The Multivalence of an Epic

Retelling the R¿m¿ya¿a in South India and Southeast Asia
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-1-032-59912-0
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 372 Seiten, Format (B × H): 183 mm x 260 mm, Gewicht: 894 g

This volume examines The Ramayana traditions of South India and Southeast Asia. Bringing together 19 well-known scholars in Ramayana studies from Cambodia, Canada, France, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, UK, and USA, this thought-provoking and elegantly illustrated volume engages with the inherent plurality, diversity, and adaptability of the Ramayana in changing socio-political, religious, and cultural contexts.

The journey and localization of the Ramayana is explored in its manifold expressions – from classical to folk, from temples and palaces to theatres and by-lanes in cities and villages, and from ancient to modern times. Regional Ramayanas from different parts of South India and Southeast Asia are placed in deliberate juxtaposition to enable a historically informed discussion of their connected pasts across land and seas. The three parts of this volume, organized as visual, literary, and performance cultures, discuss the sculpted, painted, inscribed, written, recited, and performed Ramayanas. A related emphasis is on the way boundaries of medium and genre have been crossed in the visual, literary, and performed representations of the Ramayana.

Zielgruppe

General, Postgraduate, and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Dhar, Parul Pandya

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunststile Asiatische Kunst
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Historische & Regionale Volkskunde
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ästhetik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft: Lyrik und Dichter

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Prologue

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Exploring the Epic’s Multivalence: Ramayanas in Visual, Literary, and Performance Cultures

Parul Pandya Dhar

I. Visual Cultures: Sculptures, Paintings, and Inscriptions

1. The Ramayana Retold by Sculptors and Scribes in pre-Vijayanagara Karnataka

Parul Pandya Dhar

2. Stone, Wood, Paint: Rama-Story Representations throughout Southeast Asia

John Brockington

3. Looking for Rama: Traces of the Ramayana in Temples of the Pallava Dynasty

Valérie Gillet

Über Autor(innen)

Parul Pandya Dhar is art historian and professor in the Department of History, University of Delhi. She has authored The Torana in Indian and Southeast Asian Architecture (2010), edited Indian Art History: Changing Perspectives (2011), and co-edited Temple Architecture and Imagery of South and Southeast Asia (2016), Asian Encounters: Exploring Connected Histories (2014), and Cultural Interface of India with Asia (2004), besides contributing several research articles.