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El Rāmāyaṇa fue una de las primeras obras de la literatura clásica de India que llamó la atención del orientalismo europeo. Durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX, este interés alcanzó también a los círculos intelectuales hispanos, como dan cuenta traducciones indirectas, reseñas, notas periodísticas y otros documentos publicados de manera casi simultánea en España, Argentina y México. Este trabajo reúne y estudia por primera vez esos materiales y reconstruye el proceso de recepción del Rāmāyaṇa en el mundo de habla hispana durante los años 1860-1880, identificando tres variantes de representación asociadas con tres figuras: en España, Manuel de la Revilla, cuyo acercamiento al Rāmāyaṇa se adhiere a la interpretación racial en boga en países como Alemania, Francia e Italia; en Argentina, Lucio Vicente López, quien da muestras de un sutil distanciamiento respecto a dicha interpretación; en México, José González de la Torre, quien da un paso más allá y ofrece una lectura abiertamente nacionalista del Rāmāyaṇa. Juntos, estos testimonios ponen de manifiesto un episodio fundamental, pero a la fecha ignorado, del orientalismo hispanohablante por el que India adquirió una función simbólica bien delineada.

The traditional interpretations of the Ramayana have been critiqued for preserving and promoting patriarchal gender structures by emphasising masculine heroism and often portraying female characters as unidimensional symbols of selflessness, purity, and honour. This paper analyses how Samhita Arni and Chitrakar's graphic novel Sita's Ramayana offers a retelling that foregrounds Sita's perspective to question and reinterpret the social constructs. By analysing the text through a feminist literary lens, this paper examines how the novel adapts the traditional narrative to provide centre stage to Sita's various encounters with instances of oppression. The findings reveal how Arni's retelling employs unique aesthetics that combine texts and Chitrakar's patua art illustrations to question the traditional male-centred versions, making this novel a part of a broader structure of feminist reinterpretations that aim to highlight female agency in cultural canons. This paper examines Sita's stance against societal expectations for women, such as self-sacrifice, while also tracking her personal growth, which is symbolically represented by her reunion with Mother Earth. The novel contributes to the ongoing tradition of literary revisionism by offering a nuanced critique of the patriarchal foundations within classical myths. This is underscored by the novel's reinterpretation of the epic in a way that points out the plasticity of the Ramayana, which can be reshaped to support more progressive views, encouraging discourse on existing gender norms present in contemporary societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perhaps among the ancient literary works of India, the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata are more significant and are the main pillars of the country’s epic literature. This epic narrates Rama’s life, the beloved Dasaratha’s son, Kosala land’s king, in exile with his wife Sita. These two paintings are recalled as symbols of purity and happiness in Hindu tradition. Rajasthani artists have depicted a painting of the wedding ceremony of Rama and Sita, which possesses the main characteristics of Hindu art, namely an emphasv is on the symbolic use of colors. This study aims to analyze the symbols and features used in this painting. The study was conducted using a descriptive-analytical method. The painters of the present work used colors to enhance the clarity of the images and have shown special attention to their symbolism. Each color has been used according to its identity, and elements such as building architecture and the arrangement of figures have been precisely positioned in the painting. The decorations and other components presented in this painting have adhered to specific principles for proper composition, guiding the viewer’s eye, and maintaining the positions of the characters. The overall composition of the painting is designed to reflect the customs and traditions of wedding ceremonies in India.

We report an innovative technique for closure of a large secondary donor-site defect (in a post-electric-burn primary defect in cervico-occipital area, reconstructed with Trapezius myo-cutaneous flap) by using a double set of sequential bilateral bipedicled flaps which resembled "Jatayu", the holy bird with clipped wings as per the epic "Ramayana". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is no longer a novelty in Religious Studies that translations play an integral role in questions of (inter-)cultural contact, comparison, and identity. But the question of what translation means, how it relates to interpretation, and the role of text, language, and practice has not been adequately addressed. In recent years, feminist historical research has published some ground-breaking work addressing this very question. This article uses a cross-disciplinary (literature studies, feminist translation studies and religious studies) approach to examine four different Ramayana versions in late colonial Ceylon and India (1900–1930) written by the Theosophists Annie Besant, Marie Musaeus Higgins and Leelawathy Ramanathan for the purpose of girls' education. The differing portrayals of Sita as the "perfect wife" will be used to highlight the importance of theories of translation for the study of global religious history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional interpretations of the Ramayana have been critiqued for preserving and promoting patriarchal gender structures by emphasising masculine heroism and often portraying female characters as unidimensional symbols of selflessness, purity, and honour. This paper analyses how Samhita Arni and Chitrakar’s graphic novel Sita’s Ramayana offers a retelling that foregrounds Sita’s perspective to question and reinterpret the social constructs. By analysing the text through a feminist literary lens, this paper examines how the novel adapts the traditional narrative to provide centre stage to Sita’s various encounters with instances of oppression. The findings reveal how Arni’s retelling employs unique aesthetics that combine texts and Chitrakar’s patua art illustrations to question the traditional male-centred versions, making this novel a part of a broader structure of feminist reinterpretations that aim to highlight female agency in cultural canons. This paper examines Sita’s stance against societal expectations for women, such as self-sacrifice, while also tracking her personal growth, which is symbolically represented by her reunion with Mother Earth. The novel contributes to the ongoing tradition of literary revisionism by offering a nuanced critique of the patriarchal foundations within classical myths. This is underscored by the novel’s reinterpretation of the epic in a way that points out the plasticity of the Ramayana, which can be reshaped to support more progressive views, encouraging discourse on existing gender norms present in contemporary societies.

