Ramayana and its Regional Variations
"मा निषाद प्रतिष्ठां त्वमगमः शाश्वतीः समाः।
यत्क्रौञ्चमिथुनादेकमवधीः काममोहितम्॥"
While bathing in the Tamasaa River, Sage Valmiki witnessed a hunter killed a male kraunch bird that was engaged in making love with its partner. In rage, he uttered a shloka, cursing the hunter. The shloka turns into the first shloka of the Ramayana and also the first shloka in Sanskrit literature. And so, he is also called Adi Kavi. The incident serves as his inspiration to write the Ramayana, a story about the separation, of Rama and Sita, when Sita is abducted by Ravana, and Rama wanders in forests with his brother Lakshman, looking for her and forms an alliance with Sugreeva, the monkey king and with the help of Sugreeva and his army of monkeys, he rescues Sita after killing Ravana, the demon king of Lanka. The above-mentioned shloka uttered by Maharishi Valmiki is a curse which means that since the hunter separated true love from each other, therefore, he would not be able to live in peace for the rest of his life.
The Ramayana is translated as Rama's Journey. Valmiki is believed to have written three versions of the Ramayana viz.
- Valmiki Ramayana
- Adbhuta Ramayana
- Ananda Ramayana
It is acknowledged that the Valmiki Ramayana is the original. In the Valmiki Ramayana, Rama is the incarnation of Vishnu, and Lakshman is the incarnation of Sheshanaga. Ravana and Kumbhkarana were the reincarnations of Jay and Vijay, who were Vishnu's dwarapalas (doorkeepers) at Vaikuntha and were cursed by four sages: Sanak, Sanandan, Sanatan, and Sanatkumar. In the Ramayana, the writer is one of the characters in the story. It was in Valmiki’s asharama (hermitage) that Sita stayed after she was abandoned by Rama. Luv and Kush were brought up here by Sita. The sage narrates the story of the Ramayana to Luv and Kush who narrates it to Rama at Naimisaranya (in modern-day Uttar Pradesh). The Uttara Kanda is considered an epilogue of the Ramayana, and it narrates the story after the return of Rama, Sita and Laxman to Ayodhya from a 14-year exile. In the epilogue, Rama abandons Sita and Sita is ordered to leave the palace and seeks shelter in the hermitage of Valmiki. The Uttara Kanda also mentions the killing of a low caste man named Shambuk by Rama. The text also tells us that Ravana attacks Kuber (Ravana’s Half-brother) and acquires Lanka and Pushpak vimana. He kills the saints when King Marut was performing a yagna.
In the Adbhuta Ramayana, there are two Ravanas. The elder one is much more powerful than the younger one and it is Sita who kills the elder Ravana, not Rama. She is shown as a warrior. Whereas in the Ananda Ramayana, there are two Sitas. The text speaks of Chhaya (shadow) Sita, who is not the real Sita. It is Chhaya Sita who is abducted by Ravana. When she performs agnipariksha, the real Sita reappears. A similar concept is seen in the Adhyatma Ramayana which was written during the medieval India between 13th-15th centuries by Veda Vyasa. It too mentions Chhaya Sita.
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Goswami Tulsidas, a Bhakti saint-poet penned the Ramcharitmanas in the fifteenth century CE. The writing was done in Awadhi. It is written in quatrain verse, known as "Chaupais," but the Valmiki Ramayana is composed in "Shlokas,". The Ramcharitmanas is a retelling of the Ramayana. Tulsidas acknowledges Valmiki in his work.
Kandas of Ramcharitamanas:
- The book is divided into seven chapters called "Kandas" just as in the Valmiki Ramayana.
- Six of the seven sections share the same title, while the concluding Kanda is referred to in the Ramayana as "Yuddha Kanda" and in the Ramcharitmanas as "Lanka Kanda."
- In the Ramcharitamanas, in its Aranya Kanda, there is a mention of Chhaya or Maya Sita as in the Ananda Ramayana and the Adhyatma Ramayana and that the shadow of Sita is abducted by Ravana. Agnipariksha of Sita was performed in the Lanka Kanda to retrieve her after Rama sent her under the protection of Agni Dev when Ravana attempted to abduct her.
- Rambha, an apsara was sexually assaulted by Ravana in Uttara Kand. She was to marry Nalkubera, the son of Ravana's brother Kubera. Furious, Nalkubera curses Ravana, threatening to blow his heads off if Dashanan, the 10-headed demon king, ever tries to touch another woman without her consent.
The Mahabharata also recounts the tale. There is a section in the epic called the Ramopakhnyanam where Maharishi Markendeya narrates the story of Rama and Sita to Yudhisthira when Draupadi was abducted by Jayadratha.
The epic was also adapted and retold by the Indian tribal people to suit their own realities. In the Baiga Ramayana, Laxman gives agnipariksha to prove his loyalty to his wife, Urmila when an apsara approached him for marriage and he refuses the proposal since he is already married. So, she plays a prank on him and leaves her jewellery on his bed. When Sita discovers this, he feels ashamed and to prove his innocence, he gives agnipariksha. Similarly, other tribes such as the Bhils, Vanvasi Sampradaya, etc. have their own versions of the Ramayana.
The Dandi Ramayana is a retelling of the Ramayana in Odiya written by Balarama Dasa who was a devotee of Jagannath, one of the avatars of Vishnu. In this version, Shiva is narrating the story to Parvati and as a Jagannath bhakta he shows that Shiva while narrating the story and taking the name of Rama (another incarnation of Vishnu) attained moksha or liberation. He is counted as one of the Pancha Sakha or the five great poets of Odia literature. The Pancha Sakha are credited with the introduction of Bhakti Movement in Odisha. Since the bhakti movement focused on complete surrender and worship of one Supreme God, and as an ardent follower of Jagannath, the author portrays Shiva as a titular deity. Some other regional variations include: the Giridhar Ramayana of Gujarat, Assam's Madhavkadli Ramyana, the Bhavartha Ramayana in Marathi and the Kritibasiya Ramyana in Bangla.
