The R-Am-Ayaṇa Revisited

Description

The Ramayana is one of India's foundational epics, and it demonstrates a continuing power to influence social, religious, cultural, and political life. Brought to textual life in Sanskrit by the legendary first poet, Valmiki, over the ensuing centuries the tale has been recycled with extraordinary adaptability and diversity through the varied cultural heritages of India and other parts of Asia. The basic tale of the Ramayana is continually adapted to new contexts, forms, and media. It is read, recited, sung, danced, and acted in one form or another, and renewed so constantly by changing times and values that it demands constant revaluation. The Ramayana Revisited presents the latest in Ramayana scholarship. Fourteen leading scholars examine the epic in its myriad contexts throughout South and Southeast Asia. They explore the role the narrative plays in societies as varied as India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia. The essays also expand the understanding of the text to include non-verbal renditions of the epic, with particular attention to the complex ways such retellings change the way the narrative deals with gender. This volume will be invaluable to students and scholars interested in mythology, Hinduism, Asian studies, and anthropology. Cover Title Copyright Preface Note on Transliteration Contents Contributors Introduction 1. Resisting Rāma: Dharmic Debates on Gender and Hierarchy and the Work of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 2. Gendered Narratives: Gender, Space, and Narrative Structures in Vālmīki Bālakāṇḍa 3. Rāmāyaṇa Textual Traditions in Eastern India 4. Reinventing the Rāmāyaṇa in Twentieth-Century Bengali Literature 5. Why Can’t a Shudra Perform Asceticism? Śambūka in Three Modern South Indian Plays Hanumān's Adventures Underground: The Narrative Logic of a Rāmāyaṇa “Interpolation" 7. “Only You”: The Wedding of Rāma and Sītā, Past and Present 8. When Does Sītā Cease to Be Sītā? Notes toward a Cultural Grammar of Indian Narratives 9. Representing the Rāmāyaṇa on the Kūṭiyāṭṭaṁ Stage 10. The “Radio-Active” Gīta-Rāmāyaṇa: Home and Abroad 11. Mysticism and Islam in Javanese Rāmāyaṇa Tales 12. Chasing Sītā on a Global/Local Interface: Where Cartographies Collide, Silent Vessels “Tell in Full" 13. The Rāmāyaṇa in the Arts of Thailand and Cambodia 14. The Rāmāyaṇa Theme in the Visual Arts of South and Southeast Asia Appendix 1 The Rāmāyaṇa in Asia Appendix 2 Variant Names of Main Characters Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z