Indian Lakṣmī or Śrī Lakṣmī is the goddess of fortune, abundance and agricultural affluence. Lakṣmī is also the Universal Mother goddess as indicated by her designation Mā or Śrī-Mā. Later, she came to be considered by the Hindus as a consort of Viṣṇu and was inspired by the Ardhanārīśvara images. In the first place, Vedic literature testifies that Śrī or Lakṣmī was an abstract idea symbolizing beauty; but later on, we find her as a beautiful goddess absorbing in her personality some of the attributes of the mother goddess common to all ancient civilizations from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. Śrī or Lakṣmī the Goddess of Fortune and abundance has been regarded as a popular divinity with the masses, who belonged to the Brāhmanical pantheon from the very ancient days and various Dhyānas and systems of worshipping her have gradually evolved from the late Vedic period onwards. As fortune and abundance of wealth were and still are closely associated with every man, the worshipping of this deity began to be widespread first amongst the Hindu community and even now she is worshipped in every house for the prosperity and welfare of the whole family.

The story of Rama has been known on Java and mainland Southeast Asia since before the 9th century. The strong divergences in West Java and Malaysian puppet versions from Valmiki show patterns of intensification and localization that make the narrative at home in the region. In the 1960s, the Ramayana was not seen as bearing overt religious or political implications for Muslim performers, and its trans-Southeast Asian popularity boosted its currency. In 1965 the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) held a pan-Southeast Asian Ramayana festival – spurring countries where this epic, preserved in puppetry/mask performance, was only modestly popular (e.g., Indonesia and Philippines) to increase attention to this central narrative for traditional Southeast Asian mainland puppetry. Since the 1990s, however, transnational religio-political forces, including the Hindu revival in India (which sees Rama as proto-ruler of a Hindu realm) and the Islamic revival in the Muslim world (which sees the story as shirk, worshipping a god other than Allah), may problematize the narrative in Indonesian and Malaysian puppetry.

Anurupa Roy, director of a troupe of puppeteers in Delhi, India, discusses with Paula Richman, emerita professor at Oberlin College (USA), various facets in the creation of her puppet play About Ram. Roy wanted the audience to experience the diversity of the Ramayana tradition as a tragic love story about a hero (first a prince and later a king) who feels duty-bound to banish his wife with the result that he remains alone for the rest of his life. The play is filled with images of the hero’s past life through animation of his memories and weapons on a screen mounted on stage and music with no words but with a percussion emphasis that draws upon different musical instruments from various regions. Over the period of improvisation by which the performance developed, Roy made the war scenes very stylized and the animator contemporized the weapons to include jet propulsion and machine guns. As part of her goal to develop an embodied language for contemporary puppet practice in India, Roy incorporated dances based on martial arts, which led to a grammar of movement for the puppet performance that was contemporary and engaging.

Traditions of wayang puppetry in Indonesia realize what Philippe Descola refers to as an «animist ontology». Not only human figures, but also what Tim Ingold calls «nonhuman persons», including personal possessions, landforms, and animals, possess consciousness and interiority. Among wayang’s diverse story sources, the Ramayana stands out for its animistic qualities. Episodes depict interactions between humans, ogres, monkeys, deities, and other nonhuman persons, activating the potential of the medium for representing transformation and theatrically mining the suspension of natural laws. This essay, based on ongoing research into the wayang collection of Yale University Art Gallery, examines how the characters of the Ramayana reflect shifting theatrical styles and animistic beliefs. Analysis of these historical puppets is followed by an exploration of an experimental 2023 Ramayana production originated at the University of Con-necticut hybridizing wayang with the tholpavakoothu shadow puppet tradition of Kerala, India, in which the epic is retold from the perspective of the trees and wood inhabiting it.

The Sikh relationship with pilgrimage models is ambivalent and complicated; however, this relationship has been revived and reinvented because of several historical, cultural, and political transitions: the extensive Sikh diaspora; familiarity of pilgrimage in the Indian subcontinent; the effects of Partition and Sikh independence initiatives; and the secular and tourist components of pilgrimage. The shift from adherence to the wisdom of the Guru as the focus of the pious life to a physical journey involving geographical sites is a phenomenon that partly resulted from the partition of the Punjab in 1947; thus, the personal, social, and spiritual intersect intriguingly with political motivations. While pilgrimage narratives therefore have a limited place in Sikhism, diasporic writers can create a fictional response and rewriting of the pattern I have identified in previous studies. Balli Kaur Jaswal's most recent novel, The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters, focuses on a pilgrimage undertaken by three sisters after their mother's death. This novel is an uncomfortable interweaving of Western concepts of the 'dying wish' and engages the ongoing controversy about the purpose of pilgrimage in Sikhism. It also revisits the paradigm of pilgrimage in the Indian epic Ramayana from a feminist perspective. This article engages with both the author's critical exegesis related to the novel, and her personal reflection on pilgrimage to the ancestral geography of the subcontinent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is a book review of "Ravana's Kingdom: The Ramayana and Sri Lankan History from Below" by Justin W. Henry. The book explores the adaptations and revisions of the Ramayana epic in Sri Lanka from the fourteenth century to the present day. It highlights the sympathetic view of Ravana's character among both Sri Lankan Tamil Hindus and Sinhalese Buddhists and examines the subversive local narratives that challenge established accounts of the island's history. The book also discusses the contemporary relevance of Ravana's kingdom in relation to popular movements, sovereignty discourses, and alternative media. [Extracted from the article]

