Search

The most impactful stories carry with them wonderful traditions. The formation of these traditions and the drive to tell old stories in new ways is not an arbitrary process. That drive is energized by the endless motion of social and cultural tides that expose new ways of encountering familiar stories and finding purpose in the expression of their content. In this study, I explore why, for nearly two thousand years, so many have told and retold, maintained and modified, the story of Śambūka, an often overlooked story of the Rāmāyaṇa tradition. The story centers around Rāma’s killing of a Śūdra ascetic named Śambūka, an incident that has long carried with it considerable controversy rooted in the dissonance between devotional sentiments and caste politics that appears when the story collides with lived experiences. Since the earliest centuries of the Śambūka story’s history, many have framed Śambūka’s death so as to glorify Rāma and demonstrate the salvific power of contact with him, even if it results in death. In more recent years, anti-caste activists have increasingly mobilized the story to demonstrate a longstanding culture of casteist violence. This deep exploration of the Śambūka tradition and the connections and divergences between its narratives reveals a versatility to the story that illuminates the Rāmāyaṇa’s limitless impact on Indian society and the endless oscillations in the purposes it serves

The United States of America built its diverse culture upon Benjamin’s “triumphal procession” and sustained is apathetic views towards its diversity with Gómez-Peña’s Culti-multuralism. As a result of globalization cross-cultural adaptations have become increasingly popular in American theatres. American theatre artists should produce more cross-cultural adaptations of culturally unfamiliar texts— texts to which most Americans have not been exposed. If American theatre artists perform such texts with thorough research, respect, and humility, they can inform the American population about the various non-white cultures that make up the nation’s diverse population. If American theatre artists do not perform such texts with research, respect and humility, serious misunderstandings will occur. I examined three United States productions of Ramayana and concluded that cross-cultural adaptations of culturally unfamiliar texts have a profound pedagogical and sociological impact.

Solo percussionist and composer Glenn Kotche has achieved international fame with his experimental percussion-based music, collaborating with and composing for renowned contemporary music ensembles such as the Kronos Quartet, Band on a Can All-Stars, So Percussion, and Eighth Blackbird. One of his most celebrated compositions in recent years is Monkey Chant, which combines acoustic and electronic elements in a solo multiple percussion setting. Written and premiered in 2006, Kotche was inspired to compose Monkey Chant after listening to original field recordings in Bali from the Nonesuch Explorer Series. Found in these recordings is the popular Balinese music and dance drama known as Kecak. Monkey Chant showcases, through percussion, the intricate vocal patterns and recounting of the Ramayana Epic featured in Balinese Kecak. This monograph serves as an informational performance guide for Monkey Chant that simplifies and resolves performance questions and issues. It provides a contextual setting for the work with a brief biography of Glenn Kotche, including his musical influences and inspiration for the composition. Balinese Kecak is examined as well as the Hindu Ramayana tale as it relates to Kotche’s composition, revealing the function for its compositional form. This document also clarifies and details preparatory procedures for collecting and building the unique instruments required, also detailing schematics for electronic audio equipment and setup. Lastly, there is an analysis of compositional style and form, offering optional solutions to performance obstacles.

The Ramayana's Shambuka story is a controversial incident that has served as a site for the renegotiation of social power structures in India for thousands of years. Because the episode is fundamentally about India's system of caste hierarchy, or varna, any retelling will by its very nature engage in a formulation of social relation between different caste identities. Close readings of these retellings reveal the ways in which the adaptations and appropriations of each version create new literary meanings that provide insight into varna hierarchy as a normative body of social control. Despite the Shambuka incident's hegemonic history, transgressive participation in this narrative tradition constitutes a form of literary opposition to the established order. By breaking the tradition's reiteration of normative ideologies, these retellings open space for new conceptions of power and varna relations.