The first-ever comprehensive context-specific reading of Ramayana performance traditions in India
Experts in the field draw on primary sources in original Indian languages
Serves as a source book on Ramayana narratives and a spectrum of performance traditions in India
The Ramayana, one of the two pre-eminent ancient 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. 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, and has provided the basis for enactments 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.
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements: The Journey of the Book
List of Illustrations
Note on Transliteration
I. Orientations and Beginnings
1. The Ramayana Narrative Tradition as a Resource for Performance
Paula Richman
2. Thinking the Ramayana Tradition through Performance
Rustom Bharucha
3. Where Narrative and Performance Meet: Nepathya's Ramayana Samksepam
Rizio Yohannan
II The Politics of Caste
4. Shambuk's Severed Head by Omprakash Valmiki
Translation by Aaron Sherraden
5. Recasting Shambuk in Three Hindi Anti-Caste Dramas
Aaron Sherraden
6. The Killing of Shambuk: A Retelling from a Director's Perspective
Sudhanva Deshpande
III Interrogating the Anti-Hero
7. Ravana Center Stage: Origins of Ravana and King of Lanka
Paula Richman
8. Ravana as Dissident Artist: The Tenth Head and Ravanama
Rustom Bharucha
8a. Script of The Tenth Head
Vinay Kumar
8b. Script of Ravanama
Maya Krishna Rao
IV Performing Gender
9. The Making of RamaRavana: Reflections on Gender, Music, and Staging
Hanne M. de Bruin
10. Writing Her Self: The Politics of Gender in Nangyarkuttu
Mundoli Narayanan
V Conversations and Arguments
11. Reflections on Ramayana in Kutiyattam
David Shulman, Margi Madhu Chakyar, Dr. Indu G. with Rustom Bharucha
12. Questions around Ram Vijay: Sattriya in a Monastic Tradition
Sri Narayan Chandra Goswami with Parasmoni Dutta, Paula Richman,
and Rustom Bharucha
13. Performing the Argument: Ramayana in Talamaddale
Akshara K.V.
VI Beyond Enactment
14. Revisiting Being Rama: Playing a God in Changing Times
Urmimala Sarkar Munsi
15. The Night Before Bhor Arti: Play and Banarasipan in the Ramnagar Ramlila
Bhargav Rani
16. The Challenges Ahead: Researching the Ramayana Performance Tradition