The corpus of Indian women's literature has the power to define the borders of community, class, and gender. Challenging the existing patriarchal set-up, writers from all corners of the nation speak not only to subvert the patriarchy but also to claim their authority and bring subdued voices to the fore. In Volga's gynocentric retellings of the ancient epic "Ramayana," Volga's The Liberation of Sita and Yashodhara deconstruct the traditional epic by recentering female characters that were marginalized in the original. The Liberation of Sita and Yashodhara tell the story of Buddha's wife after his unexpected departure, and they exemplify an active remaking of the past, a revision, and a reinvention of tradition. Thus, the author creates a female collective by representing ancient tradition from alternative points of view and networking with women across ages and generations. This paper interprets the depiction of the female characters in the select texts not merely as exalted figures but as bold voices. The female characters of the epic are victims of patriarchy, yet they are not depicted as mere sufferers. The author has given them a strong voice and dignity, narrating words of wisdom which are the result of their experiences of struggle with pain. Hence, the study shows Volga's evolved understanding of feminism as more than a simple conflict between men and women, but a larger issue that cannot simply be reduced to binaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It would be beautiful for any poet to compose the greatest epic “Ramayana” in any language. Professor Subbu Reddiar wrote the story as good as the great Valmiki who sang the “Ramayana.” The epic “Ramakatha” tells the story of Rama and his wife Sita, a prince of the Isvaku dynasty from Ayodhya, the capital of Kosala. This story covers many aspects such as duty, heroism, love, femininity, marriage, relationships between relationships, war etc. Everyone born on this earth is indebted to someone in some way. According to Rama, the son must go into exile for 14 years without saying a word. He fulfilled it. It is the duty of the husband to rescue his wife when she is seduced by another man. Love is also beyond many senses. From one sense to the other, this feeling will appear in some way in the epics. Many Sangam literature songs are about love and war. Sangam literature and ancient Tamil grammar tell us about love and heroism. The heroism of Rama, Lakshmana, Hanuman, Ravana, Kumbha Karna, Indrajith and Vali are still talked about by the people today. Marriage is the formation of a bond between the couple. This bond will continue till the end of life. Life thrives on the exchange of love for one another. No one has the power to make love because it is immortal. Professor Subbu Reddiar has seen all such glimpses of Tamil culture in the epic “Ramayana”. So, he wanted to elicit to his reading audience, he had written many articles on “Ramayana” with startling comments analyzing the characters. Hence, this article focuses to bring forth the perspectives of Professor Subbu Reddiar to the present-day admirers of Subbu Reddiar and the Tamil academic world.

Myths and mythological figures serve as cultural symbols that people live by and emulate. Śravaṇ Kumār is one such mythological figure. He carried his blind parents on his shoulders and, with great hardships, tried to fulfil their wish for a pilgrimage. However, before he could complete the journey, he met a tragic end at the hands of Prince Daśrath. Due to his devotion to his parents, he is revered as an ideal youth in the Indian Hindu context. One wonders what values are conveyed about a society that has, for centuries now, idealised the tragic mythical figure of Śravaṇ Kumār? What could be the underlying fascination with the tragic story of Śravaṇ Kumār, his parents, and the guilt-ridden prince responsible for their tragic deaths and the subsequent ordeal the prince's son Rām had to endure in accordance with a curse? This paper reinterprets this myth and examines its relevance in contemporary times. The reinterpretation of the myth is further discussed in connection with the relevant psychoanalytic identity development theories, keeping in view the adolescents in the urban metropolitan context in India. The paper concludes by discussing the significance of having relevant mythical and cultural ideals for the identity development of youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sikh relationship with pilgrimage models is ambivalent and complicated; however, this relationship has been revived and reinvented because of several historical, cultural, and political transitions: the extensive Sikh diaspora; familiarity of pilgrimage in the Indian subcontinent; the effects of Partition and Sikh independence initiatives; and the secular and tourist components of pilgrimage. The shift from adherence to the wisdom of the Guru as the focus of the pious life to a physical journey involving geographical sites is a phenomenon that partly resulted from the partition of the Punjab in 1947; thus, the personal, social, and spiritual intersect intriguingly with political motivations. While pilgrimage narratives therefore have a limited place in Sikhism, diasporic writers can create a fictional response and rewriting of the pattern I have identified in previous studies. Balli Kaur Jaswal’s most recent novel, The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters, focuses on a pilgrimage undertaken by three sisters after their mother’s death. This novel is an uncomfortable interweaving of Western concepts of the ‘dying wish’ and engages the ongoing controversy about the purpose of pilgrimage in Sikhism. It also revisits the paradigm of pilgrimage in the Indian epic Ramayana from a feminist perspective. This article engages with both the author’s critical exegesis related to the novel, and her personal reflection on pilgrimage to the ancestral geography of the subcontinent.

