We are delighted to announce the Bengaluru launch of Volga’s much-awaited new novel, ON THE BANKS OF THE PAMPA—a powerful and piercing retelling of a familiar episode from the Ramayana that invites us to read the epic differently. Join us on 7 August in our beautiful Indiranagar space for a stimulating and thought-provoking conversation, moderated by Purnima Tammireddy and Prof. Chandan Gowda.
Here are the details of the event:
Date: 7th August 2025, Thursday
Time: 7:00PM
Venue: Champaca Bookstore, Indiranagar
Since there is limited seating, we recommend that you RSVP soon!
About the book:
Sabari’s encounter with Rama is an important episode in the Ramayana. But who was Sabari, a forest-dweller who became Rama’s ardent devotee?
In On the Banks of the Pampa, award-winning writer Volga narrates the tale of Sabari, born of aranyavasis, once forced into slavery by a power-seeking state, which she breaks free from. It traces the journey of her spiritual awakening and birth into a voice of dissent for the oppressed and dispossessed. Sabari’s is a narrative entwined with the forest along the Pampa river – one she comes to dwell in and is at one with.
Poignant and piercing, this concluding volume in Volga’s trilogy of feminist retellings of the Indian epics drives us to reconsider the meaning of dharma, and rejects ideologies that legitimize conquest and the exploitation of nature. Powerfully translated into English by Purnima Tammireddy, this is a story of resistance – a story for the times we live in, drawn from the classic tale we know so well.
About the speakers:
Volga is a writer, critic, translator and poet, who has been a forerunner in introducing a feminist perspective into the literary-political discourse of the Telugu-speaking states. She is best known for her feminist retellings of Indian epics, The Liberation of Sita and Yashodhara, and her latest novel concludes this trilogy. Other notable works include her earlier novels Sahaja and Sveccha, short story collections, feminist philosophy and literary criticism, and translations of Telugu works. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Sahitya Akademi Award, and her work opened the floodgates for a host of women writers to articulate the doubts and confusions they experienced as women.
Purnima Tammireddy is a writer, translator, and publisher, who currently lives in Bengaluru. She is the translator of On the Banks of the Pampa, and has also translated works by Manto and Amrita Pritam into Telugu. She is also the author of the short-story collection Emotional Pregnancy. She is the founder of Elami Publications, an independent Telugu publishing house, and co-founder of pustakam.net, a website for book reviews.
Moderating today's session is Chandan Gowda is a Professor of Sociology and the Dean of Vidyashilp University’s School of Liberal Arts. His areas of interest include Indian intellectual history and modern Kannada literature and cinema. He is the author of Another India: Events, Memories, People, and has edited and translated several works of Kannada literature, including an anthology of The Greatest Kannada Stories Ever Told. He has also contributed to columns in the Bangalore Mirror and Deccan Herald, among others.