STORY COORDINATES · LITERATURE · BOOK REVIEW
The Roar at Twilight
When 108 sonnets carry an ancient story of devotion
By KVI Editorial · Featuring a review by Prasanna Kkumar, India
An ancient story can travel through many kinds of language. In The Roar at Twilight: Sonnets on Lord Narasimha, poet Mahathi brings the story of Prahlada and Narasimha into a notably demanding form: 108 Shakespearean sonnets.
The collection places a long-standing Hindu devotional narrative inside the compact movement of English verse. For readers who know the story, the form offers another way to encounter it. For readers arriving without that background, the poems open a literary door to questions about loyalty, belief, and the limits of worldly power.
The story behind the sonnets
Prahlada is a young devotee of Vishnu whose convictions bring him into conflict with his father, the king Hiranyakashipu. The narrative reaches its turning point with the appearance of Narasimha, an incarnation of Vishnu. Its enduring tension lies in the difference between authority that demands obedience and faith that refuses to be commanded.
By using the sonnet, Mahathi places that tension inside a structured literary form. A story spanning sacred tradition becomes a sequence of shorter poems, each contributing to a larger arc.
Prasanna Kkumar on the collection
Indian poet and reviewer Prasanna Kkumar approaches The Roar at Twilight as both a literary undertaking and an expression of devotional learning. His assessment concentrates on the difficulty of shaping a substantial mythological narrative into sonnets without losing its spiritual concerns.
Prasanna draws attention to references extending beyond the central narrative, including Narada’s teachings on devotion and traditions associated with Sudarshana Alwar. What interests him is the meeting of study, poetic discipline, and an author’s sustained commitment to a subject.
The review invites a wider question: what happens when a familiar sacred narrative is given a form that belongs to another literary history? In that meeting, readers can encounter both the original tradition and the possibilities of the sonnet.
Book details
- Title
- The Roar at Twilight: Sonnets on Lord Narasimha
- Author
- Mahathi (Mydavolu Venkata Sesha Satyanarayana)
- Publisher
- Motilal Banarsidass Publishing House, Delhi
- Edition
- 2026 · English · 174 pages
- Poetic form
- 108 Shakespearean sonnets
- Paperback ISBN
- 9789377702038
About the reviewer
Prasanna Kkumar, also known as The Unruly Poetaster, is an Indian multilingual poet, writer, translator, reviewer, editor, and social justice advocate. His literary commentary brings attention to the meeting of poetry and cultural traditions.
Read Prasanna Kkumar’s guest review at The KronicleS Collective
For readers
When a story crosses from one poetic tradition into another, what changes, and what remains essential?
Readers are welcome to share thoughtful responses in the moderated discussion below.