Download or read book Alternative Interpretations of the Ramayana written by Nabanītā Deba Sena and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Chandrabati s Ramayan written by Chandrabati and published by Zubaan. This book was released on 2020-01-25 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chandrabati, the first woman poet in Bangla, lived in the sixteenth century in Mymensingh district in present day Bangladesh. She was also the first poet in the Bangla language to present a retelling of the Ram story from the point of view of Sita. Idolised as a model of marital obedience and chastity in Valmiki’s Ramayan, Chandrabati’s lyrical retelling of Sita’s story offers us a fresh perspective. Written in order to be sung before a non-courtly audience, mainly of womenfolk of rural Bengal, Chandrabati’s Ramayan adds new characters and situations to the story to provide new interpretations of already known events drawing richly on elements of existing genres. Its location in the tales of everyday life has ensured that Chandrabati’s Ramayan lives on in the hearts of village women of modern-day India.
Download or read book Performing the Ramayana Tradition written by Paula Richman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Performing the Ramayana Tradition: Enactments, Interpretations, and Arguments, edited by Ramayana scholar Paula Richman and Rustom Bharucha, scholar of Theater and Performance Studies, examines diverse retellings of the Ramayana narrative as interpreted and embodied through a spectrum of performances. Unlike previous publications, this book is neither a monograph on a single performance tradition nor a general overview of Indian theatre. Instead, it provides context-specific analyses of selected case studies that explore contemporary enactments of performance traditions and the narratives from which they draw: Kutiyattam, Nangyarkuttu and Kathakali from Kerala; Kattaikkuttu and a "mythological" drama from Tamilnadu; Talamaddale from Karnataka; avant-garde performances from Puducherry and New Delhi; a modern dance-drama from West Bengal; the monastic tradition of Sattriya from Assam; anti-caste plays from North India; and the Ramnagar Ramlila. Apart from the editors' two introductions, which orient readers to the history of Ramayana narratives by Tulsidas, Valmiki, Kamban, Sankaradeva, and others, as well as the performance vocabulary of their enactments, the volume includes many voices, including those of directors, performers, scholars, connoisseurs, and the scholar-abbot of a monastery. It also contains two full scripts of plays, photographs of productions, interviews, conversations, and a glossary of Indian terms. Each essay in the volume, written by an expert in the field, is linked to several others, clustered around shared themes: the politics of caste and gender, the representation of the anti-hero, contemporary re-interpretations of traditional narratives, and the presence of Ramayana discourse in everyday life"--
Download or read book Reading Contemporary South Asian Literature written by Bidhu Chand Murmu, Somjeeta Pandey and published by Ukiyoto Publishing. This book was released on 2022-04-12 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a school of criticism, the central argument in Postcolonial studies revolves around dismantling the dominant narrative of colonial or imperial history. A colonization process not only captures the native people and culture but their lands too. Proper reading of postcolonial theory would be by understanding the epistemology of colonized environment or vice-versa. Even after decolonization the ideology of imperialism is persistent in native memory and thought. An embeddedness in native psyche not only nurtures imperialism but manifests them with the footprints of colonial masters. In postcolonial countries the discourse of social and economic justice is deeply rooted in ecology. As a consequence, environmental activists from postcolonial nations tend to see any modern policy as a disguised form of neocolonialism or imperial dominance, globalization and modernization. Since the shocks of imperialism and globalization are most strongly felt in the third world countries, most of them being former colonies, this edited volume intends to explore texts by South Asian writers examining how these writers and their characters cope with the destruction of the environment. This edited volume plans to seek out the writings of epistemological understanding of our environment. Moreover, the volume would also see a critical entanglement of race, class, gender, culture, modernization, globalization, nation and trans-nation etc. Furthermore, this book will attempt to show how different genres of literature ranging from fiction to non-fiction can bring out inimitable insights into varied understanding of postcolonial and ecocritical studies.
Download or read book Performing the Ramayana Tradition written by Paula Richman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Ramayana, one of the two pre-eminent Hindu epics, has played a foundational role in many aspects of India's arts and social norms. For centuries, people learned this narrative by watching, listening, and participating in enactments of it. Although the Ramayana's first extant telling in Sanskrit dates back to ancient times, the story has continued to be retold and rethought through the centuries in many of India's regional languages, such as Hindi, Tamil, and Bengali. The narrative has provided the basis for enactments of its episodes in recitation, musical renditions, dance, and avant-garde performances. This volume introduces non-specialists to the Ramayana's major themes and complexities, as well as to the highly nuanced terms in Indian languages used to represent theater and performance. Two introductions orient readers to the history of Ramayana texts by Tulsidas, Valmiki, Kamban, Sankaradeva, and others, as well as to the dramaturgy and aesthetics of their enactments. The contributed essays provide context-specific analyses of diverse Ramayana performance traditions and the narratives from which they draw. The essays are clustered around the shared themes of the politics of caste and gender; the representation of the anti-hero; contemporary re-interpretations of traditional narratives; and the presence of Ramayana discourse in daily life.
