Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T08:51:26.241Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rāmāyaṇa—An Instrument of Historical Contact and Cultural Transmission Between India and Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Santosh N. Desai
Get access

Abstract

This paper examines the role of the Hindu Epic Rāmāyaṇa in the historical and cultural contact between India and the rest of Asia. The Rama legend—rather legends—are prevalent in almost all countries of Asia, namely China, Tibet, East Turkestan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaya, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and Burma. The contact was not only close but it was also general and widespread. By no means was it confined to the Brahmanical values which were upheld by Vālmīki in the Sanskrit Rāmāyaṇa and shared by the upper strata of Hindu society. The Rama legends prevalent in Asia, except those in China, do not agree in content and emphasis with the Vālmīki version. A close examination of the Rama story in India itself reveals that in addition to the Vālmīki version, a number of Rama legends, differing from the Valmiki story, were prevalent in vernacular and Jain Literature all over the country. All diese versions provided the diverse and complex source material for the Ramayanic legends of Asia. Brahmanical and non-Brahmanical elements appeared in different mixtures and emphasis. While China accepted the more orthodox ethical values, the countries of Soudieast Asia adopted Rāmāyaṇa mostly for the epic qualities of romance, adventure, and valor.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , November 1970 , pp. 5 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

This paper was read at the Annual Meeting of the Association of Asian Studies held in Boston March 28–30, 1969.

1 The term “Hindu” is used here in a broad cultural sense meaning the civilization developed toward the east of the Indus River (Skt. Siṇdhu) before the arrival of Islam.

This definition includes its Aryan as well as the non-Aryan components. Vedism, orthodox Brahmanism, the Bhakti tradition as practiced in Vaiṣṇavism and Śaivism, Śakti-worship as well as the heterodox philosophies like Jainism and Buddhism form a part of it. This paper, however, focuses upon the movement of non-Buddhist elements of the Hindu civilization from India to Asia.

2 The Buddhists of ancient India rejected untouchability, Brāhmaṇa claims to pre-eminence and ritual pollution. But this applied only to the monks and monasteries. A lay Buddhist continued to live in the Hindu cultural milieu as do the Jains of present India. Moreover, some of the most well known Buddhist scholars like Aśvaghoṣa, Nāgārjuna, Asanga, and Vasubandhu were Brāhmaṇas. Although they adopted and interpreted the teachings of Buddha, culturally they subscribed to the Hindu tradition,

3 Watanabe, K., “The Oldest Record of the Rāmāyaṇa in a Chinese Buddhist Writing,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1907) p. 99.Google Scholar

4 Watanabe, K., “The Oldest Record of the Rāmāyaṇa,” pp. 100–01.Google Scholar

5 Watanabe, K., “The Oldest Record of the RĀmĀyaṆa,” pp. 101–02.Google Scholar

6 Dr.Vira, Raghu and Chikyo, Yamamoto, Rāmāyaṇa in China (Lahore: Sarasvatī VihĀra Series, Vol. VIII, 1938).Google Scholar

7 Vira and Yamamoto, Rāmāyaṇa in China.

8 Reverend Camille Bulcke, Rāmakathā (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Allahabad, 1950).Google Scholar

9 Thomas, W., A Rāmāyaṇa Story in Tibetan from Chinese Turkestan (Indian Studies: C. R. Lamman Commemorative Volume, 1929) pp. 193–212.Google Scholar

10 Reverend Camille Bulcke, “Rāmakathā kā Vikās,” Hindī Sahitya Kosh (New Delhi: Sahitya Academy).

11 Mus, Paul, “L'inscription a Vālmīki de Prakāśadharma,” Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extreme-Orient, XXVIII (1928) 152.Google Scholar

12 Huber, Edouard, “Legende de Rāma en Annam,” Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extreme-Orient, V (1950) pp. 168ff.Google Scholar

13 Stutterheira, W. F., Rāma-Legenden en Rāma-Reliefs in Indonesien, (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Leiden University, München, 1924).Google Scholar

14 Kats, J., The Rāmāyaṇa as Sculptured in Reliefs in Javanese Temples (Batavia and Leiden, 1930)Google Scholar; Kern, H., Rāmāyaṇa Kākāwin, oudjavaanche Heldendicht (The Hague, 1900).Google Scholar

15 Sarkar, H. B., Indian Influences on the Literature of Java and Bali (Calcutta: Greater India Society, 1934).Google Scholar

16 Ghosh, Manmohan, “On the Sources of the Old Javanese Rāmāyaṇa,” Journal of the Greater India Society, III (1936), 113–17.Google Scholar

17 Rāmāyaṇa Recensions in Stone Texts in South-east Asia (Calcutta: Greater India Society, 1934)Google Scholar. These are based on Stutterheim, W. F.'s Rāma Legenden und Rāma-Reliefs in Indonesien (un-published doctoral dissertation, Leiden University, München, 1924)Google Scholar and Sarkar, H. B.'s Indian Influences on the Literature of Java and Bali.Google Scholar

