"This book is a polished gem, a sparkling gift of translation and contextualization from Clinton B. Seely--legendary teacher, speaker, and translator--to all students of Bengal, colonial history, Ramayana studies, and Indian literature. The Slaying of Meghanada, Seely's artistic rendition of Michael Madhusudan Datta's classic Bengali version of the Ramayana, invites us to understand and feel, with Datta and through Seely, the particularly Bengali pathos of a doomed, humanized, agonized Ravana. here is a text for our times, where Rama is not the hero."

-- Rachel Fell McDermott (from the cover jacket)