The Multivalence of an Epic

Retelling the Rāmāyaṇa in South India and Southeast Asia
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-032-59913-7
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 372 Seiten, Format (B × H): 178 mm x 254 mm, Gewicht: 644 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

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

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.