Ramayana and Ramayanas

258 Pages·1991·40.733 MB·English

by  Monika Horstmann

Khoj - A Series of Modern South Asian Studies
Edited by
Richard K. Barz and Monika Thiel-Horstmann
Vol. 3
RAmAyat;ta and RAmAyaQas
1991
Otto Harrasowitz
Wiesbaden
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RamayaQa and RamayaQas
Edited by
Monika Thiel-Horstmann
1991
Otto Harrasowitz
Wiesbaden
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f3l.
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CIP-Titelaufnahme der Deutschen Bibliothek
RillliyQa ud ~/ed. by Monika Thiel-Horstmann. -
Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz, 1991
(Khoj ; Vol. 3)
ISBN 3-447-0311~
NE: Thiel-Horstmann, Monika [Hrsg.]; GT
0 Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1991.
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ISSN 0937-2105
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE IX
NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION X
INTRODUCTION 1
Monika Thiel-Horstmann
DHARMIC CHOICE AND 1llE FIGURE OF LoRD RAMA 9
Harry M. Buck
FREE WILL IN 1llE RAMAYA~ OF BHANUBHAKT 29
Richard Barz
nm
SANSKRIT AND 1llE NON-SANSKRIT TRADmONS OF
RA.MAY A~A FROM 1llE WEST COAST OF INDIA 47
A. Govindankutty Menon
DESCENT INTO PERFORMANCE: RAMA A VA TAR IN A
FOLK TRADIDON OF KERALA 69
Stuart H. Blackbum
RAVA~A AS TRAGIC HERO: C. N . SRIKANTAN NAYAR'S
85
LANKALAK~MI
Clifford Hospital
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VI Table of Contents
THE EPISODE OF A YI- AND MA YI-RAVA~A IN THE ORAL
RAMAY A~A VERSION OF THE ALU KUR.UMBAS 103
Dieter B. Kapp
THE R.i.MAYA~A IN CONTEMPORARY FOLK TRADmONS
OF MAHARASHTRA 115
GUnther D. Sontheimer
EKNATH'S TREATMENT OF THE RAMAY~A AS A SOCIO-
POLmCAL METAPHOR 139
S. G. Tulpule
RAJA AND PRAJA: PRESENTATIONAL CONVENTIONS IN THE
RAMLfi..A AT RAMNAGAR 153
Anuradha Kapur
LIFE AS THEATRE: PERFORMING THE RAMAY A~A IN
AYODHYA 169
Peter van der Veer
THE "GREAT SACRIFICE" OF RAMAY A~A RECITATION:
RITUAL PERFORMANCE OF THE RAMCARITMANAS 185
Philip Lutgendorf
TELEVISION AND TRADmON: SOME OBSERVATIONS ON
THE SERIALIZATION OF THE RAMAYA~A 207
V asudha Dalmia-Llideritz
NARRATIVE STRUCIURES IN MEWARI RAMAY~A
ILLUSTRATIONS 229
Elke Loschhom
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Table of Contents VII
239
CONTRIBUTORS
INDEX
241
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PREFACE
This volume unites the majority of the papers read at the Conference on
Contemporary Rlmlyal)a Traditions, which was held in September 1987
in Sanlct Augustin, Germany. Professor Norvin Hein, Yale University,
deserves special mentioning and gratitude. He presided over the
conference, and his comments were a source of inspiration for all
participants of the conference.
Of the papers presented at the conference but not published in this
volume, Devadatta Joshi's long bibliographical review 'Contemporary
Rml!yaQa Tradition in Gujarat' has since appeared in the Journal oft he
Oriental Institute of the M. S. University ofB aroda, 37 (1-2): 127-41
and 37 (3-4): 231-51.
As it happens, another volume on the RlmlyaQa traditon, to which
the editor is happy to refer the reader, is under preparation. Edited by
Paula Richman, it is entitled Many RlmllyaJ}as: The Diversity of a
Narrative Tradition in South Asia and will be published by the University
of California Press in autumn 1991.
Miss Nana Sohini Sen and Miss Angelika Pirie prepared the type
script of the book. Their graceful and enduring assistance is most
gratefully aclcnowledged.
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NOTB ON TRANSLITERATION
New lndo-Aryan words have nonnally been transliterated in the mode
followed by R. S. McGregor, Outline of Hindi Grammar, Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1972. Sanskrit and Prakrit words have been
transliterated in accordance with the internationally standardired system
of transliteration. The transliteration of words of Dravidian languages
follows that of T. Burrow and M. B. Emeneau, A Dravidian
Etymological Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961.
South Asian words common in English have been spelt in the form
as they appear in the Oxford English Dictionary. Place names, especially
generally known ones, mostly appear without diacritical marks and in a
spelling adopted by either the Times Atlas of the World or J. E.
Schwartzberg (ed.), A Historical Atlas of South Asia, Chicago and
London: University of Chicago Press, 1978. Names of languages are
written without diacritical marks. Dependent on the composite character
of the traditions that are treated in the various papers, no uniformity of
transcription could be achieved. Thus there may stand Rim side by side
with Rima, and SltJ side by side with Sita.
The word "RmnlyaQa" when printed in roman characters (and
without quotation marks) refers to the Rmnlyal)a tradition. When
italicired, RimlyBl}a refers to the Vllmlki-RimlyBl}a or other specific
works known by that name. The names of the kil)<}as of the Vilmiki
Rimlyal)a appear in roman characters, while the kll)<}as of other
RA1My81}8s appear in roman characters and put in quotation marks.
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MONIKA TI-IIEL-HORS'IMANN
INTRODUCTION
The RlmAyal)a invites us to look upon it from various perspectives. The
one which is prominent in a number of the papers united in this volume
is that of an epic on the ethical conflicts of man and on how man tries to
solve them. The solution which Vllmiki's Rima fmds is, eventually, a
tragic one, and such it is bound to be, for the conflict of dhanna resists a
neat solution. In his conflict between his duty as a king and his
attachment to his wife Sltl, Rima opted for dhannic kingship.
As in the Vllmlki-Rimiy81}a so, too, in other RAmAyaJ)as the ever
contradictory and inherently conflicting human condition is the heart of
the matter. Often the conflict is no longer brought to a tragic conclusion
but to a, now predictable, ritualized happy ending. This is especially so
when the dharmic conflict is overruled by the bhakti approach, when
Rima the hero is Rima the god. However, irrespective of the solution
offered, dharmic conflict and human crisis still form the key-note.
Because the RlmlyaQa thus revolves around the human condition it
remains one of the most vital South Asian traditions. It may serve many
ends. Rlmlyal}as serve as patterns of existential identity (van der Veer,
intra); when they are used as entertainment, as religious dramas or other
types of performance, they relate the participants to each other in
religious and concrete time and space (Kapur, Lutgendorf, van der Veer,
intra); they rehearse societal models of conflict solution (Blackbum,
intra); they express political and social challenge (Hospital, Tulpule,
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