In the Semiosis of Characters and Colors: Locating Metaphors and Their Meanings in Amruta Patil’s Graphic Novels Adi Parva and Sauptik

Abstract

A semiotic approach to Indian epics offers unique perspectives to the epic traditions and their retellings across mediums. Graphic novels provide an enabling space for the retellings of epics like the Mahābhārata in new mediums. The paper presents a critical reading of interplay of the visual-verbal in Amruta Patil’s Adi Parva: Churning of the Ocean and Sauptik: Blood and Flowers. The focus of Patil’s graphic novels is interspersing colors and textures with episodes from the epic narrative. In her novels, the episodes of the Mahābhārata are retold in the artistic canvas, such that they highlight the visual-verbal interface. The tropes of color palettes and the portrayal of characters from the Mahābhārata are a predominant feature of these graphic novels. The visual nature of these tropes in her graphic novels presents a liminal metaphorical texture and a unique interpretative quality to the retellings of the epic. This paper is an attempt to establish the contemporariness of epics in the landscape of artistic mediums.