Topic: Different Takes on The Ramayana and Mahabharata

[Nichi]

Why Sita was happy in exile
Malini Nair,TNN | Oct 25, 2015, 12.01 AM IST


What was it like for a young bride, born to a philosopher father and educated in metaphysics and literature, to walk into a family that spent most of its time on politics and intrigue? Wouldn't this free-spirited woman be thrilled at the idea of a forest retreat, even if it was for 14 long years?

That was Sita for Veenapani Chawla, the late theatre exponent. Not the obedient wife, hapless captive and abandoned mother of two but a woman who willingly took on a voyage of self-discovery from the enlightened kingdom of Mithila to Valmiki's ascetic ashram. "Ayodhya was a place of claustrophobic, dark, domestic politics. And while for others leaving Ayodhya was a tragedy, for Sita it was a happy thing," writes Chawla in her essay 'The Places and Spaces Inhabited by Sita' in the book, Voyages of Body and Soul.

Just before she passed away last year, Chawla had drafted her insightful new work on Sita. Today, it is being hammered into shape at her theatre lab in Pondicherry, Adishakti, for debut sometime next year. "The forest for Sita was a place of alternate knowledge for that is where the seers and sages lived, where nature thrived. It was for her simply the most happening place, much more than Ayodhya," says Vinay Kumar who is working on the play along with other artistes.

How about the other mythical embodiment of wifely obedience, Gandhari? On November 10, kathak dancer Sanjukta Wagh will be staging her celebrated production Rage and Beyond, her take on the fascinating saga of the blindfolded queen. For Wagh, who was inspired by Iravati Karve's outstanding interpretation of Mahabharata titled Yugant, Gandhari's blindfold was not a symbol of resignation but of rebellion.

"She is no pativrata of popular imagination. She is seeing what she wants, and empowering herself with the blindfold much like how we filter our reading of history today," says Wagh.

Hindu myths, gods, goddesses and demons are being widely deconstructed in Indian theatre and dance today. And no matter what the reactionary fringe believes, artists say, epics are meant to be interpreted and reimagined from time to time as the world around changes.

"Epics are not fragile, porcelain things that can't be touched," says dancer Anita Ratna whose radical work The Million Sitas looks at female characters in the Ramayana from the prism of various oral traditions. "If you re-read the ancient texts, Manthara could be a terrific political negotiator, Shoorpanakha could be a sexually confident woman of today, and Ahalya could be the trophy wife. All these women drove narratives forward, triggered critical events, not men."

Kannada theatre director Manjunath Badiger's beautifully mounted play Chitrapata, which raked in a whole bag of awards at the Meta Festival this year, is based on a lesser known folk telling of the Sita-Rama-Ravana triangle called Janapada Ramayana (the people's epic).

Chitrapata is set in the calm aftermath of the war, Sita and Rama are in Ayodhya, seemingly in a state of bliss. This is when Shoorpanakha comes seeking revenge for her slain brother. She talks Sita into painting a picture of Ravana as she recalls him in captivity. But on Shoorpanakha's magical touch, the picture comes alive. This is just when Rama walks in on the scene and reacts in fury. The man on the stage is no adarsh purush, he is an enraged husband, churlishly jealous and impervious to reason. He attacks Ravana and wounds him.

Badiger puts a new spin on how the story ends - Sita doesn't collapse in despair and grief. She cradles the wounded creature and says it is her child since she gave birth to it on canvas, and single-handedly, physically fights her husband off. It was the single most startling scene in the play. "I didn't want it to be a story about a frail, helpless woman so this Sita protests, strikes back," says Badiger.

Increasingly, creative directors are refusing to push old cliches in their productions. KS Rajendran says he leaves the interpretation of epic characters to young actors, especially women. His production of Mahabharata of Women, written by K Madavane, is unconventional to say the least. Here Amba, Draupadi, Kunti and Satyavati all link their life's stories to the honour killing of a young girl in Tamil Nadu. "They are all women who broke the masculine control on female sexuality. Draupadi is no wilting victim of circumstance, she is the woman who instigated a war, and an aggressive, physically active being on stage," he says.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-times/deep-focus/Why-Sita-was-happy-in-exile/articleshow/49521174.cms?

