An International Conference on RAMAYANA: REINTERPRETATION IN ASIA

17-18 July 2010

Ngee Ann Auditorium, Asian Civilisations Museum

Singapore

Abstracts

A TALE FOR ALL REGIONS, A TEXT FOR ALL SEASONS: INTERPRETATION AND REINTERPRETATION OF

THE RAMAYANA IN SOUTHERN ASIA

Robert P. Goldman

University of California at Berkeley

Although it is little known in the West beyond a limited circle of scholars of South and

Southeast Asian Studies and the diverse migr communities from Southern Asia, it

can easily be argued that the Ramayanaviewed broadly as the sum of its innumerable

textual, artistic, and performative representationsis in many ways and for many

millions of people in dozens of countries the greatest story ever told.

Like a very few highly culturally influential texts of antiquity, such works as the Holy

Bible, the Holy Quran, and the corpora of Buddhist canonical works, the Ramayana has

transcended barriers of language, region, and culture to become central to the social,

political, and religious formations of a vast spectrum of nations and civilisations from

ancient times to the present day. Unlike those texts, howeverand in this it is virtually

uniqueit has ensconced itself at the heart of many different and even opposing

religious cultures, including Hinduism it all of its rich and complex diversity, Jainism,

Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam, and tribal religions across a vast and populous swathe of

territory extending from Iran in the west to Bali and the Philippines in the east and from

Tibet and Mongolia in the north to Sri Lanka in the south.

During a history that extends back more than two millennia, the central tale of the long-

suffering, but unshakably righteous, Prince Rama and his faithful, though much abused,

wife Sita has been represented in an extraordinary variety of forms, in virtually all of the

languages and artistic idioms of South and Southeast Asia as monumental epics, poetic

and dramatic works, puraic narrative, religious tracts and sermons, temple sculpture,

court painting, folktales, dance forms, novels, cinema, and television serialisations to

name but a few.

It is the purpose of the present scholarly gathering to investigate and celebrate the

extraordinary longevity, diversity, and influence of this remarkable phenomenon we

know as the Ramayana. In my opening remarks I hope to highlight some of the salient

issues in its history and in the history of Ramayana scholarship and to offer some

suggestions as to why it has been able uniquely to transcend so many linguistic,

religious, and cultural boundaries to become one of the most defining and unifying

elements of the cultures of Southern Asia.

GODS, KINGS AND NARRATORS: THE IMPACT OF RELIGION AND SOVEREIGNTY ON THE RAMAYANA TRADITION

John Brockington and Mary Brockington

University of Edinburgh and International Association of Sanskrit Studies, UK

The general outlines of the Rama story have remained largely unchanged since the

story was first told in India in about the 5th century BCEa heroic, steadfast warrior

prince must kill a wicked monster who has captured his wifealthough its popularity

ensured that it was retold with an ever-increasing number of narrative additions. As the

story rapidly became popular throughout India and beyond, especially in the whole of

southeast Asia, theological and cultural influences also affected its development. Many

Indian tellers made the story a religious epic, identifying Rama as an incarnation of

Vishnu and eventually as God; for others, Siva or even the Goddess play the more

important role. Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists all produced versions appropriate to their

own followers, while others retained the original view of Rama as human. In this paper

we try to identify the means by which the Rama story could be made acceptable to

people of such diverse faiths, and consider the effect on the established narrative of

later Muslim involvement.

RAMAYANA IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN ORAL AND LITERARY TRADITION

Singaravelu Sachithanantham

University of Malaya, Malaysia

Southeast Asian oral tradition of the Ramayana is to be found in (a) the repertoire of

leather-puppet shadow-play (e.g. the Wayang kulit purwa of Jawa, Indonesia, the

Wayang kulit, also known as Wayang Siam, of Malaysia, and the Nang of Cambodia

and Thailand; (b) dance-dramas, performed to the accompaniment of recital of songs

and music (e.g. the Wayang wong of Java and the Khon of Cambodia and Thailand); (c)

the tales of professional storyteller [penglipur lara] in Malaysia; (d) the Bas-relief-

sculptures of temples (e.g. Candi Loro Jonggrang of Prambanan in central Java, Candi

Panataran in east Java, Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom of Cambodia, and Wat Pho of

Bangkok, Thailand), and (e) the mural paintings (e.g. in the Emerald-Buddha temple of

Bangkok). Southeast Asian shadow-plays and dance-dramas usually depict selected

(popular) episodes of the Rama story. There are several shadow-play versions because

each dalang (puppeteer) has his own version.

