"The Ramayana does not belong to any one moment in history for it has its own history which lies embedded in the many versions which were woven around
"The Ramayana does not belong to any one moment in history for it has its own history which lies embedded in the many versions which were woven around the theme at different times and places." - Romila Thapar
The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are the great epics of India. Of these the Ramayana, though smaller, is the older one – and surprisingly widespread not only in India but across Asia right up to Japan. It boasts of astonishing regional varieties in the narrative, while keeping the core tale intact – a sure sign that it has spread as an oral narrative, and is a composite of various myths; some universal, some local.
Dr. Azeez Tharuvana, a native of the hilly Wayanad region of northern Kerala in India has done his doctoral research in tribal studies. A part of it was about the astonishing varieties of the Ramayana myth, popular among the tribes of the region. This book is a compendium of those tales in part; it also explores the spread of Ramayana across India and Asia.
There would be hardly an Indian who does not know the epic – about the hero Rama and his wife Sita, who is kidnapped by the demon king of Sri Lanka, Ravana. Rama along with his brother Lakshmana and the monkey army led by Hanuman reach Lanka by building a bund across the sea. In a fierce battle, Rama kills Ravana and his kin and rescues Sita.
In a devastating sequel to the epic, Rama abandons Sita because doubts are raised about her chastity while in Ravana’s captivity. Left in the forest to die, she is rescued by the sage Valmiki (the author of the epic, incidentally) and gives birth to twins in his ashram. Later on, Rama with his army confronts the children without knowing they are his; they defeat him when all is revealed. Rama apologises to Sita and asks her to return to the palace. She refuses and the ground opens up and swallows her.
In the tribal retellings, this whole story is superimposed on Wayanad, with Rama, Sita and Ravana all being converted into local tribals: the locations are in and around the area (for example, Ayodhya is in Irippu near Kodagu and Valmiki’s ashram is in Ashramam Kolli in Wayanad itself). There are also interesting bits of local colour, such as a lake in Ponkuzhi being created out of Sita’s tears and Jatayatta Kavu being the exact place where Sita disappeared into the earth. (The place name, literally translated, means “the grove where the hair became detached”. It is believed that as Sita went down, Rama tried to hold on to her hair which came off in his hand – again, not part of Valmiki’s epic.)
We also find tribal gods participating in the story. In many sub-narratives, they work as intercessors and are awarded special privileges by the Vedic gods (this may be a later attempt to legitimise or subsume the local religion). Even the origin myths of the tribes are mishmashed into the corpus of the Vedic myths. In one interesting myth, the origin of the slave status of the Adiya tribe is described to be handiwork of three “devious lords”, who cheated their king into parting with his land and then frightened them all into submission – this seems too much like history! (I have a very good guess on who those “devious lords” are.)
Dr. Azeez’s version of the historical origin of these myths is that they were imposed by the Aryan settlers who moved into this area. This, I don’t subscribe to fully. In my opinion, it was a bit of give and take between the settlers and the original inhabitants. Ramayana is a composite made up of myths from all over – and not necessarily only India, as the second part of the book (where the Ramayana tradition across India and Asia is explored) demonstrates.
And what a kaleidoscopic view it is! From Buddhist Ramayanas where Rama is the incarnation of the Bodhisattva; to Jain versions where he is a Tirthankara; to Islamic tellings where he is a sultan of sorts (in one Kerala Muslim version, all the characters speak Malabar Muslim lingo!): and from Tibet to China to Malaysia to Thailand and all the way across to Japan – the tale of this prince and his consort continues to entertain generation after generation.
Postscript: Currently efforts are on in India by Hindu fundamentalists to freeze this story in time and space, reinforce the image of Rama as an incarnation of Vishnu, and change myth into dogma – rather like what happened with Jesus. Sad....more
Nandakishore
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Books:
folklore
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