This volume examines The Rāmāyaṇa traditions of South India and Southeast Asia. Bringing together 19 well-known scholars in Rāmāyaṇa studies from Cambodia, Canada, France, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, UK, and USA, this thought-provoking and elegantly illustrated volume engages with the inherent plurality, diversity, and adaptability of the Rāmāyaṇa in changing socio-political, religious, and cultural contexts.
The journey and localization of the Rāmāyaṇa is explored in its manifold expressions – from classical to folk, from temples and palaces to theatres and by-lanes in cities and villages, and from ancient to modern times. Regional Rāmāyaṇas from different parts of South India and Southeast Asia are placed in deliberate juxtaposition to enable a historically informed discussion of their connected pasts across land and seas. The three parts of this volume, organized as visual, literary, and performance cultures, discuss the sculpted, painted, inscribed, written, recited, and performed Rāmāyaṇas. A related emphasis is on the way boundaries of medium and genre have been crossed in the visual, literary, and performed representations of the Rāmāyaṇa.
Edited by:
Parul Pandya Dhar
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 254mm,
Width: 178mm,
Weight: 848g
ISBN: 9781032599120
ISBN 10: 103259912X
Pages: 372
Publication Date: 06 October 2023
Audience:
General/trade
,
College/higher education
,
ELT Advanced
,
Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Prologue Acknowledgements Introduction Exploring the Epic’s Multivalence: Rāmāyaṇas in Visual, Literary, and Performance Cultures Parul Pandya Dhar I. Visual Cultures: Sculptures, Paintings, and Inscriptions 1. The Rāmāyaṇa Retold by Sculptors and Scribes in pre-Vijayanagara Karnataka Parul Pandya Dhar 2. Stone, Wood, Paint: Rāma-Story Representations throughout Southeast Asia John Brockington 3. Looking for Rāma: Traces of the Rāmāyaṇa in Temples of the Pallava Dynasty Valérie Gillet 4. Rāmāyaṇa Retold in Khmer sculpture with Special Reference to the Yuddhakāṇḍa, c. 10th-12th centuries Rachel Loizeau 5. Rāmāyaṇa Bronzes and Sculptures from the Cōḻa to Vijayanagara Times Sharada Srinivasan 6. Mighty Messenger: Adaptation and Localization of Hanumān and the Rāmāyaṇa in Southeast Asia Gauri Parimoo Krishnan 7. The Rāmāyaṇa Paintings of the Māliruñcōlai Temple: Nationalism under the Spell of Regionalism RKK Rajarajan 8. Expressions of the Rāmāyaṇa Epic in Malaysian Arts Cheryl Thiruchelvam II. Literary Cultures: Texts, Recitation, and Associated Imagery 9. The Discourse on Governance and Ethics as a Leitmotif in the Old Javanese Rāmāyaṇa or Rāmāyaṇa Kakawin Malini Saran 10. Thai Rāmakīen: Its Close Links with South India Chirapat Prapandvidya 11. From Kanauj to Laos: Development of the ‘Floating Maiden’ Episode in the Southeast Asian Rāma Tradition Mary Brockington 12. Making of a Language and the Making of a Bhakti Text: The Story of the Composition of Tunćat Ezhuttaććan’s Adhyātma Rāmāyaṇaṃ Kiḷippāṭṭu A J Thomas 13. Kumaran Asan’s ‘Cintāviṣṭayāya Sītā’, Sītā, Deep in Thought, a Translation Sudha Gopalakrishnan 14. Mabasan Rāmāyaṇa, a Continuous Retelling of the Rāmāyaṇa in Bali Thomas M Hunter III. Performance Cultures: Theatre, Puppetry, and Folk Practices 15. Representations of Rāvaṇa in a Kathakalī Piece and a Mythological Drama Paula Richman 16. The Rāmāyaṇa of the Malay Shadow Play, Wayang Kulit Kelantan, and its Possible Parallels and Connections with the Epic Versions in Northern Southeast Asia Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof 17. From Palace to Streets: Many Rāmāyaṇas from the Bylanes Krishna Murthy Hanuru 18. The Making of Rāmāyaṇa in the Yakṣagāna of Coastal Karnataka Purushottama Bilimale 19. Reamker Performance in Khmer Society Sirang Leng The Contributors Index
Parul Pandya Dhar is art historian and professor in the Department of History, University of Delhi. She has authored The Toraṇa in Indian and Southeast Asian Architecture (2010), edited Indian Art History: Changing Perspectives (2011), and co-edited Temple Architecture and Imagery of South and Southeast Asia (2016), Asian Encounters: Exploring Connected Histories (2014), and Cultural Interface of India with Asia (2004), besides contributing several research articles.