Robert Antoni's Divina Trace has not yet found the wide readership that might be expected of the winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, perhaps because it does not conform to its readers' expectations of a Caribbean novel. And yet it is of particular relevance to the legacy of indentureship and the East Indian presence in Trinidad and to the relationships among the different ethnic groups on the island through its central concern with a black madonna on a fictional island unmistakeably resembling the Divina Siparia worshipped by Catholics or the Hindu Siparia Mai. This essay examines the author's postmodern techniques with particular reference to his treatment of sexuality, stereotypes, the grotesque and religious themes to discover what could be the significance of the idea of the Virgin and her representation in the black madonna. In doing so it engages with Deleuze's ideas on repetition to investigate the relationship between storytelling and reality, and the nature of the creative imagination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a book review of Bashabi Fraser's book The Ramayana: A Stage Play and a Screen Play

Myths and mythological figures serve as cultural symbols that people live by and emulate. Śravaṇ Kumār is one such mythological figure. He carried his blind parents on his shoulders and, with great hardships, tried to fulfil their wish for a pilgrimage. However, before he could complete the journey, he met a tragic end at the hands of Prince Daśrath. Due to his devotion to his parents, he is revered as an ideal youth in the Indian Hindu context. One wonders what values are conveyed about a society that has, for centuries now, idealised the tragic mythical figure of Śravaṇ Kumār? What could be the underlying fascination with the tragic story of Śravaṇ Kumār, his parents, and the guilt-ridden prince responsible for their tragic deaths and the subsequent ordeal the prince’s son Rām had to endure in accordance with a curse? This paper reinterprets this myth and examines its relevance in contemporary times. The reinterpretation of the myth is further discussed in connection with the relevant psychoanalytic identity development theories, keeping in view the adolescents in the urban metropolitan context in India. The paper concludes by discussing the significance of having relevant mythical and cultural ideals for the identity development of youth.

