Many roads lead to Lanka: The intercultural semantics of Rama's quest

Contemporary South Asia

Volumn 14, Issue 1 SPEC. ISS., 2005, Pages 39-53

  de Bruijn, Thomas ^a  

^a LEIDEN UNIVERSITY   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL INFLUENCE; MEDIA ROLE; RELIGION;

ASIA; EASTERN HEMISPHERE; EURASIA; SOUTH ASIA; WORLD;

EID: 26644451170     PISSN: 09584935     EISSN: 1469364X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/09584930500194892     Document Type: Article

References (56)

1. Romila Thapar, 'A historical perspective on the story of Rama', in Sarvepalli Gopal (ed), Anatomy of a Confrontation: Ayodhya and the Rise of Communal Politics in India (London: Zed Books, 1990), pp 141-163.
2. The term 'Rama-story' is used to signal the open set of tellings of the story of Rama to remind the reader that there is no one original or canonical version.
3. Tulasidas' Ramacharitamanasa, ed. and trans. into Hindi and English by R.C. Prasad (New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1989). Translations used in this paper are by the author. References are to the book and verse numbers in the Aradhi text e.g. RCM I, 35-43.
4. For the history of the tradition of Rama-katha and its many guises, see Thapar, op cit, Ref 1;
5. and Paula Richman (ed), Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991).
6. Tulsidas adds to this scene the conversion of Ravana, who finally realises the power of Rama and dies as a devotee; see op cit, Ref 2.
7. Originally, the Valmiki Ramayana ended with Rama's return to Ayodhya. Later traditions have added the Uttarakhanda to the epic, adding the exile of Sita and Rama's meeting with his two sons, Kusha and Lava, who are raised in the forest by Valmiki, the poet of the Ramayan. See Thapar, op cit, Ref 1, p 145.
8. J.C. Heesterman describes the paradox of the eternal status of dharma as the 'inner conflict of Indian tradition'. See J.C. Heesterman, The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), pp 10-25.
9. Heesterman, op cit, Ref 5, pp 108-127.
10. See Robert P. Goldman's introduction in The Ramayana of Valmiki: an epic of ancient India, Vol. I: Balakanda, intro. and trans. Robert P. Goldman, annotated by Robert P. Goldman and Sally J. Sutherland (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), pp 45-59.
11. Thapar rightfully recognises the association of the tale with the legitimation of kingdom from the eighth century AD onwards, but does not mention the problematic counterpoint to Rama's role as Perfect Man and model of kingship. See Thapar, op cit, Ref 1, p 151.
12. An important source for stories on Tulsidas is the Bhaktamala by Nabhadas, a collection of hagiographies of prominent bhakti saints (including the major poets) that is almost contemporary with Tulsidas's life. See Charlotte Vaudeville, Étude sur les sources et la composition du Ramayana de Tulsi-Das (Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1955), pp viii-x;
13. John Stratton Hawley and Mark Juergensmeyer, Songs of the Saints of India (New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), pp 145-161;
14. and Philip Lutgendorf, The Life of a Text: Performing the Ramacharitamanas of Tulsidas (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), pp 6-9.
15. Vaudeville, op cit, Ref 8.
16. RCM I, 10, op cit, Ref 2.
17. Karine Schomer and W.H. McLeod (eds), The Sants: Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1987), p 74.
18. RCM I, 35-43, op cit, Ref 2.
19. See also Lutgendorf, op cit, Ref 8.
20. RCM I, 110.2, op cit, Ref 2.
21. RCM I, 113.3, op cit, Ref 2.
22. See Lutgendorf, op cit, Ref 8, pp 9ff, 371-392;
23. and Hawley and Juergensmeyer, op cit, Ref 8, pp 143-161, for an elaborate description of the practice of Rama-katha (recitation of the Rama story) and the modern political use of the Rama-story.
24. Thapar, op cit, Ref 1, p 159.
25. Ibid, p 155.
26. Paul Hacker, 'Inklusivismus', in Festschrift for Paul Hacker's 70th birthday (ed), Inklusivismus: Eine Indische Denkform, Gerhard Oberhammer (Wien/Delhi: Brill/Motilal Banarsidass, 1983), pp 11-28.
