Ramayana: Akshyaya Vata
After
reading my blog ‘Sita’s Anguish,’ a reader and friend observed:
‘I tried
looking up Yuddha Kaand, Sarga (Chapter) 103 for the words quoted by you viz. "rAvanAnka
paribhrastA drstva dustena chakshushA". Didn't find them in Sarga 103. Am
I missing or misunderstanding something?’ He shared with me the link he
had looked up.[i]
I explained
to my friend that he was reading Valmiki Ramayana from sanskritdocuments.org,
where he had found Rama’s address to Sita in Sarga 115; whereas my reference
was to Valmiki Ramayana, Critical Edition, Oriental Institute, Baroda, Ed by P
L Vaidya (1971) where the episode is in Sarga 103. I shared the link for the
Critical Edition.[ii]
Sarga
numbers differ because the Critical Edition has excised all those shlokas which
eminent scholars believed to be interpolations by subsequent authors.
There are
several Sanskrit Ramayanas, and several versions of Sanskrit Valmiki Ramayana -
“…more than
one text of the Sanskrit Ramayana exists—Valmiki Ramayana, Yoga Vasishtha
Ramayana, Ananda Ramayana and Adbhuta Ramayana.”
(Debroy,
Bibek. The Valmiki Ramayana (p. 19). Penguin Random House India Private
Limited. Kindle Edition.)
Ramayana: Critical Edition
The Oriental
Institute, Baroda, with financial aid from the UGC, engaged reputed scholars
who shifted through voluminous text and scrutinised 2000 or more manuscripts during
1951 to 1975 to produce the Critical Edition (CE) of the Valmiki Ramayana. The
non-critical version has 650 Sargas and a little over 24000 shlokas whereas the
CE has 606 Sargas with 18670 shlokas.
Ramayana: Akshyaya Vata
Ramayana is
like the Akshyaya Vata (the eternal, indestructible, sacred banyan tree), which
was planted by Adikavi Valmiki long ago and has spread its wondrous canopy all
over India and beyond and has welcomed under its soothing and nourishing shade
people of diverse opinions and religious persuasions.
Each one has a personal Ramayana
Thinking
further on this issue, I was struck by a simple yet profound realisation. Your
Ramayana is different from my Ramayana! In fact, every Indian of
whatever faith has inside him or her a personal, unique version of Ramayana.
How so? Let me explain that by talking about my Ramayana.
My Ramayana
At home, my grandparents
and my mother sang and recited Odia Ramayana and Bhagavata, maybe daily. I
guess I first got it as an audio file while still in my mother’s womb.
In my
village in Odisha, I watched with avid interest Ram Leela (and Krishna Leela, too)
performed every year by the local artists. I may have first watched it from my
mother’s lap, dozing off when sleep came, and startled awake by Ravana’s
hideous laughter. That was my first experience of Ramayana in audio-visual
form.
At school, I
read and heard many moral stories from Ramayana. During my summer holidays,
having no other book to read, I read Odia Ramayana (also called Jagamohan Ramayana)
by Balaram Das. I was thrilled to find a treasure trove of stories in the seven
hard-bound volumes, and read and re-read these stories. I was in my middle
school, and discovered Ramayana text at the tender age of 10 to 12.
During college
days, I read the abridged versions of Ramayana in English by C. Rajagopalachari
and R. K. Narayana. Later, like most other fellow Indians, I watched Ramanand
Sagar’s ‘Ramayana’ on TV during 1987-88.
In
subsequent years, I have read a few essays and books related to the epic including
the following– Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation
by A.K. Ramanujan, 1987 (after a controversy, this essay was withdrawn
from Delhi University’s Under-Graduate History syllabus in 2011), The Enchanted
Forest by Chita Banerjee Divakaruni, In Search of Sita by Namita
Gokhale.
Recently, I
have read from the English prose translations of Valmiki Ramayana (Critical
Edition) by Bibek Debroy, and Richard P. Gordon, and Manmatha Nath Dutt’s translation
of the non-critical text, published in 1891. Thereafter, I was tempted to read a
few Sargas of Valmiki Ramayana from IITK portal, and from the Critical Edition
by P.L. Vaidya.
To sum up, Ramayana
reached out to me mostly through the audio-visual mode, partly through text; and
my current reading of Valmiki Ramayana (Critical Edition) can at best be of
Primary School Grade I.
Which is the
Ramayana that I know? The epic that I met and loved as a child through song and
drama, the Odia text that I read long years ago, or the other modes through
which I absorbed the epic? Has the Ramayana I knew as a child or as a young man
stayed unchanged, or has it grown and spread its roots and branches and foliage
over the years? I am inclined to believe that Valmiki’s Ramayana is a living,
dynamic document, and the vernacular versions by venerable saint-poets and authors
have added to the magical corpus of stories and myths which is our treasured
cultural heritage. I believe it would keep growing and blossoming like the
Akshaya Vata.
Is Ramayana a Book?
Far from it.
Text is only a small part. Millions of people have never read the epic, most
people will never read the Book. But they have received their Ramayana through
Ram Leela, Ram Kathas, cinema and TV, folk songs, art and sculpture, the
Ramayana stories which are part of the daily idiom, and even through Amar
Chitra Katha. Ramayana reaches and blesses every Indian in its own mysterious
ways.
Image
Credit: Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana returning to Ayodhya; Period: Mid-17th
Century CE, Artist- Unknown, Style- Malwa, Central India; Source: NM Virtual
Gallery.
Your Ramayana
Your Ramayana is almost certainly
different from my Ramayana, and it is no surprise that our understanding
of the epic may differ, sometimes marginally, and sometimes significantly.
You may have
a copy of Valmiki Ramayana with tika by Gita Press, or a different Valmiki Ramayana,
or Ram Charit Manas by Gosvami Tulasi Dasa, or Kamba Ramayana in Tamil, or the
Odia Ramayana by Balaram Das, and may be reading daily from it.
Do I possess
one or more copies of Ramayana? Yes and no. I do have a few hardcopy volumes of
the epic and a few soft copies in my library; but I can never dream of ‘possessing’
our Adikavya which is so vast and expansive. Rather, I am possessed by Ramayana.
Where is Our Ramayana?
Ramayana is
in the air we breathe, Ramayana is in the water we sip, Ramayana is the earth
that is our home, Ramayana is the sunshine that fills our life with light and
warmth, Ramayana is the sky that is the roof over our head, Ramayana is the
rain that pours like a blessing upon the scorched earth, Ramayana is the water
that gurgles down the rivulets and streams and rivers and runs into the seas
and oceans. I can see no place or thing where Ramayana is not there.
I have sipped
but a little of the nectar of Ramayana. I guess, you too have tasted the nectar
from your own cup, big or small; and you, too, are blessed to have your
personal, unique Ramayana.
However, Our
Ramayana is vaster, more extensive and expansive, more comprehensive, more
inclusive and more panoramic than Your Ramayana and My Ramayana
put together.
***
Beautiful exposition! Well documented!! Thanks for your wonderful effort!
ReplyDelete