Indian Literary tradition is rooted in Sanskrit and two finest manifestations comprising both are The Ramayana and The Mahabharata. The two texts stand at the helm of Sanskrit and Indian literature and have, since times immemorial, stood as its flag bearers. So much so that Jonathan Culler marks The Mahabharata as the Foundational Narrative in the Oriental World. The Sanskrit Drama, on the other hand marks its presence with the plays of Bhasa, albeit the oldest treatise on Sanskrit drama, Natyashastra, precedes Bhasa. In his plays can be found the first signs of what contemporaneity calls Alternative Literature, literature dealing with rerenderings of the erstwhile Foundational Epics. This research paper delves into the deviations that Bhasa incorporates in his plays that adapt The Mahabharata. An attempt has been made to assess how significant the deviations are in comparison to the primary text; and the implications thereof on the stature of the Indian Foundational Epic, as Culler calls The Mahabharata. The paper also strives to ascertain what the discovery of Bhasa’s plays means to the corpus of ‘unchallengeable’ Primary Indian Texts. Finally, the Paper elaborates on the contemporary relevance of these alternative renderings in literature and life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Re-vision - the act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an old text from a new critical direction - is for us more than a chapter in cultural history: it is an act of survival", writes Adrienne Rich in her seminal essay, "When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-vision". Rich firmly advocates that women authors should create spaces for subversion of patriarchal values and ideals through their literary works. Revisionist mythmaking, from a feminist literary perspective, evolves through challenging a preceding text which predominantly manifests androcentric ideas. The present paper aims to examine a female reinterpretation of Ramayan, Sita's Ramayana by Samhita Arni, as a revisionist text. Sita's Ramayana is a graphic narrative in which Arni's retelling is complemented by patachitra or scroll painting by Moyna Chitrakar, a female patachitra artist from West Bengal, India. Sita's character is one of the major literary tools through which women writers often attempt to review the Ramayan and subvert the male-centric reading of the epic. This paper seeks to understand the elements of revisionism in Sita's Ramayana in the context of a sixteenth century retelling of Ramayan, Chandrabati's Ramayan, a verse narrative composed by Chandrabati, the first women poet of Bengal. Chandrabati's Ramayan, a fierce Sita tale, has been the primary influence on Arni in subverting the patriarchal, popular representation of Sita's character. This paper attempts to interpret how Arni has altered the patriarchal understanding of the epic by foregrounding the tale through Sita's viewpoint. It also aims to analyse how these female authors, Arni and Chandrabati have assigned Sita's character an agency to challenge the androcentric notions that dominate the interpretation of Ramayan. Further, the paper seeks to interpret how the folk-art form of patachitra contributes to the meaning-making of a contemporary subversive retelling of the grand epic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking the current geological, environmental and religious controversy around the iconic Adam's Bridge or Ram Sethu (as it is referred to in Hindu sacred mythography) and the proposed Sethusamudram canal project - which has been delayed since the late-20 century over several administrative terms, due to litigious procedures and protests by religious groups - this article examines the Ram Sethu as an aquapelago. The Ram Sethu is an aquapelagic zone, not merely in geo-historical terms but also in psychological ways, that is largely experienced in the Indian consciousness through the evolution of ancient folkloric motifs in contemporary media-loric polemic. As an aquapelagic imaginary, or indeed a performed aquapelago, the Ram Sethu is sustained by accumulating epistemic plurality from multiple geological, secularist, sacred and environmentalist interpretations. This epistemological plurality or transcendence of (geo-)logocentric meanings is an inevitable function of aquapelagic imaginaries, even more so of the Ram Sethu, which is reproduced by multiple determinate negations of religion (negating ambitions of economic development), developmentalism (negating themes of environmental sustainability), and environmentalism (negating majoritarian discourses of what constitutes the sacred). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rāvaa, the ten-headed Rākasa ('demon') king of the epic the Rāmāyaa, is the most fascinating of all the antagonists in films based on Hindu mythology, so powerful that even the Sun cannot rise without his orders, and celebrated as an unparalleled musician-scholar and great devotee of the god Śiva. His passion for the vīā, a string instrument with divine associations, is so great that this instrument adorns his royal flag as its emblem. His consciousness of his supreme powers and great knowledge soon gives way to ahakāra (hubris) and lust, which leads to his eventual downfall and death at the hands of Rāma, a human avatar of the god Viu. Perspectives on Rāvaa vary. My work brings out the contrast between his character in the epics and on screen, and the fundamental differences in how he is perceived in films in Hindi and in south Indian languages. I argue that film (cinema and TV) portrayals are more nuanced than his generally 'evil' image in ancient and medieval versions of the epic. I also argue that films from south India, especially Tamil ones, tone down the evil aspect more than those from the north, possibly owing to influences from Dravidian politics. Adherents of this stream of politics argue that the Rāmāyaa - including the 12th-century Tamil Rāmāyaa by Kampa - served to impose north Indian Brahminical Aryan culture onto the Dravidian people of southern India. Rāvaa is seen as a great Dravidian leader, who was killed by the Aryan Rāma. I find that this image of Rāvaa has a strong influence in Tamil films, and to some extent in Telugu films. Remarkably, Kampa's epic comes together with its opponent, Dravidian politics, to produce a glorious image of Rāvaa in film as a Tamil king who is a musician-scholar with mastery over the vīā. Though Telugu films usually do not mention Rāvaa's ethnicity, one film, where the superstar N. T. Rama Rao plays him, explicitly refers to him as a Dravidian. This article focuses more on the south Indian films, comparing and contrasting them with the north Indian (Hindi) ones. Of the latter, the Rāmāyaa television series (1987) by Ramanand Sagar, where he is the antagonist, and the series Raavan (2006-08) on Zee TV, where he is the protagonist, are of special interest. In the former, he is arrogant, stubborn and wicked, but his greatness as a scholar and warrior is still highlighted. There are also Tamil influences, including Rāvaa's celebrated vīā flag and a 'Tamilstyle' depiction of his court. Though Sagar's series has been termed a contributor to Hindu nationalism by many, it does not portray Rāvaa as a complete villain. The Zee series depicts Rāva in a manner highly unusual in the world of Indian mythological film - as a politico-cultural revolutionary. Rāvaa's vīā music, while depicted by Sagar, receives further emphasis in more recent Hindi series. Thus, in both the north and the south, Rāvaa is a larger-than-life figure, and a mix of good and evil and of learned and arrogant. However, the evil aspects tend to be emphasized to a greater extent in the north. In spite of this difference, he dies an exalted death in films across languages. One Tamil influence - the vīā-player image - is so powerful that it has reached all over India, the 'Aryan' north included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to classical Indian aesthetic theory, adbhuta, the ‘marvellous’, is one of the nine canonical rasas, ‘moods’, that can be aroused in the audience by a theatrical or literary work, and Sanskrit epics largely resonate with adbhuta features. An episode of the Rāmāyaṇa (Rāmāyaṇa [Critical Edition], IV 49-52) recounts how, during their search for Sītā, a handful of monkeys led by Hanumān find themselves entering and remaining for some time almost imprisoned in a cave created by Maya, the great architect of the Asuras. The description of this cave is steeped in the imagery that connotes, in the Sanskrit epics and Buddhist literature of the early centuries CE, paradises and remote, fabulous places. Recurring elements of these places include vegetation made of gold and jewels and the presence of birds, and brilliance is a constant attribute.

