights reserved.