The chief characteristics of the oral tradition include localisation of physical and cultural

(including religious) environment and characterisation. The oral tradition of the Rama

story has been holding a powerful sway as the mass-media of culture among the people

of Southeast Asia for a long period of time thereby keeping their cultures alive even

though a majority of the population might not have been wholly literate. The Islamic

religious elements in Malay oral tradition and the Buddhist elements in the Myanmar,

Khmer and Thai oral traditions of the Rama story are indicative of the continued

relevance and popularity of the Rama story even after the adoption of new religious

faiths.

Most of the literary versions of the Rama story in Southeast Asia (with the exception of

the Old-Javanese Ramayana-Kakawin of 900 CE) came into being only after the 13th or

14th century CE. Although the authors of the Southeast Asian literary versions are

known to have adopted some central aspects of the story from the Indian versions (e.g.

Valmiki-Ramayana in Sanskrit and Kambaramayanam in Tamil), however the Southeast

Asian literary versions have their own distinctive features in respect of various episodes,

portrayal of chief characters, their name-forms, etc., and generally they have greater

affinity to each other than to the Indian versions. While a large number of episodes and

motifs of the Indian versions are missing in the Southeast Asian versions, they are

however replaced by numerous innovative episodes and motifs of their own. A notable

example of such an innovation is the birth-story of Hanuman: The rather intimate

relation between Sri Rama and Hanuman and the figurative manner in which Hanuman

addresses Sita Dewi as mother in the Indian versions have been transformed into one

of blood-relationship of a dear son to his beloved parents in the Southeast Asian

versions.

While some of the Southeast Asian literary versions (e.g. Myanmar, Khmer and Lao

versions) have adopted the Buddhist story of Rama portraying Sri Rama as the

bodhisattva, or the Buddha-to-be, a recension of the Malay Hikayat Sri Rama depicts

Rawanas tale as unfolding (even before the story of Rama) during the time of Prophet

Adam; according to the Malay recension, Allah Subhanahu wa taala sends down

Prophet Adam to meet Rawana at the time of his ascetic practices and convey to him

the boon of sovereignty over the four realms of the sky, the netherworld, the sea and

the earth; and Sri Ramas father, King Dasaratha, is also said to be the great grandson

of Prophet Adam.

Several literary versions of Southeast Asia depict Sita Dewi as one, who is born first of

Rawanas consort and later becomes an adoptive daughter of another king or hermit.

They also portray Sri Rama and his faithful consort Sita Dewi as the role models of the

traditional society: Though they go through a life of great suffering and grief, they firmly

hold on to the traditional ideals and values without any regard for personal self-interest.

CANDRAVATIS RAMAYANA: AN EPIC TALE OF SITA'S SUFFERING

Mandakranta Bose

University of British Columbia, Canada

When the 16th century Bengali poet Candravati rewrote the Ramayana, she presented

it neither as a battle story nor as a celebration of masculine heroism. The central figure

is not the warrior king. Its domain is not the public world. It is the story of a womans

betrayal reflected in other womens lives and thereby universalised. It turns from battles

to their victims, and it looks inward into the turmoil of private lives. While she accepts

the divinity of the main players, it is not the grand doings of divine personages that

Candravati relates but the sufferings of mortals. Above all, she tells the story from Sitas

point of view and in her voice, lamenting her undeserved suffering as common to

womens lot in this world. This view of womens destiny she further reinforces by

drawing parallels to other womens lives, notably Ravanas queen Mandodaris. Though

Candravati does not tell the story as a challenge to the established order, she leaves it

as a requiem for womankind, thereby redefining the very idea of epic struggle. Still sung

by women, the story lives on also in the painted scrolls from Bengal that will accompany

this presentation.