The establishment of the academic study of Indentureship is a relatively recent development that has been led by descendants of indentured labourers from across the diaspora. This article highlights key moments in both the history and historiography of Indentureship. Looking first at the system established by the British on plantations across their colonies, it goes on to consider the variety of labourers' backgrounds and the process of social equalisation that was fostered by both voyage and plantation. Considering the injustices of the system, the author emphasises the ways in which labourers were able to disrupt the power of the plantocracy and analyses the particular perils the system held for women. The religious life of the labourers as well as the maintenance of the Panchayat and the importance of the Ramayana are also weighed. The historiography section of this article traces the attention paid to the system of indenture and the diaspora it created; from the initial attentions of missionaries and 'benevolent' organisations in the nineteenth century to the creation of a global network of scholars of Indentureship with roots in South Africa, Fiji, Mauritius, Guyana and Trinidad. It further emphasises key moments and publications during this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retelling the great Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata is carried out over many generations. The contextual study of these great myths interprets distinct ideologies according to the creed of generation after generation. In the lineage of retelling the myths Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni attempts to portray the saga of Mahabharata from Draupadi's perspective in the genre of novel. The Palace of Illusions titled by Divakaruni which is meant to be her dramatic recreation is the central element for discussion in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata have been an integral part of the Indian cultural tradition. Since centuries, they have been told and reinterpreted several times and handed down from one generation to another. The Ramayana is based on the morals such as the triumph of goodness over evil, obedience, brotherhood, love, compassion, sacrifice - all looped into the thread of Indian cultural tradition with an emphasizes on the value of dharma. However, there are some female characters that have been left on the margin in this epic and have been portrayed as upholders of male honour. They are devoid of the proper attention for their roles and sacrifices they deserve. Kavita Kane in her novel, Sita's Sister has revisited the Ramayana from the daring and unwavering Urmila's (Laxmana's wife) perspective - a marginalized character who has never received the responsiveness she is worthy of. Kane has given voice to the muted character of Urmila. The present paper studies the contemporary relevance of Sita's Sister from feministrevisionist myth-making point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents discussion on the performing tradition of Mappila Ramayana which being prevalent in the Mappila Community of Malabar region in Kerala in a context of a cultural grafting. Topics include oral tradition of the region called as Muslim Ramayana or Islamic Ramayana predominantly popularized in the Vadakara region; and Muslim community having a very rich oral tradition with different variety of songs.

Foundation of human civilization and endorsement of its potency are the consequences of prolonged women endeavor, which through its history of superiority and confinement, convey the picturesque of civilization. Since ages, the Indian societal structure has played an active role in stimulating the trends of change in women’s status, which with time also proved to be hindrance to the progress of this country. In this context, the study has attempted to emphasize the women’s status in ancient Indian civilization based on the ancient scripts and texts. The ancient era has been categorized into four distinct periods viz. the Vedic period, the Epic period, the period of Jainism and Buddhism and the age of Dharmaśāstras, Mánusmṛiti onward. The study has portrayed the relegation of the women’s dignified role and position entirely to a subservient one from Vedic period to the period of Dharmaśāstras, Mánusmṛiti onward.

Though translation activities are more than two millennia old, the most significant activities in this field took place in the 20th century. To be specific, contradictory theoretical positions were taken and entirely new kinds of questions were asked in the second half of this century. Scholars like Susan Bassnett (1998) even claimed that a translation should be treated as an independent and original text. But a number of writers, translators and scholars hold an opposite view. If we consider the translation activities of the ancient western civilizations of the world, we notice that those were mostly commissioned and literal in nature. Contrary to it, the situation in India was different. Though Valmiki and Vyasa composed the Ramayana and the Mahabharata respectively for the first time in Sanskrit, the Ramayanas and Mahabharatas written later in various vernacular languages of India are adaptations or transcreations. A careful analysis of the European, Arabic, and Chinese traditions show that those were literate in comparison with the vernacular Indian tradition that was predominantly oral. This orality gave a lot of freedom to the writers in the vernacular languages in ancient India to be creative and compose new texts. Therefore, orality was the driving force for this creativity and some western scholars' proposal that a translated text is an original text in not a new concept. The other point I would like to make is that contrary to the popular belief, a literal translation of a literary text is also appreciated more (Newmark 1988:70-71). This position is validated in two of our case studies, i.e. Mohanty et al. (2008) and Mohanty and Sarath Chandra (2014). Therefore, I want to argue that 'free' translation was the mainstream in the climate of orality and not in literacy. This free trend endorsed by those scholars who treat translations as original texts is peripheral in the contemporary literate societies in which translations are usually commissioned. I will also argue that the differences between the free and the literal trends in translation are primarily due to the oral and the literate traditions that prevailed in India and in the other parts of the world mentioned above in the olden days. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Vedic literature constitutes the fulcrum of Sanskrit literature and is repositories of some fundamental concepts of human rights. This manuscript endeavors to decode the tenets of human rights concealed in the Vedic texts. It further endeavors to view a connection between archaic Vedic literature and human rights and approaches the subject of human rights from the perspectives of Vedic texts. As an articulated concept, human rights have distinct western inception though the elements that constitute the concept postulate different cultural forms and are found in sundry civilizations of which one is Vedic civilization. The Vedic rights are certainly not akin to modern-day human rights but then it would not be feasible to expect much from the texts that are approximately 3500 to 4000 years old. Though the Vedic literature vividly resonates with some rudimentary conceptions of human rights, the relationship between Vedic literature and human rights is not entirely smooth and tension free. This manuscript withal fixates on the incongruities subsisting between Vedic literature and human rights.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela (2013) offers an example of how Bollywood cinema continues to reap success at the box-office by tapping into the Hindu viewers' familiarity with Hindu gods, mythological tales, and religious performance traditions. The film employs the Hindu epic Ramayana in ways that celebrate and consolidate Hindu identity through the visual representation of Hindu religious rituals and performances. The hugely popular song-dance sequence "Tattad tattad" plays a significant role in this context by integrating popular aspects of the Hindu gods Ram and Krishna to represent the cinematic hero and male protagonist Ram, played by the actor Ranveer Singh. An examination of the song lyrics, dance moves, and the mis-en-scène of "Tattad tattad" demonstrates how ramlila-raslila performance traditions, which enact episodes from the mythological stories of the Hindu gods Ram and Krishna, respectively, get reworked in the context of contemporary visual media. The film's success reveals the intertwining of Bollywood and Hindu nationalism in India that produces both devoted Bollywood spectators and Hindu Right supporters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Common mental health disorders (CMDs) affect nearly 10% of the population, with the majority (80%) remaining untreated. Culturally relevant counseling approaches can be a means to reach many untreated persons. We describe the development and validation of a socioculturally relevant counseling module based on the Ramayana for persons with CMDs., Methods: The study employed an exploratory research framework to design the counseling module. The module underwent a comprehensive review of the Valmiki Ramayana to ensure its cultural relevance. Content validation was performed by mental health professionals from the field of Indian psychology. Concurrently, a panel of 15 experts from diverse backgrounds in Indian psychology validated the counseling module based on the Ramayana ., Results: Based on the results of expert interviews ( n = 15), the counseling techniques, encompassing concepts, anecdotes, and narratives, were finalized. These interviews also contributed to the refinement of the counseling module. The primary objective of the content validation process was to systematically assess the appropriateness, accuracy, and practicality of the various components within the module. The content validation demonstrated that all items contained within the module exceeded the established threshold of p = .59., Conclusions: The developed counseling module based on the Ramayana is feasible to be implemented as a sociocultural intervention for persons with CMDs. By assisting persons to enhance coping abilities and improve overall well-being, this module offers a valuable resource for mental health intervention in the Indian sociocultural context. It fosters a culturally sensitive and practical approach to address the diverse mental health needs of the population., Competing Interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (© 2024 The Author(s).)