[Nichi]

6th-century Ramayana found in Kolkata, stuns scholars
Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey,TNN | Dec 18, 2015, 09.08 AM IST

KOLKATA: A 6th-century manuscript of Ramayana, which focuses on the separation of Rama and Sita and portrays them more as humans, has been found tucked inside a Purana at a Sanskrit library here. It is markedly different from the more accepted 4 BC Valmiki Ramayana. The 12th-century rendition by Tamil poet Kamba is generally considered the second oldest among the more popular versions. However, now that may change.

The 6th-century manuscript was discovered purely by chance. Scholars working on the 6th-century Vanhi (fire) Purana at the Asiatic Society library were puzzled to find that the manuscript seemed incomplete. They began looking through the Catalogus Catalogorum - a global repository of Sanskrit manuscripts compiled by German scholar Aufrecht - and realized two more identical manuscripts existed.One was preserved at the India Office Library, London; the second at the Kolkata-based Samskrita Sahitya Parishad, a 100-year-old research institution.

The scholars scoured the archives and found the complete version of the Vanhi Purana manuscript. When they were analyzing it, they stumbled upon the Dasa Griba Rakshash Charitram Vadha, which did not have any bearing with the Vanhi Purana. For some time they could not understand why the slokas of the Purana suddenly started telling another story - albeit a familiar one, as the main characters were Rama, Sita and Ravana. Before long, they realized it was a 6th-century version with many interpolations.

"Interestingly in this version, there are just five kandas (sections) instead of the accepted seven. There is no Balakanda - the part that deals with Rama's childhood - or Uttarkanda. This Ramayana ends with the return of Rama and Sita from exile and his ascension to the Ayodhya throne," said Anasuya Bhowmick, lead scholar of the Asiatic Society, who is working with the manuscript. This Ramayana does not begin with the curse that drove Dasarath to send his son to exile.

Instead, it begins with a curse that befell goddess Lakshmi when Shukracharya got angry with Narayan for killing Shukracharya's wife.

The other curse falls on both Lakshmi and Narayan when Dharitri cannot bear the pain of the constant battle between gods and demons. In both cases, Laxmi and Narayan are told they will have to bear the pain of separation.

"Ram here is more human than God, with follies like anger and failure. Some interesting details - like the ages of Sita and Rama at the time of marriage and the date when Sita was abducted by Ravana -are in this version," said scholar Manabendu Bandyopadhyay.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/6th-century-Ramayana-found-in-Kolkata-stuns-scholars/articleshow/50227724.cms

[Nichi]

This is somewhat off-topic to the points offered above, but there is something I've always wondered about the Ramayana. What were the cultures of monkeys and bears? If you operate on the kernel-of-truth theories of most mythology, on what were these cultures based - to the degree that deities and kings from those cultures were elaborately depicted?

[Michael]

I'm not sure, but I wouldn't mind betting they were based on the tribal cultures. There were three basic ancient cultural streams, the Indus Valley, the Arians, and the tribals. The tribals began in the hills of Assam, on the far east, disseminating west and south. The Indus Valley was on the far west, now Pakistan, and the Arians came from Persia. The Arians were largely responsible for the Kshatriya (pron. shatria) caste on which these two stories are based. The Indus Valley people made up the Brahmans and Shudras. The tribals were essentially animals in the eyes of the castes, and still are.

The principle reason Hindutva and BJP followers today challenge the very concept of the Arian invasions, is because the untouchables are becoming a powerful political force, and they claim to be the direct descendants of the original Indus Valley culture - thus the 'real Indians', whereas the upper castes who are the primary supporters of Hindutva and BJP as not real Indians. Naturally the other side is not happy about this particular spin.

But all agree the tribals are barbarians. It is worth noting the Ramayana is about the battle between the gods of the Aryans against the old gods of the villages and tribals.  Thus the bears and monkeys could be seen as the 'good' tribals. In fact, the tribal culture has been a huge influence on mainstream Indian culture, and has revitalised it many times. Tribals are toetemic, while the Arians and Indus Valley people are not. Tribals are also egalitarian, and have open pre-marriage sexual accommodations, in what is known as the youth dormitories. There are villages in the Himalayas who worship Ravana, and always have.

[Nichi]

I've noticed elaborate and beautiful artwork of Ravana on the Tibetan art sites as well. And if I'm not mistaken, there are stories of his relationship with Shiva, of a positive nature, before Sita was kidnapped. (But then, there are tales of him trying to shake Mt Kailash too.)

It all gets pretty confusing.