VISUALISING AND PERFORMING KINGSHIP: THE RAMAYANA MURALS AT MATTANCHERI PALACE, KERALA, SOUTH INDIA

Mary Beth Heston

College of Charleston, USA

The epic of Rama, one of the oldest stories known to South Asia, has been told since

the first millennium BCE in Sanskrit and in multiple regional languages, verse,

performance, and song, as well as in visual form, including sculpture, painting, cinema

and even comic books and animation, both in South and Southeast Asia. Across time

and great distances, the story has remained fresh, contemporary, and relevant, by

being adapted to the time and place of its rendering.

This project, focused on the mid 16th century palace at Mattancheri, in the former

kingdom of Kochi in southwestern coastal India, examines a cycle of mural paintings

that depict the Ramayana. The epic is rendered in a series of seven compositions in a

room designated as the Kings Chamber, which opens onto the Coronation Hall of the

Palace; related in a richly detailed continuous narrative, the epic follows different paths

in different compositions. At one point the tale is interrupted by two large

compositions depicting images of the deity Krishna. The murals lack inscriptions or any

clear evidence as to the date of their execution, and scholars have attributed dates

ranging from the mid 16th to the mid 18th century. While I once argued for an early date

for the paintings, my recent research on these murals leads me to believe that they are

more likely to be 18th century. My argument draws on both stylistic analysis and on

considering the possible function of these paintings within contemporary courtly culture

of the Kerala region of south India.

Although there are over sixty sites in Kerala with surviving mural paintings, only a

handful can be dated by inscription. Among these is one site with paintings that are

particularly close in style to these Ramayana murals, with a date corresponding to 1731

CE. Furthermore, I see many elements of the paintings as closely related to

conventions of local performance traditions that flourished in the 18th century. The best

known of these, Kathakali (story play), is a highly stylised dance-drama characterised

by vigorous choreography and shaped by aesthetic codes of classical drama. Kathakali

originated with scripts based on the Ramayana and stories of Krishna, which are

likewise the focus of the murals. It is a performance form that emphasises battle, war,

and combat as the enactment of kingly virtue and duty as they were historically

constructed in the region; I see these same elements emphasised in both the imagery

and style of these murals. That is, I contend that the Mattancheri Ramayana murals in

the kings chamber leading to the palace Coronation Hall functioned in conjunction with

Kathakali performance at the court to delineate and demonstrate notions of kingship as

they were enacted in the courtly culture of the region. By drawing on similar visual and

aesthetic conventions, the murals and the paintings visualised and performed these

conceptions, reinforcing an understanding of royal authority specific to 18th century

Kerala.

THE LEGEND OF RAMA AT BAPHUON AND ANGKOR WAT TEMPLES

Rachel Loizeau

Independent scholar, France

The Veal Kantel inscription (7th century CE) mentioning the daily recitation of the

Ramayana and a statue of Rama from the Phnom Da group (circa 7th century CE)

indicate the popularity of the Epic in the ancient Khmer kingdom though the sculptural

carvings are few before the narrative development of iconographic program of the

Baphuon temple dedicated to Siva. The Ramayana is depicted along with the

Mahabharata, the Krishna lila, puranic stories and secular themes. The artist did not

choose the expanded mode of continuous narration despite the panels horizontal

format and the large space devoted to the ornamentation. Nevertheless, it seems that

the story of Rama as it is depicted on the walls of the main entrances of the second

level of the pyramidal temple follows a chronological progression from the east to the

north where the story ends with the battle of Rama and Ravana. A century later, the

Ramayana, along with the Krishna lila and puranic myths, are abundantly depicted at

Angkor Wat temple, a rare monument dedicated to Vishnu. New episodes of the Rama

legend are introduced such as the fight of Valin and Mayavin, the defection of

Vibhishana, the attack of Kabandha or the ordeal of Sita. These themes are commonly

illustrated in many temples built during this period, but at Angkor Wat the emphasis is

on the Epics main battles which are depicted in large compositions according to the

importance given to the martial themes in the monuments iconographic program.