Lara Jonggrang is one of the temples in Java that attracts several researchers from various disciplines. The abundance of discussion about this temple does not necessarily close the possibility of new discussion or merely reinterpreting old problems through new approaches. One of the aims of this study is to reopen the old discourse about Lara Jonggrang Temple which is considered to have reached the final stage through research questions, What is the relation between the reliefs of the Rāmāyana story and the Kṛṣṇa story in Lara Jonggrang Temple and the transfer of power in the Ancient Mataram in 9th Century AD? Through a descriptive-analytical method, this study found several things that have been considered final have still kept a few surprises from new interpretations. Through this article, it is shown that Rakai Pikatan and Rakai Kayuwangi play a role as a milestone for the construction, inauguration, and carving of story reliefs in Lara Jonggrang Temple. In addition, the existence of the two reliefs is also related to the process of transfer of power in the Ancient Mataram in 9th Century AD.

The article presents a study of the royal hunting practices of lunar and solar dynasties, using the great Sanskrit epics as literary sources. Both epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, criticize the devastation and destruction of the forest area brought about by the hunting king and simultaneously praise the calming impact of forest hermitages on the environment. Ample provision was made for non-participation of hounds in hunting. The analysis showed that the deforestation and the tragic fate of indigenous hunting tribes continued to be the central problem of the texts. The king required the forest area for the purposes of agriculture and economy, brahmins set up hermitages here, but the forest used to be a tribal habitat first of all. The dominant Bharata tribe formed alliances by contracting marriages with more powerful hunting communities, while for the vulnerable ones there was no room left. Dehumanized, perceived as demonic or snake-like creatures and animals, they were doomed. The forests along the route of the expansion of the Bharata tribe were cut down or burnt, often together with their inhabitants: human tribes, animals and birds.

"Brahma has decreed for us absolute freedom in our sexual pursuits, habits, eating manners, and life. In our society, there is no such thing as wedlock" - Vali "Not that I loved Caesar less, but I loved Rome more" - Brutus In the tradition of the kings, Suryavamsha or Solar Dynasty and Chandravamsha or the Lunar Dynasty were the two major Indo-Aryan dynasties found in ancient India. Rama belongs to Suryavamsha Dynasty. In Ramayana, Vali, also known as Bali, was the ruler of Vanara kingdom known as the king of the Kishkindha as per the Hindu epic Ramayana. Vali ruled the kingdom of Kishkindha and ruled it for a long time truthfully. Vali's younger brother was Sugreeva. Vali was blessed by Bhrama with the ability to obtain half the strength of his opponent. Vali was invincible during Treta Yuga. When the greatest warrior Ravana challenged Vali to come and fight, Vali defeated Ravana. Vali's younger brother was Sugriva. Sugriva was driven out of Kishkindha by the fear of Vali. Sugriva met Rama and requested him to kill Vali. Rama asked Sugriva to challenge Vali and bring him outside Kishkindha because Rama should not enter into the city. Sugriva challenged Vali to a fight. When Vali sallied forth to meet the challenge, Rama emerged from the forest to shoot and killed/assassinated him with an arrow from the back of a tree. Shakespeare created beautiful works in the English language. His dramas (plays) and poems had an important impact on the poets who followed him. Most of his plays had an impact on the playwrights who followed him. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is a historical plot of Shakespeare's play. Julius Caesar was one of the several plays written by Shakespeare based on true events from Roman history. Julius Caesar revolves around the planned execution of assassination of Julius Caesar. Roman Emperor Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of senators during a meeting of the Senate at the Theatre of Pompey in Rome. This paper attempts to draw the similarities between Hindu Epic Ramayana's Kishkindha king Vali's assassination and Roman Emperor Julius Caesar's assassination in Shakespeare's drama. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines a collection of carved and painted wooden masks created by the Rājbanśīs, an ethnic minority of West Bengal and Southern Nepal, for the theatrical representation of the Rāmāyana. The collection was displayed at temporary exhibition of Himalayan handicrafts in the Museum of Oriental Art, Ca' Pesaro, Venice (April-September 2017) and has been introduced to the public by ourselves on occasion of a series of lectures, seminars and cultural activities on the great Indian epic and the ethnographic study of some distinctive features of the rapidly vanishing indigenous Indian handicraft. The present essay investigates the historical-ethnographic profile of the Rājbanśī ethnic group by analysing the exhibited pieces in the context of the multiple traditions of the Rāma epic, the importance of its regional and vernacular versions inside and outside India, and the theatrical tradition of Rāmlīlā.

