audience
battle
caste system
Category=QRD
Category=QRVA
cultural anthropology
demon
demon king
epic
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
exile
exiled prince
feminism
folk epic
folk narrative
folklore
gender
genre
history
india
indian history
indian mythology
indian society
inequality
madhya pradesh
marginal groups
marginalization
nonfiction
political separatism
prince rama
prisoner
rama story
ramayana
ramayana retellings
ramayana variation
religion
religious studies
royalty
social justice
south asia
spiritual liberation
telugu women
untouchables
Product details
- ISBN 9780520075894
- Weight: 363g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 29 Aug 1991
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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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. While most scholars continue to rely on Valmiki's Sanskrit Ramayana as the authoritative version of the tale, the contributors to this volume do not. Their essays demonstrate the multivocal nature of the Ramayana by 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.
Paula Richman is Associate Professor of South Asian Religions at Oberlin College. She is the author of Gender and Religion: On the Complexity of Symbols (Beacon 1986).
