The Ramayana The Way of Rama

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The Ramayana(The Way of Rama)

• CNE/ENG 120
• 10/6/04

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Ramayana

• Author Valmiki
• Culture Indian
• Language Sanskrit
• Genre epic poetry
• Time c. 200 BCE
• Names/terms to know Rama, Sita, Dasaratha,
  Ravana, Manthara, dharma

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Themes

• The nature of heroism
• Gender roles
• How to live a good life (according to dharma
  right action, sacred duty according to ones
  social role, status, and gender)
• Natural social hierarchies

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Moral Exemplars

• The poem has had powerful effects on peoples
  behavior in South Asia. Rama, Sita, Lakshmana
  have been held up as models of behavior. Public
  performances revolve around the questions Why
  did Rama do this? Was Sita right in doing that?

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Moral Problems/Obedience

• Texts have arisen cataloguing the moral
  quandaries of the story, and public recitation
  and exegesis are often developed on the basis of
  such lists.
• The Ramayana explores the problem of authority
  and obedience.
• It is the necessity of obedience that the poem
  emphasizes, rather than the quality of the
  authority that demands it.

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Background

• This is the oldest literary version of the tale
  of the exile and adventures of Rama, a story that
  goes back in folk traditions to the 7th c. BC.
• It is probably that Valmiki, like Homer, gathered
  up other versions of the oral tale and shaped it.
• This is the great story of Indian civilization,
  the one narrative that Indians have known and
  loved since the 7th c. BC and which remains very
  popular today.

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Valmiki

• Valmiki is celebrated as the first poet and the
  Ramayana as the first poem.
• The poem begins with the sage Valmiki himself
  inventing metrical verse and asking the question
  Who is the perfect man?
• The sage Narada responds with the story of Rama,
  whose wife had been abducted by a demon-king.
• The poet is one who transforms raw emotion and
  the chaos of real life into an ordered work of
  art.

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Rama

• Ramas epithet devoted to righteousness
• He is associated with the line of Iksvaku kings
  who ruled the kingdom of Kosala in the Ganges
  valley of north India from their capital in
  Ayodhya in the 6th and 5th c. BCE.
• The epic blends historical saga, nature myth,
  morality tale, and religious mythology.

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Narrative Structure

• Book 1 an account of Ramas childhood this is
  an addition to the original text which frames the
  central narrative. It introduces Rama as a divine
  incarnation, an avatar of Vishnu.
• Books 2-6 form the core of the epic Rama as a
  wandering hero avenging bride theft.
  Monster-slayer.
• Book 7 an addition that completes the story of
  Rama as an avatar. The suffering of Sita.

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The God Vishnu
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Core Story

• Ravana, the 10-headed powerful king of the
  Raksasas (demons who threaten the world and moral
  order dharma) has gotten a boon of
  invulnerability to gods, demigods, men, and
  animals.
• The gods persuade Vishnu, whose function it is to
  preserve dharma, to incarnate himself as a man in
  order to destroy Ravana.

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The Avatars

• Vishnu incarnates as Rama, son of Dasaratha, king
  of Kosala, and his senior wife Kausalya.
• Sons are also born at the same time to lesser
  wives Kaikeyi bore Bharata, Sumitra bore the
  twins Lakshmana and Satrughna. These sons all
  share in Vishnus divine essence.
• Rama is a paragon of princely virtues.

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Narrative Sections

• Book 1 Rama and Lakshmana go to Mithila, a
  capital of the eastern kingdom. Rama wins the
  princess Sita as wife by beating other suitors in
  a contest to bend a magical bow. Does this sound
  familiar? Magical weapons, princess as prize
  folktale motifs
• Sitas name means furrow - she is really the
  daughter of the goddess Earth.

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Book 2 AyodhyaRamas Exile

• Rama is declared heir - all rejoice.
• Manthara convinces Keikeyi to call in her boon
  from the king and make her own son heir. Here we
  see the evil (represented by Manthara then
  Keikeyi) of not following dharma.
• Anguished, Dasaratha complies Rama accepts the
  exile, Sita Lakshmana go with him.
• The king dies of grief (like Odysseus mother?)
• Bharata returns, is horrified, refuses throne
  Rama convinces him to rule as regent until his
  return.