Download or read book Re figuring the Ramayana as Theology written by Ajay K. Rao and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-10-03 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Rāmāyana of Vālmīki is considered by many contemporary Hindus to be a foundational religious text. But this understanding is in part the result of a transformation of the epic’s receptive history, a hermeneutic project which challenged one characterization of the genre of the text, as a work of literary culture, and replaced it with another, as a work of remembered tradition. This book examines Rāmāyana commentaries, poetic retellings, and praise-poems produced by intellectuals within the Śrīvaisnava order of South India from 1250 to 1600 and shows how these intellectuals reconceptualized Rāma’s story through the lens of their devotional metaphysics. Śrīvaisnavas applied innovative interpretive techniques to the Rāmāyana, including allegorical reading, ślesa reading (reading a verse as a double entendre), and the application of vernacular performance techniques such as word play, improvisation, repetition, and novel forms of citation. The book is of interest not only to Rāmāyana specialists but also to those engaged with Indian intellectual history, literary studies, and the history of religions.
Download or read book Valmiki s Ramayana written by and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-04-20 with total page 563 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of India’s greatest epics, the Ramayana pervades the country’s moral and cultural consciousness. For generations it has served as a bedtime story for Indian children, while at the same time engaging the interest of philosophers and theologians. Believed to have been composed by Valmiki sometime between the eighth and sixth centuries BCE, the Ramayana tells the tragic and magical story of Rama, the prince of Ayodhya, an incarnation of Lord Visnu, born to rid the earth of the terrible demon Ravana. An idealized heroic tale ending with the inevitable triumph of good over evil, the Ramayana is also an intensely personal story of family relationships, love and loss, duty and honor, of harem intrigue, petty jealousies, and destructive ambitions. All this played out in a universe populated by larger-than-life humans, gods and celestial beings, wondrous animals and terrifying demons. With her magnificent translation and superb introduction, Arshia Sattar has successfully bridged both time and space to bring this ancient classic to modern English readers.
Download or read book Kamba Ramayana written by P S Sundaram and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2002-05-03 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A masterly translation of the Tamil version of Ramayana The epic story of Rama, which is part of the Indian collective consciousness, has been retold in many regional languages. Pre-eminent among the many vernacular retellings of the Ramayana is the twelfth-century Tamil version by Kamban. The son of a temple drummer, Kamban is reputed to have had an impressive mastery of Tamil and Sanskrit classics. Fascinated by the lore of Ramayana, he immersed himself totally in it. Though Kamban acknowledges his indebtedness to the Sanskrit version of the Ramayana by Valmiki, his is an independent work, enriched by various religious, philosophical and literary influences. The Kamba Ramayana differs from Valmiki’s in significant ways. Though cast in the heroic mould of a Purushotama or ‘the best among men’, Valmiki’s Rama is still a man. Kamban, on the other hand, never allows the reader to forget the godhood of Rama. His Ravana too, though flawed, is a heroic figure. While Valmiki’s diction is sparse and direct, Kamban’s exuberant prose sparkles with wit and inventiveness. Translated into English by the late P.S. Sundaram, this edition has been abridged and edited by his long-time friend N.S. Jagannathan. Though pared down from the original six volumes to a single one, this translation retains the magic and poetry of the original.
Download or read book Epic and State written by Paula Richman and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Motherhood in India written by Maithreyi Krishnaraj and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2012-04-27 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents an overview of the varied experiences and representations of motherhood in India from ancient to modern times. The thrust of the arguments made by the various contributors is that the centrality of motherhood as an ideology in a woman’s life is manufactured. This is demonstrated by analysing various institutional structures of society – language, religion, media, law and technology. The articles in this book are chronologically arranged, tracing the different stages that motherhood as a concept has traversed in India – from goddess worship to nationalism, to being a vehicle of reproduction of the sexual division of labour and the inheritance of property via the male-line. Underlying these stages are the dialectics between them that have been facilitated by agents such as the state – the ultimate controller of a woman’s reproductive powers. The feminist critique of ‘essentialising’ the role of a woman has been employed to deconstruct and humanise the experiences and lives of mothers. This anthology therefore attempts to initiate a meaningful and ‘sensitive’ engagement with issues pertaining to a woman’s autonomy over her body and her role also as a mother.