Hyatt Regency Yogyakarta has strategies to increase the number of visitors to the hotel. One of the strategies made by Hyatt Regency Yogyakarta regular event “Ramayana Night Market" which is held every Saturday night. The purposes of this research are to know the buffet menu and the layout of buffet in regular event “Ramayana Night Market” at Kemangi Bistro Hyatt Regency Yogyakarta. This research used observation, interview, and documentation techniques to collect the data. The results showed that the menu in regular event “Ramayana Night Market” are presented on the long table buffet and ranged from appetizer, main course, and dessert. Regular event “Ramayana Night Market” serve traditional food as concept. The layout of the buffet at regular event “Ramayana Night Market” is made to grouping the menu based on the type (appetizer, main course, and dessert) to make it easy for the customers to take the food from the buffet.

Indonesia adalah negara yang memiliki berbagai macam Kebudayaan dan Kesenian. Dari bermacam kebudayaan dan kesenian yang ada, Indonesia juga memiliki berbagai macam Cerita Rakyat. Contohnya di Pulau Jawa. Masyarakat Jawa sendiri menggunakan sebuah media untuk menceritakan sebuah cerita rakyat. Media ini disebut dengan Wayang. Wayang adalah salah satu budaya yang berasal dari Pulau Jawa. Beberapa wilayah disekitar Pulau Jawa memiliki berbagai jenis Wayang. Contohnya seperti Wayang Kulit, Wayang Golek dan Wayang Orang. Wayang Golek dan Wayang Kulit dimainkan oleh seorang Dalang kecuali Wayang Orang yang dimainkan oleh aktor dan artis. Wayang digunakan Dalang sebagai media dari cerita yang dilantunkan. Cerita yang dimainkan biasanya cerita rakyat. Contohnya seperti cerita rakyat Jawa Tengah seperti Ramayana. Karakter dari cerita Ramayana banyak ditemui didaerah tertentu seperti Rama, Shinta, Anoman, Rahwana dan lainnya sesuai cerita tersebut. Permasalahan yang timbul dari hal ini yakni kurang mengertinya masyarakat akan cerita rakyat Ramayana dan kurangnya ketertarikan masyarakat untuk menonton seni wayang tersebut. Banyak juga masyarakat Jawa yang tidak mengerti cerita tersebut. Boardgame merupakan sarana yang dapat diguna- kan masyarakat untuk memahami cerita dan karakter dalam cerita Ramayana serta menarik minat masyarakat terhadap Budaya Wayang. Dengan menggunakan Artwork dan Gameplay yang dirancang sedemikian rupa untuk menarik perhatian dan minat masyarakat.

This paper discusses the concept of lakṣmaṇ-rekhā that originates in the later Rāmāyaṇa tradition and for centuries has functioned as a metaphorical expression denoting a strict (moral) boundary that should not be crossed, as its transgression inevitably exposes one to danger. It has featured prominently in Indian public discourse on female chastity and is also very much present in different socio-cultural and political contexts, often vocalised in literature, works of art, etc. In the concept of lakṣmaṇ-rekhā, one of the most basic and at the same time most important functions performed in culture by symbolic boundaries is manifested—the function of delineating the known, familiar, safe and permissible from the unknown, unfamiliar, dangerous, impermissible. Significantly, these boundaries have inherent moral weight and help individuals as well as whole societies to structure and regulate the universe they live in, on the micro- and macro-scale. In this paper, first I discuss textual evidence that can be found in wellknown Hindi Rāmāyaṇas such as the Rāmcaritmānas, the Rāmcandrikā and Rādheśyām Rāmāyaṇ, as well as in the Sūrsāgar. This analysis of literary material is meant to contextualise various levels of explicit and implicit meanings of the concept of lakṣmaṇ-rekhā that emerge from traditional sources in Hindi. In the second part of this article, I offer a survey of relevant Hindi dictionary entries and then focus on modern non-literary (and not only Hindi) usages of lakṣmaṇ-rekhā. Finally, I place the previously examined literary and linguistic material in the context of the findings of contemporary social scientists on the concept of symbolic boundaries (Epstein 1992). It is hoped that this study that gives emphasis to structuring and regulating (but not only) aspect of boundaries can contribute to our understanding of how broadly understood safety and values are negotiated in contemporary Indian society by way of drawing (ethical) boundaries and what happens if they are compromised.