Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia
Sign in to keep track of books you’ve read and want to read.
Throughout Indian history, many authors and performers have produced, and many patrons have supported, diverse tellings of the story of the exiled prince Rama, who rescues his abducted wife by battling the demon king who has imprisoned her. The contributors to this volume focus on these "many" Ramayanas.
Read more
While most scholars continue to rely on Valmiki's Sanskrit Ramayanaas the authoritative version of the tale, the contributors to this volume do not. Their essays demonstrate the multivocal nature of the Ramayanaby highlighting its variations according to historical period, political context, regional literary tradition, religious affiliation, intended audience, and genre. Socially marginal groups in Indian society—Telugu women, for example, or Untouchables from Madhya Pradesh—have recast the Rama story to reflect their own views of the world, while in other hands the epic has become the basis for teachings about spiritual liberation or the demand for political separatism. Historians of religion, scholars of South Asia, folklorists, cultural anthropologists—all will find here refreshing perspectives on this tale.
Liked Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia? Here’s where I’d start.
These suit anyone who liked Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.
-
The Battle for Sanskrit: Is Sanskrit Political or Sacred, Oppressive or Liberating, Dead or Alive? Shares hinduism, India, nonfiction -
Indra's Net: Defending Hinduism's Philosophical Unity Shares hinduism, India, nonfiction -
The Myths and Gods of India: The Classic Work on Hindu Polytheism from the Princeton Bollingen Series Shares hinduism, India -
Meeting God: Elements of Hindu Devotion Shares hinduism, India, nonfiction