Download or read book The Ramayana of Valmiki written by Vālmīki and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1984 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Part of the 'Ramayana of Valmiki', this book recounts the adventures of the monkey hero Hanuman in leaping across the ocean to the island citadel of Lanka. It describes the opulence of the court of the demon king, Ravana, the beauty of his harem, and the deformity of Sita's wardresses. It contains an introduction, notes, and a bibliography." --
Download or read book Ramayana Revisited written by Vipul Maheshwari and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-10-18 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rama, Maryada Purushottam, the king of Ayodhya, banished his beloved queen, in whose chastity he had complete faith, simply because his subjects disapproved of his accepting a wife who had spent a year in the house of her abductor. The king submitted to the will of the people though it broke his heart. Was his stand justified? Could Manthara be held solely responsible for the banishment of Rama and the subsequent death of Dasharatha? Was Ahalya an adulteress or a victim of sexual assault? Did the actions of the serial molester Ravana stand legal scrutiny? Was Lakshmana, a prince of Ayodhya, legally justified in mutilating Surpanakha? Was his elder brother Rama an accomplice in that action? It was said in ancient India, a king who, after having sworn to safeguard his subjects, failed to protect should be executed like a mad dog. Such a provision indicated that sovereignty was based on an implied social contract, and if the king violated the traditional pact, he forfeited his kingship. So, a king had to be just as justice trickled down from the crown. What happens though if the events of yore are retold and characters made to stand trial in today's time? Here is an attempt, unexplored so far, to retell the significant happenings narrated in the Ramayana through the legal prism of the Indian Penal Code. Each chapter comprises a prosecution version, citations of relevant provisions from the IPC, deposition of witnesses and the defence argument. Ramayana Revisited succeeds in bringing in all alternative perspectives, leaving the final judgement to the discretion of the reader.
Download or read book The R m yan of V lm ki written by Vālmīki and published by . This book was released on 1871 with total page 522 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Many Ramayanas written by Paula Richman and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-09-01 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout Indian history, many authors and performers have produced, and many patrons have supported, diverse tellings of the story of the exiled prince Rama, who rescues his abducted wife by battling the demon king who has imprisoned her. The contributors to this volume focus on these "many" Ramayanas. While most scholars continue to rely on Valmiki's Sanskrit Ramayana as the authoritative version of the tale, the contributors to this volume do not. Their essays demonstrate the multivocal nature of the Ramayana by highlighting its variations according to historical period, political context, regional literary tradition, religious affiliation, intended audience, and genre. Socially marginal groups in Indian society—Telugu women, for example, or Untouchables from Madhya Pradesh—have recast the Rama story to reflect their own views of the world, while in other hands the epic has become the basis for teachings about spiritual liberation or the demand for political separatism. Historians of religion, scholars of South Asia, folklorists, cultural anthropologists—all will find here refreshing perspectives on this tale.
Download or read book In Search Of Sita written by Namita Gokhale and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2009-10-15 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sita is one of the defining figures of Indian womanhood, yet there is no single version of her story. Different accounts coexist in myth, literature and folktale. Canonical texts deify Sita while regional variations humanize her. Folk songs and ballads connect her timeless predicament to the daily lives of rural women. Modern-day women continue to see themselves reflected in films, serials and soap operas based on Sita’s narrative. Sacrifice, self denial and unquestioning loyalty are some of the ideals associated with popular perceptions of Sita. But the Janaki who symbolized strength, who could lift Shiva’s mighty bow, who courageously chose to accompany Rama into exile and who refused to follow him back after a second trial, is often forgotten. However she is remembered, revered or written about, Sita continues to exert a powerful influence on the collective Indian psyche. In Search of Sita presents essays, conversations and commentaries that explore different aspects of her life. It revisits mythology, reopening the debate on her birth, her days in exile, her abduction, the test by fire, the birth of her sons and, finally, her return to the earth—offering fresh interpretations of this enigmatic figure and her indelible impact on our everyday lives.
Download or read book The Ramayana written by R. K. Narayan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2006-08-29 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The greatest Indian epic, one of the world's supreme masterpieces of storytelling A Penguin Classic A sweeping tale of abduction, battle, and courtship played out in a universe of deities and demons, The Ramayana is familiar to virtually every Indian. Although the Sanskrit original was composed by Valmiki around the fourth century BC, poets have produced countless versions in different languages. Here, drawing on the work of an eleventh-century poet called Kamban, Narayan employs the skills of a master novelist to re-create the excitement he found in the original. A luminous saga made accessible to new generations of readers, The Ramayana can be enjoyed for its spiritual wisdom, or as a thrilling tale of ancient conflict. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Download or read book Character portrayals in the Ramayana of Valmiki written by Alois Wurm and published by Delhi : Ajanta Publications (India) : distributors, Ajanta Books International. This book was released on 1976 with total page 600 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