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Books 3-6

• These are adventure tales Aranya (the Forest),
  Kiskindha (the kingdom of the monkeys), Sundara
  (the beautiful), and Yuddha (the war).
• The Forest Book tells the adventures of Rama,
  Sita, and Lakshmana in the wildernesses of
  central and western India.
• They meet sages, hermits, shape-shifting demons.
  Rama routs the demons Ravana swears revenge.

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Bride Theft

• Ravana uses a magic deer to lure Rama and
  Lakshmana away from home, then he kidnaps Sita in
  his flying chariot.
• Like Menelaos and Agamemnon, the brothers set out
  in search of Sita.
• On the way, they gain allies.

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Kiskindha

• When they arrive at the kingdom of the monkeys,
  Rama strikes up an alliance with the king,
  Sugriva. In return for Ramas help in killing his
  brother (who had usurped his kingdom), Sugriva
  sends a horde of monkeys (and Hanuman) to help
  Rama.

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The Beautiful Book

• This book tells of the exploits of the monkey
  hero Hanuman, son of the wine god. He searches
  south, leaps the sea in a single bound, looks for
  Sita in Sri Lanka.
• He finds her prisoner in Ravanas pleasure grove.
  She remains chaste, like Penelope, but despairs
  of Rama rescuing her.
• Hanuman consoles her, wreaks havoc, and returns
  to report to Rama.

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Yuddha (The War)

• In Book 6, the monkeys build a great bridge over
  which Rama leads his army to attack Ravanas
  city.
• The demons are routed, Rama kills Ravana and
  liberates Sita.
• Sita proves her chastity in an ordeal by fire
  Rama returns with her to Ayodhya with Lakshmana
  and is crowned king.

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Book 7

• Public scandal about Sitas abduction leads Rama
  to banish her to life in the forest. Pregnant,
  she takes refuge in the hermitage of Valmiki and
  bears Rama twin sons Lava and Kusa.
• The boys learn the saga of Rama from Valmiki
  when grown they sing the song at their fathers
  court.

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The Fate of Furrow

• Rama asks Sita to return to him she declares
  that the purpose of her life has been fulfilled
  and asks her mother Earth to receive her. She
  disappears into a crack in the earth.

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The Fate of Rama

• Rama continues to rule alone until it is time for
  him to end his incarnation
• Ramas character is a focal point throughout the
  epic he teaches the way of right action
  according to dharma, the principle on which the
  hierarchical relationships of Indian family and
  society are based.

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Ramas Heroism

• Ramas heroism lies in both his acts and his
  attitude.
• A mans fundamental duty to honor his fathers
  word.
• Ramas heroism combines the strong sense of duty
  and dedication to social responsibility demanded
  of an ideal king and the ideal member of the
  structured Hindu social order. Gandhi admired
  Rama as his personal hero and the personification
  of the ideal man.

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Sitas Heroism

• Her role is focused on her conduct as wife a
  womans dharma is to obey her husband. She is the
  exemplar of the good wife for Hindu culture, much
  as Penelope was for Greek culture.
• Women were mens property sexual fidelity to
  their husbands was the major virtue of women.

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Sitas Troubles

• Still, Valmikis account implies that Sitas own
  willful actions - coveting the golden deer and
  persuading her male relatives to leave her
  unguarded - led to what happens afterward her
  kidnapping and imprisonment, as well as Ramas
  eventual rejection of her.

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Sitas Revenge

• After Rama slays Ravana and rescues Sita, he asks
  her to prove her sexual purity with trial by
  fire.
• She emerges triumphant and the two return home.
  However, continuing public doubt leads him to
  banish her to the forest.
• Later, she refuses to rejoin Rama, expressing her
  anger by committing a kind of ritual suicide.

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Cultural Values

• The male authors of Hindu legal and ritual texts
  wrote that men had to be guardians over women to
  ensure the legitimacy of the family line.
• A womans uncontrolled sexuality could bring
  dishonor and ruin to her family.
• Marriage was arranged soon after puberty, for
  each menstrual cycle was seen as a lost
  opportunity for producing a son.
• However, in epic we do see women such as Sita
  making choices about their own lives.