RAMAYANA KU

Performers: Sardono W. Kusumo (Sardono Dance Theatre, Indonesia)

and Nimmy Raphel (Adishakti Theatre Laboratory, India)

Lighting designer: Iskandar K. Loedin (Sardono Dance Theatre, Indonesia)

Ramayana ku or My Ramayana is a self-expression by Sardono W.Kusumo based on

his training and experience in performing the three main characters of Ramayana:

Rama, Hanuman and Rawana.

As a dancer, Sardono was trained in the Solo Court dance style and had performed the

character Rama when he was fifteen to nineteen years old. At the age of fifteen to

nineteen, Sardono was trained to perform as Hanuman and he then performed the

character of Rawana since he was twenty years old.

The three-character dance style then become the prime source of how Sardono express

and interpreted in a freely style and more poetically the images derived from the

narrative of Ramayana.

Please note that Ramayana ku is a series of work in progress performed and developed

by Sardono W.Kusumo at the International Ramayana Festival at Adishakti Laboratory

for Theatre Art Research, Puducherry, India in May 2010.

WOMEN AT THE MARGINS: VALMIKI, WOMEN, AND RELIGIOUS ANXIETY

Sally J. Sutherland Goldman

University of California at Berkeley, USA

At the heart of Valmikis Ramayana, the Sundara Kanda, the hapless heroine, Sita, pale

and dejected, sits raptly meditating on her lord Rama in the midst of the Ashoka grove.

There, as the heroine awaits rescue and contemplates suicide, she is guarded and

tormented by hideous rakshasi (demoness). At this most poignant of junctures, the epic

introduces another figure, the goddess Nikumbhila. About this figure, Valmiki provides

little information. We are told, however, that this goddess delights in offerings of blood

and various human and animal body parts; and that sacrificial rites dedicated to her

appear to include such offerings. The rakshasa (demon) wardresses threaten Sita with

taunts that she would be among those offerings, that she would be, literally, sliced and

diced, and then eaten by those rakshasa women as part of their frenzied rites

dancing and making offerings to the goddess. The juxtaposition of the two: Sita

literally the feminine face of the aryan worldand Nikumbhilathe voracious goddess

of the rakshasa worldis not accidental, nor is this the first time, although clearly it is

the most dramatic, that Valmiki introduces his audience to horrific female goddess

figures or women participating in religious observances. This paper explores how

Valmiki constructs his female characters who are either practitioners of religious rites or

objects thereof to be markers of exogenous threats to his idealised aryan world and the

mechanisms employed for resolving the anxieties engendered by those threats. Special

attention will be placed on how Valmiki in particular creates and resolves these

anxieties through verbal images.

SITA SVAYAVARA IN POETRY AND IMAGES

Vidyut Aklujkar

University of British Columbia, Canada

The context of Sita svayamvara in Valmiki Ramayana (1. 65-6) has been represented

widely and continuously in words and images, lines and colour. King Janakas

bridegroom test of stringing the great bow of Shiva, attempted and failed by many but

fulfilled by only prince Dasharathi Rama, the offering of Sita to Rama by Janaka, and

the actual wedding, all these aspects get varied treatments in later literature and fine

arts. Volumes of poetry, both in verse and play, have been produced on the theme of

Sita svayamvara, both in Sanskrit and other regional languages of India. In Hindi, the

very first play acted on modern stage was entitled, "Janakimangala. Early Indian

Cinema also used the popular theme to create its version on the silver screen. Painters

and sculptors for centuries have found inspiration in depicting the incident of Stringing of

Shivas Bow. I propose to address and analyse some of the myriad representations of

the popular theme to bring out its appeal in poetry, and challenge in images. Although, I

will allude to a few noteworthy instances of the theme in performing arts, I shall mainly

deal with poetry and drama treatments of the theme in Sanskrit and other vernacular

languages of modern India, and with images in sculpture, murals and Indian painting.