Likewise, the retelling of the Ramayana happened in South India as well. In fact, when the regional adaptations started to surface, it first appeared in South India in the 12th century, followed by the east in the fifteenth century and then in North India commencing in the 16th century. A 12th c. poet Kavichakravarthy Kamban or Kambar lived at the court of a Chola ruler, Kulotunga II. He wrote the Tamil version of the Ramayana- the Ramavataram popularly called the Kambaramayanam. It is considered to be one of the greatest works in Tamil literature. Kamaban’s Ramayana along with the Silappadigaram (written by Illangovadigal, a grandson of the Chola ruler Karikalan, who lived in the 1st or 2nd century C.E.) are considered the national epics of the Tamilians. The age of Kamban is regarded as the Golden Age of Tamil Literature. The basic framework of the Kamban Ramayana does not differ from the Valmiki Ramayana but Kamban gives his work a different treatment in some places. For instance, in the Valmiki Ramayana, Ravana forcefully abducts her by holding her tightly the way Budha attempted to capture Rohini in the sky. Kamba, on the other hand, narrates that Ravana without touching Sita lifted up the ground where she was standing along with the hut. In the Kamban Ramayana, when Hanuman was tied at Ravana’s court, Ravana asked him how Bali was doing despite the fact he was very well aware that he was no more alive. Hanuman asked him not to be afraid as he was dead and so, along with him, his tail was also gone. Hanuman intended to remind Ravana of his humiliation that he suffered at the hands of Bali after a war in which the latter defeated Ravana. After the war, Bali had him tied to his tail and dragged him to miles.
The Mappilas of the Malabar coast have their own version of the Ramayana which is written in Malayalam, and it is based on a Southeast adaptation of the Indian epic. In the Mappila version, Rama is addressed as Sultan while Shurpanakha is described as Fatima. During the time when Sultan and Fatima were engaged in conversation in a forest, the reference is made to the Islamic law i.e. Sharia and not to the Dharmashastras. Likewise, in the Hikayet Seri Rama of Malaysia, references have been made to Allah, Nabi, Prophet Muhammad, etc.
The Sachi Ramayana of E. V. Ramaswamy Periyar, the father of the Dravidian movement was banned in India. The ban was lifted officially by the Allahabad High Court, saying that the author wants to highlight injustice done to his caste rather than him wanting to hurt Hindu sentiments. The retelling of the Ramayana by Periyar was in stark contrast to the Ramacharitamanas of Tulsidas which is the most popular version in the Hindi belt of north India in which Rama is projected as an ideal son, husband, ruler and man. Periyar’s work highlights the limitations of this character, Rama. Periyar objects to the killing of a Shudra ascetic named Shambuka by Rama while the former was performing tapas or penance. The incident is mentioned in the Valmiki Ramayana, Book 7, the Uttarakanda. On the other hand, Periyar glorifies Ravana. The book was the result of the discriminatory treatment he received when he went to Kashi (the city of gods) in Uttar Pradesh.
There are Jaina and Buddhist renditions of the epic as well.
- In the Jaina Ramayana, Sita is not the daughter of Janaka or Bhu (land), but rather of Ravana. It was foretold upon her birth that she would be the reason of the asuras' complete destruction. As a result, she was abandoned, discovered by Janaka. Ravana, called Prativasudeva was killed by Vasudeva (Lakshman) and not by Baladeva or Rama. After Rama abandons Sita, she does not request Bhu Devi (Mother Earth) to split open and vanished into it but she renounce's everything and turns into a Jain ascetic and ascends to heaven. Rama too renounces his kingdom and embraces Jainism and as a Jaina monk, he attains kaivalya (enlightenment) and finally, attains salvation.
- In the Buddhist version of the epic known as the Dasaratha Jataka, Rama is described as Sita's brother and also, her husband and Rama ruled Kashi, not Ayodhya.
The Ramayana was also re-written by two women writers. Chandrabati, the first Bangla woman poet who was born in modern-day Bangladesh and she is credited with the writing of the Chandravbati Ramayana. The Molla Ramayana was written in Telugu by Molla.
Language | Adaptation |
Sanskrit | Adbhuta Ramayana, Ananda Ramayana, Adhyatma Ramayana |
Tamil | Kamban Ramayana |
Awadhi | Tulsidas Ramacharitamanas |
Odiya | Dandi Ramayana/Jagmohana Ramayana, Bilanka Ramayana, Bichitra Ramayana, Baidehi-Bilasa |
Bengali | Kritivasi Ramayana, Chandrabati Ramayana |
Marathi | Bhavartha Ramayana |
Girdhara Ramayana | |
Assamese | Madhava Kandali Ramayana |
The story of Rama and Sita travelled via the Silk Route to Tibet, Mongolia, and Central Asia. It also made its way to Southeast Asia with the Indian traders and merchants where it flourished and fused with some indigenous elements and became ingrained in regional traditions. The Southeast Asian nations with their respective national epics, their own adaptations of the Ramayana, are listed below.
Country | National Epic |
Cambodia | Reamker |
Indonesia | Ramayana Jawa |
Laos | Phra Lak Phra Ram |
Malaysia | Hikayet Seri Rama |
Myanmar | Yama Zatdaw / Yamayana |
Thailand | Ramakien |
एकम सत विप्रा बहुधा वदन्ति।
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