Many roads lead to Lanka
The intercultural semantics of Rama's quest
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7212993 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Thomas De Bruijn (0000-0002-5403-8325, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2005 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 39-53 |
| Publication date | 2005-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Contemporary South Asia (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0958-4935 • E-ISSN: 1469-364X |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09584930500194892 |
| OpenAlex | W2095489221 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
The Ramacaritamanas (1574 AD) of Tulsidas is at the centre of modern Hindu devotion through its use in private and public recitations, and its status in the public sphere as a result of adaptations for film and television. The popularity of this text has led the Hindu nationalist movement to adopt the epic of King Rama as the authoritative source for their ‘Hindu’ politics and morals. From a historical point of view, this privileged position is hard to defend. The Avadhi text by Tulsidas is just one of the numerous different forms in which the story of Rama has been transmitted in South and Southeast Asia. The text also bears traces of its hybrid cultural context, marked by the exchange of religious symbols and practices between Hindus and Muslims. Indeed, it belongs to a literary genre that was developed by Indian sufi poets who transformed Indian tales into mystical romances, such as the Padmavat (1540 AD) by Muhammad Jayasi, which frequently refers to the story of Rama as an intertext. This article compares the representation of Rama in Ramacaritamanas with that in the Padmavat so as to relate the former to the hybrid but also competitive context of medieval popular religion. It argues against the idealist notion of religious syncretism that has earlier been projected onto the medieval situation, and proposes to adopt a fluid and dialogic concept of religious tradition that provides a better understanding of both the real divisions and the inherent cultural dialogism of pre-modern South Asia
Art · Buddhism · Context (archaeology · Dialogic · Hinduism · Linguistics · Literature · Mysticism · Political science · Politics · Public sphere · Sociology · Syncretism (linguistics · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · History · Law · Philippine History and Culture · Philosophy · Religious studies
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,21 |
| Citation span | 2012 - 2022 (11) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |