Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation

Three Hundred Rāmāyaṇas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation is an essay written by A. K. Ramanujan for a Conference on Comparison of Civilizations at the University of Pittsburgh, February 1987.^[1] The essay was later included in the anthology "Many Rāmāyaṇas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia" edited by Paula Richman and published by University of California Press in 1991.^[1][2] The essay has also been included in "The Collected Essays of A. K. Ramanujan" published by Oxford University Press in 2004.^[3]

Three Hundred Rāmāyaṇas:. . . is a scholarly essay that summarizes the history of the Rāmāyaṇa and its spread across India and Asia over a period of 2,500 years or more. It seeks to demonstrate factually how the story of Rama has undergone numerous variations while being transmitted across different languages, societies, geographical regions, religions, and historical periods. It does not seek to document all the recorded tellings and re-tellings of the Rāmāyaṇa. Instead, it focuses on only five specific tellings of the Rāmāyaṇa from different languages, regions, cultures, and periods, which serve purely as indicators of a much larger range of actual variations.

The essay was a required reading on the University's syllabus for history undergraduates from 2006-07 onward. On October 9th, 2011, the Academic Council of Delhi University decided to remove the essay from the BA curriculum for its next academic cycle. This action of the Academic Council attracted a lot of attention and several people viewed this as an act of unwarranted censorship.

Ramanujan's thesis

The count of 300 Ramayanas in the title of the essay is based on a work of Camille Bulcke^[4] and it has been pointed out that it is an underestimate of the actual count. However, Ramanujan considers only five tellings of Ramayana, namely, the tellings by Valmiki, Kamban, the Jain telling, the Thai Ramakien and the South Indian folk tellings. Ramanujan specifically prefers the term "tellings" to the usual terms "versions" and "variants" because the latter terms can and do imply the existence of an invariant original text. One of Ramanujan's main observations in the essay is that there is no such original Ramayana and that Valmiki's Ramayana telling is only one among many Ramayana tellings. Thus the stories, legends and myths associated with and contained in any one telling, however unpalatable or appreciable it may outwardly appear to be, cannot be ignored and also cannot be assigned any preferred or exalted importance in relations to Rama's stories. Ramanujan's objective was purely literary and he was observing texts as they were.

Further reading

This is a website discussing the issues surrounding the essay

• A website devoted to a discussion of the essay and its impacts on the academic world in India

Arguments against the inclusion of the essay in the curriculum

The following sources provide more information on the arguments against the inclusion of the essay in the curriculum:

• Pramod Kumar (February 17, 2008). "Shiksha Bachao Andolan Protest in DU against denigration of Shri Ram and Hindu Gods". Organiser. Retrieved 15 November 2015.

• "Children of Marx, Macaulay are defaming Hinduism: Dinanath Batra". Retrieved 15 November 2015.

• "Three Hundred Ramayanas Legal Notice to Oxford University Press, New Delhi by Anil Bali". Retrieved 15 November 2015.

• Mukul Kesavan (October 27, 2011). "Three hundred Ramayanas - Delhi University and the purging of Ramanujan". The Telegraph. Retrieved 26 November 2015.

• Dr. R Ganesh (November 2011). "Behind the mask of the three hundred Ramayanas". Kannada Prabha. Retrieved 16 November 2015.

Implications of the removal of the essay from the curriculum

The following are some of the sources that discuss the implications of the removal of the essay from the curriculum:

• R. Mahalakshmi (November 26, 2011). "Ramanujan’s Three Hundred Ramayanas: Transmission, Interpretation And Dialogue In Indian Traditions". Mainstream Weekly XLIX (49). Retrieved 15 November 2015.

• Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta (18 November 2011). "The rule of unreason". Frontline 28 (23). Retrieved 15 November 2015.

• Priscilla Jebaraj (October 28, 2011). "Interview with Romila Thapar: The richness of the Ramayana, the poverty of a University". The Hindu. Retrieved 16 November 2015.

• Anuradha Raman (November 25, 2015). "Among the Ramayanas, Sita’s ascent". The Hindu. Retrieved 25 November 2015.

News reports on opposition to the essay

Some news reports indicating the nature and extent of opposition to the essay:

• Manash Pratim Gohain (October 25, 2011). "Ramanujan essay: Debate turns political". The Times of India (Delhi). Retrieved 16 November 2015.

• Ragini Bhuyan (30 October 2011). "Ramanujan & the Ramayana". The Sunday Guardian. Retrieved 16 November 2015.

• Soutik Biswas (19 October 2011). "Ramayana: An 'epic' controversy". BBC News. Retrieved 15 November 2015.

References

1. Paula Richman (1991). Many Rāmāyaṇas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia. University of California Press. pp. 22 – 35. ISBN 9780520075894. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
2. The full text of the book is available here. Paula Richman (Ed.). "Many Ramayanas The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia". UC Press E-Books Collection, 1982-2004. University of California Press. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
3. A. K. Ramanujan (Jan 2004). The Collected Essays of A.K. Ramanujan. Oxford University Press. pp. 131 – 160. ISBN 9780195668964.
4. Camille Bulcke (1950). Ramakatha: utpatti aur Vikas(The rama Story: Origin and Development) (Hindi). Prayag: hindi Parishad Prakasan.