18 “Hikāyat Serī Rama,” with a preface by SirMaxwell, William, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Malayan Branch, LV (1910) 1–99Google Scholar; “Hikāyat Serī Rāma,” with Introduction by Sheilabear, W. G. in Journal of the Asiatic Society, Malayan Branch, LXXI (1915) 1–285Google Scholar; Winstedt, R. C., “An Undescribed Version of the Rāmāyaṇa,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1944), Parts 1 and 2, pp. 62–73Google Scholar; Zieseniss, Alexander, The Rama Saga in Malaysia, translated into English by P. W. Burch, with a Foreword by C. Hookaas (Singapore, 1963).Google Scholar

19 The exact date of the Aṅgkor Wat group of temples has evoked much controversy. E. Aymonier in his work he Cambodge, Vol. III: Le groupe d'Aṅgkor et l'histoire (Paris: E. Leroux, 1901–1903)Google Scholar, attributes them to the Khmer king Suryavarman II (1112–1152 A.D.). Finot, M. in Le temple d'Aṅgkor Wāt, Memoires Archéologiques (Paris: L'École Française d'Extreme-Orient, 1929)Google Scholar, No. 2, places the date between 1112 and 1180 A.D.

20 Przyluski, Jean, “Le legende de Rāma sur les bas reliefs d'Aṅgkor Wāt,” Arts et Archéologie Khmers (Paris: Augustin Challamel, 1923), I, pp. 319–30Google Scholar; Professor Coédes discusses some of the Aṅgkor Wāt reliefs in the Bulletin de la Commission Archéologique de l'Indochine (BCAI), II (1911) 170–220Google Scholar; a comparative study of the Indonesian and Cambodian bas-reliefs of the Rāma story is found in Rāmāyaṇa Recensions in Stone Texts in Southeast Asia.

21 Riemkerr, Text and French Summary; Introduction by S. Karpelas F.A.S.C. 1–10 (1937) pp. 75–80Google Scholar; Karpelas, Suzanne, “The Influence of Indian Civilization in Further India (The Expression of the Rāmāyaṇa in the Cambodian Version),” Indian Art and Letters, I (1926) 30–39Google Scholar; Martini, Franāois, “En Marge du Rāmāyaṇa Cambodgien,” Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extreme-Orient, XXXVIII (1938) 289–95.Google Scholar

22 Rājadhon, Phyā Anumān, Life and Ritual in Old Siam, translated by Gedney, William J. (New Haven: HRAF Press, 1961) pp. 70–71.Google Scholar

23 The author of this paper had the opportunity to visit this temple. See Seidenfaden, Major Eric, A Short Guide to Ayodhyā (Bangkok: The Bangkok Times Press, 1939).Google Scholar

24 H. M. King Rāma I, The Rāmākien (in Thai) (4 vols.; Bangkok Teachers' Association Editions, 1951).Google Scholar

25 Nivāt, Prince Dhanī, “The Reconstruction of Rāma I of the Chakrī Dynasty,” Literary Revival Section, Journal of the Siam Society, XLIII, Part 1 (1955) pp. 21–47.Google Scholar

26 Nivat, Prince Dhanī, “The Rāma Jātaka, A Lao Version of the Story of Rāma,” The Journal of the Siam Society, XXXVI, Part 1 (1946) pp. 1–3.Google Scholar

27 Ibid., pp. 1–22.

28 Connor, J. P., “The Rāmāyaṇ in Burma,” Journal of Burma Research Society, XV, Part I (04 1925) pp. 80ff.Google Scholar

29 It is possible that the non-Vālmīki Rāma legends may have originated in Southeast Asia itself and travelled to India. This conclusion must await further research into the indigenous traditions of these countries.

30 Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, ed. Krishnāchārya, T. R. and Vyāsāchārya, T. R. (Bombay: Nirṇayasāgara Press, 1911–1913)Google Scholar. This is the Sanskrit text of the Rāmāyaṇa. A complete literal translation based on the above text is:

1. The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki, tr. Shastrī, Hari Prasād (3 vols.; London: Shānti Sadan, 1952–1959);Google Scholar

2. The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki in the Original Sanskrit with a prose translation by William Carey and Joshua Marshman (4 vols.; Serampore, 1806–11). This work covers only three books, the Bālakāṅda, the Ayodhyākāṅda and the Araṗayakāṅḍa of the Sanskrit Rāmāyaṇa;

3. The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki, tr. in verse by T. H. Griffith (3rd ed.; Vāranasi: The Chowkhambā Sanskrit Studies, Vol. XXIX, 1963). This work does not contain the literal translation of the Uttarakāṅḍa, the Last Book.

