THE RAMAYANA
TRADITION IN
Prof. K. VISWANATHAM
The
rhetorical remark of Kippling: “What do they know of
How many ages hence
Shall, this our lofty poem be acted over
In state’s unborn and accents yet unknown!
Brahma’s verdict is incontrovertible and irreversible:
Yavat sthasyanti girayah saritasch mahitale
Tavar ramakatha lokeshu
pracharishyati.
Ramayana-making is in the present continuous tense.
Of course, there were voices of dissent.
Buddhaghosha, the famous Pali
commentator, dismisses the Ramayana and the Mahabharata as useless and frivolous just as Ben Jonson
dismisses Shakespeare’s tempests and such drolleries. The Bengali poet, Madhusudan Dutt: said: “I despise
Rama and his followers.” Some moderns dismiss Rama as a mugwump
and condemn the killing of Vali and Sambuka as unethical and
indefensible and see in the unpardonable treatment of Sita the unceasing sob of a woman at the hands of male pigs. There is a felicitous
propriety in the choice of this Lokeshu pracharishyati as the motto for “The Ramayana Tradition”
in
Surprising
are the variations of the Ramayana story in
To one attuned to the loftiness of Valmiki the deviations or additions or adaptations in the various Ramayanas are distressing indeed! An Assamese poet Madhava Kandali defends tampering with the Ramayana on the ground that it is not Daivavani but a mere Katha.
In the Jain Ramayana, Sita is the sister of Rama and she becomes his queen. In Gunabhadra, Sita is the daughter of Ravana and she slays the hundred-headed Ravana whom Rama could not quell. In the Padmacarita of Vimalasuri, Ravana is a mighty king. Hanuman is related to him, Lakshmana kills Rama and goes to hell! Ravana’s ten heads are reflections in a jewel. Sita tired of Samsara begs Rama permit her to do penance. The Jaina Ramayana versions are said to be an attempt to bring in an element of rationalism in the fantastic story of Valmiki! In Malayalam there is the Patala Ramayana making Hanuman the hero and in Sitaduhkham there is the folk story of the drawing of Ravana by Sita and Rama’s suspicion of her chastity and her banishment. In Telugu Ramayanams we find several non-Valmikian episodes: Indra crows like a cock near Gautama’s cottage; Lakshmana asks the goddess of sleep to approach Urmila till the exile is over; he draws seven lines near the hermitage warning Sita not to step beyond; Jambukumar the son of Surpanakha is killed and hence her vengeance; the squirrel helps Rama in building the bridge; Vibhishana discloses the secret of Amrita near the navel of Ravana; Angada drags Mandodari to disturb Ravana’s Homa; Rama’s birth is on a Wednesday; Ahalya becomes a stone; the story of Kalanemi and Lakshmana’s laughter are other additions.
In
both Kambar and Tulasidas
there is the un-Valmikian pre-marital love between
Rama and Sita and this is also found in Thai Ramakien,
According to Tulasidas, Ravana carries away the
illusory Sita and Sita is not exiled. The Bhusundi Ramayana
is largely influenced by Sakta and Buddhistic Tantric code. Rama
becomes an amorous hero. In Kashmiri Ramayana, after the Agnipariksha,
Sita refuses to open the doors in spite of Valmiki’s
recommendations and Rama’s entreaties complaining
about the wrongs done to her. The Bengali Ramayana of Krittivasa
represents the hostility of Ravana as the highest type of Bhakti in disguise
and in Ramalila Jhumuru, Ravana carries away Sita to Lanka and treats her as his
own mother. The Oriya Ramayana is characterised by a
striking similarity to the Idonesian Rama literature
and by deviations and stories of the mushrooms (Ravanacharitra),
of the crane, the chakravaka, the cock, the milkman,
the sabara, which are popular myths in Orissa. When Vali was boro, half his strength
was distributed among seven trees surrounded by a Naga,
as Brahma felt that the universe might not bear the burden. In the Assamese
Ramayana, Kunji the hunchback (Manthara)
expresses a violent carnal desire for union with Bharata.
In the Simhala Ramayana, Sita gives birth to a son,
not twins, but Valamiga or Valmiki saddles her with
two more and all three live happily in
Wayang
In this welter of Ramayanas, Valmiki would have been puzzled and a bit distressed. Does not this acculturation stain the white radiance of Valmiki based on: “Dharmo rakshati rakhitah.” It is sad to note in this scholarly publication many errors and misprints. “Aneka dantam bhaktanam...” is translated: “You Ganesha have many teeth and we thy devotees want one of them.” This is ignorance of Samskrit and English. Beowulf is said to be a German Epic and Virgil’s epic is Punic War. Ravana is the God of winds. There are numerous instances of slipshod English: “When a bullet in a tiger hunt is described, a modern time rushes in to look on the story.” But these lapses do not take away the value of this fine volume to students of Ramayana studies.
Perhaps the finest remark on the Ramayana theme and the Ramayana redactor, translator diaskeuast, exegete, poet, rhapsodist or guslar is the following from the Padma Puranam (1-12-15): “The Rama stories are an ocean; what can one like me, a mosquito, do? Still I shall have to deal with it according to my capacity; in the wide sky each bird flies according to its capacity. The Rama carita is a hundred crore of verses; according to one’s intellect one writes about it. The fame of Rama will purify my mind even as fire, the gold.” And wherever Rama story comes the spirit of Valmiki, genuine or modified or even distorted and torsioned, is behind it as a woman is said to be behind any great achievement:
Teshu teshu
puraneshu mahabharala evacha
Yarra ramacharitam syat
tadaham tatra saktiman.
The Ramayana is a contemporary book. It is daily enacted in our lives. It is the Epic of “both man and bird and beast.”
He prayeth well who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
The remark made at the beginning: “What do they know of the Ramayana who only know Valmiki?” has to be supplemented by the remark: “What do they know of Valmiki who only know the other Ramayanas?”
* Ramayana Tradition in