27. His notion of Inklusivismus is not undisputed. Wilhelm Halbfass argues that it is not exclusively Indian but fails to give alternatives as the present essay attempts to do. See Wilhelm Halbfass, '"Inklusivismus" und "Toleranz" im Kontext der Indisch-Europäischen Begegnung', in Oberhammer, op cit, Ref 18, pp 29-60.
28. See Vaudeville, op cit, Ref 8, p 327, where she quotes this polarised view from several Indian scholars, such as R.C. Shukla, who pioneered the rediscovery of medieval Indian literature. Vaudeville was well aware of the historical position of the Sufi poets and their contributions to the medieval literatures. For many Indian scholars, the quest for the history of Hindi literature had a political background; they wanted to provide modern Hindi in its Sanskritised form with a historical pedigree and were embarrassed by the great prominence of Muslim authors in early vernacular poetry. Their answer was to make the Muslim poets into paragons of religious syncretism and mollify their Muslim identity. By imposing the image of the defender of Hinduism on Tulsidas, the literary historians followed the development of linguistic and cultural politics in early twentieth-century India. See where she quotes this polarised view from several Indian scholars, such as R.C. Shukla, who pioneered the rediscovery of medieval Indian literature. Vaudeville was well aware of the historical position of the Sufi poets and their contributions to the medieval literatures. For many Indian scholars, the quest for the history of Hindi literature had a political background; they wanted to provide modern Hindi in its Sanskritised form with a historical pedigree and were embarrassed by the great prominence of Muslim authors in early vernacular poetry. Their answer was to make the Muslim poets into paragons of religious syncretism and mollify their Muslim identity. By imposing the image of the defender of Hinduism on Tulsidas, the literary historians followed the development of linguistic and cultural politics in early twentieth-century India
29. For the development of Sufism in India see, S.A.A. Rizvi, History of Sufism in India (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1978), Vols 1-2;
30. Richard M. Eaton, Sufis of Bijapur, 1300-1700: Social Roles of Sufis in Medieval India (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978);
31. and Carl. W. Ernst, Eternal Garden: Mysticism, History and Politics at a South Asian Sufi Center (New York: New York University Press, 1992).
32. For a description of the changes in the position of Indian allies in the imperial structure, see D.H.A. Kolff, Naukar, Rajput, and Sepoy: The Ethnohistory of the Military Labour Market in Hindustan, 1450-1850 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p 101.
33. See Thomas de Bruijn, The Ruby Hidden in the Dust: A Study of the Poetics of Malik Muhammad Jayasi's Padmavat, PhD thesis (Leiden: Leiden University, 1996).
34. de Bruijn, ibid, pp 9-34.
35. See also Lutgendorf, op cit, Ref 8, p 9.
36. See Vaudeville, op cit, Ref 8;
37. and Lutgendorf, op cit, Ref 8.
38. Padmavat, 651, doha. All references are to V.S. Agrawala, Padmavat: Malik Muhammad Jayasi's krta mahakavya (Ciragamva [Jhansi]: Sahitya Sadana, 1961). Translations are by the current author.
39. Padmavat, 131.4, op cit, Ref 25.
40. Padmavat, 266, op cit, Ref 25.
41. The classical locus for this motif is the Persian poet Nizami's Iskandarnama, but it is likely that Jayasi also knew the motif from popular dastans (tales). See de Bruijn, op cit, Ref 22, pp 107-116.
42. Padmavat, 52.8, 102.4, 198.5, 304.1, 318.1, 323.6, 324.1, 333.5, 384.5, 402.7, 459.7 and 475.2, op cit, Ref 25.
43. Padmavat, 248, doha, op cit, Ref 25.
44. Padmavat, 146-149, op cit, Ref 25;
45. cf RCM II, 100-102, op cit, Ref 2.
46. Padmavat, 207-216, op cit, Ref 25.
47. RCM V, 4-8, op cit, Ref 2;
48. cf Padmavat, 159-197, op cit, Ref 25.
49. RCM I, 37, op cit, Ref 2.
50. See Lutgendorf, op cit, Ref 8, pp 18-29.
51. RCM I, 13.4, op cit, Ref 2.
52. RCM I, 25.1, op cit, Ref 2.
53. RCM I, 21.4, op cit, Ref 2.
54. Padmavat, 7.1-2, op cit, Ref 25.
55. Padmavat, 11.6-7, op cit, Ref 25.
56. Douglas E. Streusand, The Formation of the Mughal Empire (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989), p 148ff.