31 The “southern parts” refer to the whole area south of Vindhya Mountains. This includes Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Mysore, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

32 Jacobi, Herman, Das Rāmāyaṇa (Bonn, 1893)Google Scholar; translated into English by S. N. Ghosal (Calcutta, n.d.).

33 The Vālmīki story has undergone, in reaching its present form, several modifications. The original text, prepared sometime between the sixth and third centuries B.C., consisted only of the description of Ayodhyā, Rāma's family up to the exile of Rāma and the account of the war. It was contained in Five Books, beginning with Book II, Ayodhyākāṅḍa, and ending with Book VI, the Yuddhakāṅḍa, of the present Rāmāyaṇa. The first and last Book, namely Bālakāṅḍa, the account of Rāma's childhood and Uttarakāṅḍa, the account of Sītā's banishment, the birth of her sons, Rāma's meeting with his sons and the origin of Rāksasas (demons) were added later.

Not only did the original Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa grow and change in plot, but the spirit or essence of the story also changed completely. In the beginning in the true epic manner, Rāma was an Ikśvāku Kṣatriya prince, who through his noble deeds became the ideal of his subjects. By the first century B.C., however, Rāma and his brothers had become avatāras (incarnations) of Viṣṇu. This was due to the development of the Vaiṣṇava faith in India. Further change in the story occurred during the twelfdi and fourteenth centuries when the Rāmabhakti (the cult of worshipping Rāma) reached its height. Today the Hindus in India attribute divinity to Rāma, he alone being the avatāra of Viṣṇu, and the Rāmāyaṇa is considered the līlā (the sport activity) of Viṣṇu.

34 Desai, S. N., Hindu Elements in Thai Culture (unpublished doctoral dissertation, St. John's University, 1968) pp. 130–31.Google Scholar

35 Fausboll, V., Daśaratha Jātaka, the Buddhist Story of King Rāma, (Copenhagen: Hagerup, 1871)Google Scholar; Utgikar, N. B., “The Story of the Daśaratha Jātaka,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Century Supplement (1914), pp. 203–21Google Scholar; Sen, Rao Saheb D. C., The Bengālī Rāmāyaṇas (Calcutta; University of Calcutta, 1920) pp. 5–15.Google Scholar

36 Hemachaṅdra, Āchārya, The Jain RāmāyaṇaGoogle Scholar (Ahmedabad, n.d.); Narsimhācār, D. L., “The Jaina Rāmāyaṇa,” Indian Historical Quarterly, XV (1939) 575–94Google Scholar; Chakkvartī, A., “A Buddhist and Jain Version of the Story of Rāma,” Jaina Gazette, XXII (1926) 117ffGoogle Scholar; Sen, Rao Saheb D. C., The Bengali Rāmāyaṇas, pp. 26–41.Google Scholar

37 Desai, S. N., Hindu Elements in Thai Culture, pp. 138–39.Google Scholar

38 Hopkins, E. W., The Great Epic of India (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1902).Google Scholar

39 Kampārāmāyaṇam in Tamil (twelfth century); Raghunath's Rāmāyaṇa Dvipada in Telugu (thirteenth century); The Bhāskara Rāmāyaṇa in Telugu (fourteenth century); The Mollā Rāmāyana in Telugu (sixteenth century); The Krittibāsa Rāmāyaṇa in Bengāli (fifteenth century); the Chandrāvatī Rāmāyaṇa in Bengāli (sixteenth century); The Rāmāyaṇa of Kavichanḍra in Bengāli (eighteenth century); The Rām-rasāyana of Raghuanṅdana in Bengāli (eighteenth century); The Bālarāma Rāmāyaṇa in Oriyā (fifteenth century); Ezuttacan's Attiyatuma Rāmāyaṇa in Malayalam (sixteenth century); The Torave Rāmāyaṇa in Canarese (sixteenth century); Divākar Prakāsh Bhatt's Rāmāyaāa in Kāshmīrī (eighteenth century); Girdhardas' RāmāyaŇa in Gujarātī (nineteenth century).

40 Manusmṛti (The Laws of Manu), translated by Buhler, G. (Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XXV; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886).Google Scholar

41 Dutt, R. C., The Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata (Everyman's Library Book; Dutton: New York, 1963) p. 158.Google Scholar

42 Dutt, R. C., The Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata, pp. 158–59.Google Scholar

43 Desai, S. N., Hindu Elements in Thai Culture, p. 83.Google Scholar

44 Ibid., p. 84.

45 Desai, S. N., Hindu Elements in Thai Culture, pp. 84–85.Google Scholar

46 Desai, S. N., Hindu Elements in Thai Culture, pp. 126–37.Google Scholar

47 The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki, translated by Shāstrī, Hari Prasād (London: Shānti Sadan, 1957)Google Scholar, II (Kishkindhakāṅḍa) p. 363.

48 Desai, S. N., Hindu Elements in Thai Culture, p. 128.Google Scholar

49 A Souvenir of Siam, ed. Jaivid Raṅgthoṅg (Bangkok: Hatha Dhip Press, n.d.).

50 The Hindus celebrate the defeat and death of Rāvaṇa each year in the festival of Daśera. The Thai theatre never stages the death of Rāvaṇa during its performances of the Khon drama based on the Rāmakīrti. See Desai, S. N., Hindu Elements in Thai Culture, p. 129.Google Scholar