While analysing the multiple reasons for the popularity of the theme, I shall argue that

apart from its universal appeal as a fairy tale-like union of two young minds, it is the

unique blend of the visual and aural drama inherent in the context that inspires poets

and painters alike and challenges them to seek novel expressions to bring it to life.

RAMAYANA IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN TRADITIONAL THEATRE PERFORMANCES

Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof

International Islamic University, Malaysia

The Ramayana is possibly the most popular single source for dramatic repertoire in

performances of traditional Southeast Asian theatre. Many versions of the epic seem to

have reached Southeast Asia from the Indian sub-continent. The connections between

these and their South Asian counterparts remain to be adequately established.

At the same time local factors have been responsible for certain significant innovations.

These include the reinterpretation of the Ramayana as a Buddhist jataka, the inclusion

of Islamic elements, geographical adjustments and localisation, the development of so-

called branch stories of the epic as well as the combination of elements from the

Ramayana and the Mahabharata in the process of developing scripts (lakon) specifically

for performances.

This paper will examine some of these innovations as seen in the Ramayana and their

impact upon selected theatre genres in Southeast Asia.

INSPIRATION, IDEA AND INNOVATION: RAMAYANA AS CHINESE OPERA

Chua Soo Pong

Chinese Opera Institute, Singapore

The sounds of Gamelan, the dynamics of flying shadows and the smell of food had

awakened the creative sensibilities of a four year old boy in a temple in eastern Java.

Over the next few years, it became an annual ritual for the little boy to try understanding

the Ramayana bit by bit. When he was brought to a Teochew opera performance in a

temple off Thomson Road in Singapore in 1954, the sights and sounds of the

performance immediately connected him to the experience of watching Ramayana back

in Indonesia where he was born.

The inspiration to stage Ramayana as Teochew opera came when the boy attended the

performance of Liang Shan Bo and Zhu Ying Tai, also known as The Butterfly Lovers

as a dance drama in Bharatanatyam style. The idea materialised as a childrens play in

Mandarin for the Young Peoples Theatre Festival organised by the Ministry of

Community Development in 1988; written and directed by Dr. Chua Soo Pong in

Wayang Wong style, it was a success. This was the beginning of the revival of

Ramayana on the Singapore stage. In the following years, the Wayang Wong version

was invited to Japan, Hong Kong and New Zealand, where it was presented in English.

The Teochew opera version was premiered at the Goethe Institute in 1991. The

Teochew opera began with Queen Kekayi demanding to evict Prince Rama to the forest

of Dandakar and ends with the reunion of Prince Rama and Princess Sita, after the

defeat of Rawana. The Teochew opera versions success had led to the adaptation of

the script as Li Yuan opera (1996), Hokkien opera (1998) and Huang Mei opera (1999).

Each adaptation has its own specific features as the musical styles and performing

styles differ. In this paper, Dr. Chua discusses the creative process behind the operas

and their reception in different parts of the world.

CROSS CULTURAL CHOREOGRAPHY OF THE RAMAYANA IN SINGAPORE

Siri Rama

Independent scholar, Singapore

Indian classical dance is a product primarily of oral histories and is informed by written

histories, so present day modern/traditional collaborations challenge the cultural

background of an artiste.This paper highlights the contrasts and similarities in the

depictions of the epic Ramayana in the Indian classical dance traditions of Bharata

Natyam and Kuchipudi in India, and in the multicultural performances held in Singapore.

