Many Ramayanas. Spring, 2018
Wendy Doniger
MLA: Saturdays 1 to 4
Description: A close reading of the great Hindu Epic, the story of Rama's recovery of his wife, Sita, from the demon Ravana on the island of Lanka, with special attention to changes in the telling of the story throughout Indian history, up to its present use as a political weapon against Muslims and a rallying point for Hindu fundamentalists. Readings in in English translations of several Ramayanas, including Valmiki (in several different English translations from the Sanskrit); Tulsi (from the Hindi); and Kampan (Tamil); in Paula Richman, Many Ramayanas and Questioning Ramayanas; and discussions of the Ramajataka, the Yogavasistha-Maharamayana, and contemporary comic books and films.
Week 1: March 31
Introductory. The Ramayana in History. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
Start reading through it in Sattar/Clay/Brockington [henceforth SCB]: choose one or read several.
Week 2: April 7
Book 1: Bala Kanda. The Frame. Read as much as possible of Bala Khandaof SCB or Goldman 1.
Week 3: April 14
Book 2: Ayodhya Kanda. The Nuclear Family. Read Book 2 in SCB or Goldman 2.
Start reading what piques your interest in Richman, Many Ramayanas.
Week 4: April 21
Book 3: Aranya Kanda. Sita. Read Book 3 in SCB or Goldman 3.
Finish reading what piques your interest in Richman, Many Ramayanas.
Tuesday, April 17, 430 PM in Foster 103: Lecture by Arshia Sattar on Hanuman.
Week 5: April 28
Book 4: Kishkinda Kanda. Hanuman. Read Book 4 in SCB or Goldman 4.
Start reading what piques your interest in Richman, Questioning Ramayanas
Week 6: May 5.
Book 5: Sundara Kanda. Monkeys. Read Book 5 in SCB or Goldman 5.
Finish reading what piques your interest in Richman, Questioning Ramayanas and/or Mandakranta Bose, The Ramayana Revisited.
Week 7: May 12
Book 6: Yuddha Kanda. Demons. Read Book 6 in SCB orGoldman 6.
Start reading what piques your interest in Mandakranta Bose, The Ramayana Revisited.
Week 8: May 19
Book 7: Uttara Kanda. Demonesses. Read Book 7 in SCB or Book 7 in the Hariprasad Shastri translation.
Finish reading what piques your interest in Mandakranta Bose, The Ramayana Revisited.
Week 9: May 26. PAPERS DUE.
Tulsi’s Ramayana.
Reading some of Tulsi in the W. D. Hill or R. C. Prasad translation.
Week 10: June 2.
Screening of Nina Paley, Sita Sings the Blues. Final Discussion.
Text to buy:
Arshia Sattar, The Ramayana [Valmiki's Sanskrit]. Viking Penguin, India.
Recommended secondary reading:
English translations of all of Valmiki's Sanskrit text, by
[a] Hariprasad Shastri (3 vols., complete)
[b] Robert P. Goldman (Princeton; 6 vols., incomplete).
[c] Clay Sanskrit Series (5 vols., various authors, incomplete).
English translations of Tulsi's Ramcaritmanas
[a] Philip Lutgendorf, The Epic of Ram (Harvard, Murty Series, 4 vols.)
[b] W. D. Hill, The Holy Lake of the Acts of Rama (Oxford).
[c] R. C. Prasad, The Holy Lake of the Acts of Rama, 1988.
Mandakranta Bose, The Ramayana Revisited (OUP)
John Brockington and Mary Brockington, Rama the Steadfast: An Early Form of the Ramayana. Penguin.
Philip Lutgendorf, The Life of a Text [contemporary performances] (California).
Aubrey Menen, The Ramayana [Raj] (Chatto and Windus).
R. K. Narayan, The Ramayana [Kampan's Tamil] (Penguin)
Paula Richman, Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of aNarrative Tradition in South Asia (California).
Highly Recommended:
Paul Richman, Questioning Ramayanas: A South Asian Tradition (California)
Paula Richman, Ramayana Stories in Modern South Asia: An Anthology (Indiana).
Venkatesananda, Swami. The Concise Yoga Vasistha.