Before Gods Were Gods is a philosophical retelling of the Ramayana that strips away centuries of divine varnish to reveal a deeply human story.

Told through two independent arcs—Rāvaṇa’s and Rāma’s—the novel explores how power, belief, and choice shape men long before they are turned into gods or demons. Rāvaṇa rises through intellect, discipline, and an unrelenting drive to reclaim dignity for his people, learning to bend history through momentum and conquest. Rāma, in contrast, learns restraint, choosing reflection over force, stillness over inevitability, walking a path where dharma is not a rulebook but a question answered through action.

Sītā, Lakṣmaṇa, and others are re-examined not as symbols but as thinking, feeling individuals whose decisions carry real cost. Myth becomes memory; miracles become metaphor.

This is not a devotional epic, but a human one, written for readers who have outgrown blind faith yet still seek meaning.