Three Hundred Ramayanas: The Life of a Hindu Epic

In a well-known essay, scholar A.K. Ramanujan asks: “How many Ramayanas? Three hundred? Three thousand?” Featuring prince Rama, his wife Sita, and brother Laksmana, the Ramayana is a complex narrative that has been told and retold in numerous contexts for the past twenty-five hundred years. Beginning with Valmiki’s Sanskrit text, we will examine various retellings of the Ramayana in South Asia. We will then shift to discussing the performative life of the text, including dramatic Ramlila performances, Ramanand Sagar’s well-known television serial, and the popular comic book Amar Chitra Katha. We will conclude by examining the political significance of the Ramayana in contemporary Hindu-Muslim interactions. (Not open to students who have taken FYSE 1399)