Organizer and Discussant: Paula Richman, Oberlin College
Chair: John S. Hawley, Columbia University
This panel expands our knowledge about the diversity of the Ramayana tradition in two ways. Most broadly, the papers examine tellings of Rama’s story outside of the dominant narrative tradition. Most scholarship on the Ramayana, one of the two preeminent epics of Hinduism, has focused upon the earliest literary telling, attributed to Valmiki. Yet the story has been retold variously over time, depending upon the region and social location of tellers and audiences. The papers focus on: (1) (Nillson) two different sets of Hindi songs, sung by upper-caste employers and their lower-caste domestic servants respectively; (2) (Lutgendorf) a corpus of stories which adds, near the end of the story, a second demon whom the primary epic hero cannot defeat; and (3) (Freeman) liturgies performed in Kerala by low-caste artisans that involve worship of a monkey unjustly killed by Rama. In each case, the panelist offers new research on little-known and unpublished texts and performances.
More specifically, the papers focus on characters whom dominant tellings of Rama’s story portray as radically "Other"—social inferiors, demons, and monkeys. Although dominant tellings tend to support maintaining caste distinctions, some oral performances of Rama’s story have expressed resistance to social hierarchy, as Nillson’s paper demonstrates. Dominant tellings portray monkeys as lacking in ethical reasoning or as mere soldiers. Yet, in the tellings analyzed by Lutgendorf and Freeman, monkeys gain power, prestige, and respect.
Drawing on his background in Vaishnavite literature, panel chair John Hawley, will introduce key themes in the portrayal of social hierarchy, human and demonic valor, and cruelty against the Other. Discussant Paula Richman (editor of Many Ramayanas, 1991, and Questioning Ramayanas, 1998) will consider shared issues in papers from a pan-Indian perspective.
Grinding Millet but Singing of Sita: Power and Domination in Hindi Women’s Songs
Usha Nillson, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Usha Nillsson examines how women from the Awadhi and Bhojpuri-speaking region of Uttar Pradesh, but different social locations, recount incidents from the story of Rama and Sita quite differently. In some songfests where women come together over and against men, women offer a unified voice against male domination, yet the songs each group sings alone reveal ambivalent feelings about their highly unequal status in employer/employee relations. On the one hand, high-caste women identify with Princess Sita and express their contempt for low-caste women who would appropriate the story of Sita to sing while doing demeaning labor such as grinding millet. On the other hand, low-caste midwives sing taunts to Rama’s father, accusing him of stinginess when he does not give sufficiently generous gifts at the birth of his sons. Such songs show not only that caste tensions shape the repertoire of women who sing about Rama’s story, but that the ambiguity of Sita’s own status generates varied representations of family relations within the Ramayana tradition. Nillson’s research complicates issues of gender by taking social hierarchy into account in the study of the Ramayana tradition.
Another Ravana, Another Rama
Philip Lutgendorf, University of Iowa
Philip Lutgendorf examines a widespread and popular expansion of the core narrative—the saga of a second and more menacing Ravana against whom the primary heroes of the epic find themselves powerless—as an illustration of the tension between the process of narrative creativity and expansion on the one hand, and an underlying "narrative logic" and narrative boundaries on the other. In this tale, we encounter another major demon, a kinsman to Ravana, who can only be destroyed by a being who is partially human and partially animal. Thus Hanuman takes over the primary role and Rama becomes either a victim or passive onlooker. This "sequel" to the main Ravana/Rama battle in Lanka turns out to be astonishingly widespread, not only in eastern and southern India, as noted by several scholars, but also in a number of Hindi versions. Lutgendorf analyzes the major aspects of this sequel to the story as found in dominant tellings: (1) the narrative links between the new demonic character and the magical powers of underworld characters; (2) the increasing distancing of Rama from his human devotees; and (3) the simultaneous elevation of Hanuman to deity status. Although this saga is not usually included in scholarly textual analysis of Rama’s story, both its ubiquitousness and its narrative diversity suggest its importance to the Ramayana tradition has been largely overlooked.
Aping the Social Order: Vali in the Teyyam Worship of Kerala
Rich Freeman, University of Michigan
Although Vali, king of the apes of Kishkindha, does not play a central role in Rama’s story, his death has been a controversial incident in Ramayana discourse, and thus played a significant part in Ramayana exegesis. Rama kills Vali in an unjust and morally dubious fashion, in order to secure the succession of Vali’s younger brother and thus gain a controlling alliance with the monkey armies. Rich Freeman examines the representation of Vali in Teyyattam, a mode of worshipping ancestors and local folk-deities through their spirit-possessed dancers, as practiced today in the northern part of Kerala. Most Teyyattam performances celebrate the deified forms of traditionally lower-caste warriors, laborers, or servants slain either in the service of, or by members of, the higher castes. In this context, Vali’s social ambiguity as a human-like simian, his victimization in these terms by higher-ups, yet his underlying and essential nobility are all deployed in an implicit critique of caste society by those communities who identify with him as their deity. In appropriating the story of Vali to symbolize the heroism of low-caste notables forced to risk their lives for high-caste overlords, the Teyyattam performers transform Vali from mere "Other" to a figure who challenges high-caste privilege and commemorates the nobility of those low-caste warriors slain in battle.