The paper has references to methods of depiction of the Ramayana story in traditional

styles, and the nuances in some of the different languages/lyrics used in dance, like

Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi and Marathi. This is the broad contextual framework in

which the paper explores the depiction of the Ramayana in a cross cultural collaboration

in Singapore. The Ramacharita Manasa written by Tulsidas, was choreographed and

presented by this author as a dance drama with Indian, Chinese Opera and Malay

artistes in Singapore in June, 2009. Cross cultural dialogues in dance raise various

questions of universalism or absolutismwhether cultural bodies can retain their own

identities, or do they traverse boundaries and attempt to be part of the universal. This

paper raises questions of inter-cultural interaction, and all the intersections which take

place in verbal and non- verbal spaces of dance. It also discusses issues of invisible

and unwritten boundaries by the artists, in the process of presenting a multi-cultural

performance of the Ramayana.

SHORT STORIES ABOUT SITA FROM MODERN SOUTH INDIA

Paula Richman

Oberlin College, USA

A striking literary phenomenon has been gradually gathering momentum over the last

one hundred years. Although the earliest rendition of the story of Rama and Sita dates

to before the common era, its incidents have inspired creative writers throughout the

twentieth, and into the 21st century. Some talented writers in the four major languages

of South India--Tamil, Kannda, Telugu, and Malayalam--have chosen to rewrite stories

from the Ramayana tradition.

Orthodox depictions of Sita focus upon her devotion to Rama and how her purity relates

to his reputation as a monarch but the modern South Indian writers whom I consider

here approach her actions from multiple perspectivesas a daughter of King Janaka, a

daughter-in-law in the palace, a mother of twins, and so forth. However they represent

Sita, modern writers depict her as a dynamic, rather than static, character.

Consequently, readers come to care about her dilemmas as they watch her thoughtfully

respond to, for example, the trials of captivity in Lanka or the burden of single

parenthood. These writers present Sita as a resourceful person who chooses to act in

various ways in light of the various contexts in which she finds herself at different

moments of her life.

INTERACTING WITH RAM

Sandria B. Freitag

North Carolina State University, USA

From the 1870s, the range of popular visual-culture images produced and consumed in

India grew exponentially, while viewers or consumers of those images learned new

skills of perception and developed new modes of interaction with the images. As a god

whose story enabled viewers to construct, debate, and talk about good rule as well as

the connections between identity and personal devotion (which, in turn, could lead to

mobilisation on behalf of good rule), Ram is an especially revealing focal point for

examining such changes over time. Working with textile labels, posters, and calendar

art, this paper explores changing reception practices over the 20th century along with

the Ram-story images that prompted such changes. In particular, we will extend an

anthropology of art approach to these materials, in order to emphasise the

performative aspect of interactions with images, keeping our focus firmly on how

meanings are built through doing by viewers/ consumers, rather than interpreting

meaning through the symbols and signification intended by producers. The actions of

the viewer/ consumer thus become central to understanding the meanings that inhere in

an image, where meanings change over time, shaped by context and iterative

interactions.

SHAPING SOUTHEAST ASIAS REGIONAL IDENTITY: THE RAMAYANA AS AN IDEATIONAL FORCE?

Marshall Clark

Deakin University, Australia

Southeast Asian identity is thought to be far more elite-political than mass-cultural in

nature. Is this conventional wisdom true? In recent years, audio-visual flows of popular

culture across national borders have proliferated. Malaysia, for example, is flooded with

Indonesian music and films, while there are a number of Malaysian actors in the

Indonesian TV industry. In terms of shared cultural trends, Muslim culture has a

growing presence in the soap operas, novels, pop music and cinema of both Indonesia

and Malaysia. In his film based on the Ramayana myth, Wayang (2008), Malaysian

director Hatta Azad Khan reflects on the Islamisation of Malaysian politics and society,

while Garin Nugrohos Ramayana -inspired film, Opera Jawa (2006), is a comment on

the politics of religion in Indonesia. These themes are associated in both countries with

the spread of Islamic ethics, the implementation of Islamic laws, and the associated

jockeying of Islamist groups for greater political leverage. This paper will use this

evidence to highlight and explore the intersection of culture, media and politics in

Southeast Asian regionalisma dynamic, participatory, on-the-ground process that

does not depend on what ASEAN diplomats say or do.