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    Three Hundred Ramayanas-Initial

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    Aleena Babu
    Ramanujan analyzes five versions of the Ramayana epic from India and Southeast Asia, including Valmiki's Sanskrit version and Kampan's Tamil version. He compares story elements like the episode of Ahalya that differ in style, details, tone and texture between versions. Ramanujan also provides three thoughts on translation at the end, examining how stories are translated, transplanted and transformed cross-culturally as the Ramayana spread throughout South and Southeast Asia.

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    Three Hundred Ramayanas-Initial

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    Aleena Babu
    281 views9 pages
    Ramanujan analyzes five versions of the Ramayana epic from India and Southeast Asia, including Valmiki's Sanskrit version and Kampan's Tamil version. He compares story elements like the episode of Ahalya that differ in style, details, tone and texture between versions. Ramanujan also provides three thoughts on translation at the end, examining how stories are translated, transplanted and transformed cross-culturally as the Ramayana spread throughout South and Southeast Asia.

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    Ramanujan analyzes five versions of the Ramayana epic from India and Southeast Asia, including Valmiki's Sanskrit version and Kampan's Tamil version. He compares story elements like the episode of Ahalya that differ in style, details, tone and texture between versions. Ramanujan also provides three thoughts on translation at the end, examining how stories are translated, transplanted and transformed cross-culturally as the Ramayana spread throughout South and Southeast Asia.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    281 views9 pages

    Three Hundred Ramayanas-Initial

    Uploaded by

    Aleena Babu
    Ramanujan analyzes five versions of the Ramayana epic from India and Southeast Asia, including Valmiki's Sanskrit version and Kampan's Tamil version. He compares story elements like the episode of Ahalya that differ in style, details, tone and texture between versions. Ramanujan also provides three thoughts on translation at the end, examining how stories are translated, transplanted and transformed cross-culturally as the Ramayana spread throughout South and Southeast Asia.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 9

    Three Hundred

    Ramayanas: Five
    Examples and Three
    Thoughts on
    Translation
    ~A K Ramanujan
    A K Ramanujan

    ● Better known as a poet, scholar,


    professor, folklorist and
    playwright
    ● Actually a skilled translator
    ● “Three Hundred
    Ramayanas”(1991) courted
    controversy over its inclusion in
    BA History syllabus of the DU
    in the year 2006
    ● Finally it was scrapped off in
    2011 by the Academic Council.
    Three Hundred Ramayanas

    ● Ground breaking essay


    ● Ramanujan analyses 5 versions
    of Ramayana, compares it with
    the oldest version of Valmiki
    Ramayana
    ● At the end of the essay- gives
    three thoughts on translation
    ● He gives credit to translation for
    the different versions of
    Ramayana
    ● He examines what gets
    translated, transplanted and
    transposed
    ● Written for a conference and
    later included in his Collection
    Three Hundred Ramayanas

    ● The epic has been translated into


    many languages- Annamese,
    Balinese, Bengali, Cambodian…
    ● Some languages have more than one
    tellings.
    ● epics, mythological stories, plays,
    dance- dramas, masks, folk and
    classical theatre, puppet plays,
    shadow plays etc.
    ● Prefers the term tellings to
    versions/variants
    Five Ramayanas
    02
    01
    Kampan/
    Valmiki’s Tamil version
    Sanskrit
    version
    04
    South
    Indian
    Folk
    03 Version
    05
    Jain version
    Thai version
    What makes these tellings different?

    Style

    Details

    Tone

    Texture
    The Ahalya Episode: In Valmiki’s Ramayana & Kampan’s Iramavataram

    Ahalya is often described as one not born of a woman. The Bala Kanda of the Ramayana (5th
    to 4th century BCE) mentions that Brahma moulds her "with great effort out of pure creative
    energy"

    The episode, to state its bald elements,deals with the seduction of the wife of the sage Gautama,
    named Ahalya, by Indra, the king of the gods, and her ultimate redemption by Rama
    The Story of Ahalya is used to account for :
    Though the
    structure and
    sequence
    remains the
    same

    The Style,
    details, tone
    and texture
    are different
    Differences in the story

    Valmiki’s Kampan
    ● A willing Ahalya ● Ahalya realises she is doing wrong but cannot
    ● Indra is castrated by sage Gauthama let go of the forbidden joy
    ● Ahalya turned into stone ● Indra is cursed with a thousand vaginas which
    ● Rama’s character is not that of agod but of a are later changed into eyes
    ● Ahalya turned into stone
    god-man who has to live within the limits of a
    ● Kampan more dramatic than Valmiki
    human form(limited powers)
    ● Rama's feet transmute the black stone into
    Ahalya first- then the story is narrated
    ● as the reviver of Ahalya, he is a cloud-dark
    god of fertility
    ● Rama is a Tamil hero, a generous giver and a
    ruthless destroyer of foes

    Kampan, writing in the twelfth century, composed his poem under the influence of Tamil bhakti
    and folkore elements- meta-Ramayanas are created in translations

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