Ravana's Kingdom: The Ramayana and Sri Lankan History from Below

294 Pages·2022·9.164 MB·English

by  Justin W. Henry

Ravana’s Kingdom

Ravana’s Kingdom
The Ramayana and Sri Lankan History
from Below
JUSTIN W. HENRY
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CIP data is on file at the Library of Congress
ISBN 978– 0– 19– 763630– 5
DOI: 10.1093/ oso/ 9780197636305.001.0001
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Integrated Books International, United States of America
This book is dedicated to my parents, Donald and Donna Henry.

Contents
List of Figures ix
Acknowledgements xi
Note on Translation and Transliteration xv
1. ECHOES OF THE PAST, PRESSURES OF THE PRESENT 1
1.1 “We belong to the Yaksha clan!” 1
1.2 Ravana’s Kingdom and Twenty-F irst- Century Populism 3
1.3 The Pali Chronicle Tradition and History from Below 10
1.4 Chapter Summaries 17
2. MOVING MOUNT KAILASA 26
2.1 Ravana the Subaltern Cosmopolitan 26
2.2 Ravana’s Lanka in Indian Literature 28
2.3 Ravana and Rama in Tamil Temple Literature 32
2.4 Ravana’s Lankan Image 37
3. THE MANY RAMAYANAS OF LANKA 50
3.1 The Presence and the Absence of the Ramayana 50
3.2 The Ramayana in Sinhala Literature and Folklore 53
3.3 Ravana’s Mountain Abode 59
3.4 The Survival of Ravana’s Kingdom in Popular Imagination 67
4. RAVANA IN MODERN SRI LANKAN LITERATURE 86
4.1 The Ramayana and the Sinhala Neoclassical Movement 86
4.2 Ravana on Stage and Screen 94
4.3 Ravana’s Liminal Status in History and Historical Fiction 98
4.4 Ravana’s Lanka as Lost Paradise 108
4.5 Conclusion 113
5. TERRAFORMING THE PAST 127
5.1 The Quest for Hela-Y aksha Civilization 127
5.2 The Ramayana Trail 134
5.3 Daśānana Rāvaṇa: A Master of Science and Medicine 142
5.4 Ravana and Global Alternative Media 151
5.5 Conclusion: “Our Hela World” 156
viii Contents
6. A BRIDGE TOO CLOSE 173
6.1 Crossing the Ram Setu 173
6.2 Mainstreaming Ravana’s Kingdom 182
6.3 Ravana and Post-W ar Reconciliation 187
6.4 The Apotheosis of the Demon-K ing 191
Appendix: The Rāvaṇa Katāva: A Sinhala Ramayana of
the Kandyan Period 207
Bibliography 249
Index 267
Figures
2.1 Ravana at Koneswaram Temple 35
3.1 The ‘Ravana Diamond’ of Sri Lanka’s central highlands 61
4.1 Cover image from C. Don Bastian’s Rāmāyaṇaya hevat Rāvaṇa
Saṅhāraya (1886) 89
5.1 Lakshmana, Rama, and Sita at the Seetha Amman Temple, Seetha Eliya 137
5.2 Hanuman’s ‘footprints’ at the Seetha Amman Temple, Seetha Eliya 138
5.3 Sita’s ‘fire test’ at the Divurumpola Raja Maha Vihara 139
5.4 1921 cover image of U. D. Johannes Appuhamy’s The Story of the Wooden
Peacock, based on a traditional Sinhala folk tale 150
6.1 Ravana aboard his flying craft: mural at the Maha Ravana Raja Mandiraya at
Devram Vihara, Pannapitiya 193
6.2 Gotabaya Rajapaksha attending the inaugural perahera of the ‘Maha
Ravana Raja Mandiraya’ at the Devram Vihara, Pannapitiya,
September 19, 2013 193
6.3 Rajapaksha receiving a copy of Kolonnuwe Sumangala’s Mahā Rāvaṇa Śrī
Laṅkēśvara at the same occasion 194
6.4 Scale model of Ravana’s Dan̆ḍumonara 194
6.5 A statue of Ravana installed at the Maha Ravana Raja Mandiraya,
Devram Vihara 195