Rāmāyana in the Folk Tradition of India’s Northeast Region

Rāmāyaṇa is not merely a story but a living tradition. In India and in various parts of South Asia, Rāmāyaṇa has deep roots in the cultural fabric of the regions. Even though the earliest versions of the epic date back to thousands of years, the contemporaneity of the story cannot be overlooked.

This book, Rāmāyana in the Folk Tradition of India’s Northeast Region, highlights that Valmiki’s telling is one among the numerous versions of the epic. The main focus of the book is on the representations of the epic in India’s northeast region within the larger South-east Asian communities. It takes into consideration the various kinds of Rāmāyana tellings which are an integral part of India’s northeast region and thus, looks at the plurality/multiplicity of the epic.

This edited volume is divided into two parts; the first section concentrates on the oral tradition of the epic and the second one dwells upon the performative arts and visual arts related to the Rāmāyana.

Payel Dutta Chowdhury is an independent researcher and Marketing and Communications Content Specialist (Asia, Africa & Oceania) at American Welding Society (DL, Florida, USA). She specializes in Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, and Film Studies. She takes active interest in the study of folk culture and literature of India’s northeast region. Her published books of non-fiction are The Khasis of Meghalaya: Cultural Continuities and Transformations (2023), The Nagas: Social and Cultural Identity – Texts and Contexts (2019), and Dynamics of Self, Family and Community (2017). Her books of fiction include Lockdown Diaries: Stories of Unusual Times (2020), Folktales from India’s Northeast (2020), and The Women of Phoolbari and Other Stories (2019). She has published widely in national and international journals.

Farddina Hussain is an Associate Professor of English at Gauhati University, Guwahati, Assam, and is also an independent filmmaker. Her areas of interest are Cultural Studies, Film Studies, Travel Writing, Graphic Narratives, and Gender Studies. Several of her research papers on film, Posthumanism, and travel narratives have been published in reputed journals listed under UGC and Scopus. She is presently working on graphic narratives, slow journalism, and Energy Humanities along with her research scholars. She has also presented papers at both national and international conferences on these areas of interest.