Stories
Literary reimaginings of stories drawn from the traditions and texts of ancient India.
Explore the Stories →The Author
Varun
Nagella
Writer and creator of ĀKHYĀNA — a literary project exploring the stories, characters and ideas of ancient India through contemporary storytelling.
The Writer
Some stories survive
because they still matter.
Varun Nagella writes stories rooted in the literary and cultural traditions of ancient India, with a particular interest in the forgotten corners of those traditions.
His work is drawn to stories that contain more than their surface narrative — stories shaped by questions of duty, desire, consequence, identity, power, memory and transformation.
The aim is not to make the ancient world feel distant or museum-like, but to make its stories feel immediate again.
Why These Stories?
Looking beyond
the familiar.
Ancient Indian literature contains an enormous landscape of stories. Some have remained central to cultural memory. Others have received far less attention.
ĀKHYĀNA is particularly interested in the latter — stories that can still surprise, disturb, move or challenge a modern reader.
The question is never simply whether a story is old.
The question is whether it still has something to say.
Creating ĀKHYĀNA
Between the
source and the story.
ĀKHYĀNA grew from the desire to approach ancient Indian stories as literature — with the same attention to character, atmosphere, conflict, language and emotional depth given to stories from any other literary tradition.
The process begins with the source material. From there, the work moves into interpretation, research and literary imagination.
Some stories remain close to their surviving sources. Others require expansion, reconstruction or imaginative interpretation.
That distinction is part of the work, not something to hide.
The Writing
Books
Longer works that allow ancient worlds, characters and questions to unfold at greater depth.
Explore the Books →The Books
A growing body
of work.
The ĀKHYĀNA catalogue is being built as a collection of literary works exploring different periods, traditions, characters and questions from ancient India.
Some works are already published. Others are currently being developed.
The stories are ancient.
The telling begins again.