==Preface==
The whole vitiation process is divided into various stages of its happening. They can be demarcated by the action or course going on at each stage of the whole process. It is apportioned into six phases of its operation as follows:
# Accumulation
# Provocation
# Diffusion
# Location
# Manifestation
# Termination

==I Stage of Accumulation==
Stage of decrease will manifest the signs and symptoms of deficiency either at the local space or localized action while the stage of increase has many far-reaching effects. Increased quantity needs to be accommodated somewhere and the body being a defined space if there is any more pressure at a particular space it does not bear it. Some kind of irregularity or disorder definitely occurs in the body.

===Cause===
If any material increases in a particular local part of the body, there may be an increase or growth of that particular tissue. This activity may disturb the neighboring tissues and cause inconvenience by the mechanical pressure. But the increase and continued accumulation of the dynamic force of the triumvirate, which are all-pervasive and whose equilibrium is maintained on a very subtle fulcrum, can be tolerated only to a limited extent. It cannot be transgressed beyond it's capacity.

This stage may or may not produce actual disease condition but definitely serve as a catalyst in predisposing traumatic condition or other etiological factors which act as an immediate excitant to the triumvirate, herald the vitiation process and usher in the incursion of the diseased condition. The general postulate of the diagnosis of the stages of increase and decrease of the function of triumvirate is described in details further.

===Symptoms===
The signs of decrease of vāta, pitta and kapha are described to denote the decrease of their respective actions. There may be either the loss of their normal functions or increase on the contrary ones. Increase of natural actions denotes the increase of humors. The decrease and increase of humors are diagnosed in this manner.<ref>Caraka Sutra 18, 52-53</ref>

Śuśruta describes some more definite premonitory symptoms when triumvirate imbalance is just on the threshold of vitiation. Recognition of these pre-dominant symptoms is given a lot of importance because he considers this stage as the first or the earliest stage for the scope of therapeutic process. In this, the vitia gets accumulated. The symptoms of accumulated vitia are:
* Stiffness and fullness of abdomen due to vāta
* Yellow tinge of the skin due to pitta
* Low temperature
* Heaviness of limbs
* Lethargy due to kapha
* Instinct of repugnance

===Cure===
The above mentioned indications are the causative factors of accumulation of these respective vitia. This is the first stage for the treatment.<ref>Śuśruta Sutra 21, 18</ref> Careful personal regimen and simple prophylactic measures will completely ward of the primary symptoms and the incidence of the diseased condition to some extent, if the condition is recognized at a very preliminary stage and the treatment is started immediately.

==II The Stage of Provocation==
===Cause===
This is the stage of the provocation of the triumvirate members. It is generally subsequent to the triumvirate having increased to the maximum point or decrease due to the irritated or provoked condition by an extraneous excitant endogenous or exogenous etiological factor. This provocative reaction also may occur without previous imbalance condition, if the immediate excitant factor is too strong for the triumvirate for the adaptive reaction.

Incidence of the additional pathogenetic factor to be over-stressed and the imbalanced triumvirate, produces baneful poisonous or toxic effect on that body. Triumvirate is easily influenced by these newly produced toxic effects and thence become vitiated. Once vitiated, it loses self-control and forgets it's normal behavior and functions. It becomes erratic, irregular, disorganized, abnormal and morbific in function.

===Manifestation===
The triumvirate members who works as the savior of the body reacts to its damage. It generally has positive effects on the physiology but starts hindering pathologically. It being itself in vitiated state, spreads the maleficent effects all over the body and causes vitiation of the body-elements or body-channels wherever possible. When it is fully intoxicated or vitiated, it behaves like a hostile existent and starts harming the body. This tragic conversion of the benevolent triumvirate into malevolent is the beginning of the real vitiation pathogenesis. This provoked condition is indeed the initiation of the diseased stage and the culmination of diffusion, location, manifestation and termination are the further development of the provoked vitium.

===Cure===
If during the progress of this pathological process, vitiating condition is encountered successfully and nullified by the body vitality, the triumvirate is extricated from the pathological stage. Triumvirate then returns to its primary stage of duties and starts acting as a support system to the body rather than damaging it.

===Axioms===
* Śuśruta ascribes definite syndromes to the provocation stage of each triumvirate and considers this stage to be second in importance for the practical therapeutics.<ref>Śuśruta Sutra 21, 27</ref>
* Vāgbhata's definition of provocation is still more elucidating. He states that the provocation is the stage when a vitium moves in the wrong direction and manifests symptoms of its morbid condition. This leads to illness denoting the occurrence of the disease.<ref>Astānga Hṛdaya 12,23</ref>

==III Stage of Diffusion==
This is the state of spreading of the disease. In this stage if the vitiating effects are too strong, the whole body may be overpowered. This will result into the constitutional diseased condition. If the vitiating effects are not very strong to disable the whole body, it may continue to move in the body till they find an appropriate place for settling. This is a definite obstruction which produces diseased condition at that particular site in the body.

Louis Paster, the discoverer of the bacterial science, proved the truth of this concept to the world by the physical methods. The biological postulates of growth and reproduction in the aspect of Caraka is equally astonishing. He believed in the concept that 'There is no seedling in the absence of seed'.

===As per Śuśruta===
Śuśruta strikes an exceedingly astonishing concept when he tries to explain the process of diffusion. Triumvirate provoked by the excitant etiological factors begin to increase just like the process of fermentation. This growth is lead by spreading all over the body.<ref>Śuśruta Sutra 21, 28</ref> He even compares this continuous process of increase to the phenomena of the growth in yeast fermentation which was anticipated for two thousand years. He describes these definite syndromes to be indicative of diffusive stage of each of the triumvirate and considers this stage to be third in importance from the therapeutic point of view.<ref>Śuśruta Sutra 21, 32</ref>

===As per Virchow and Flemming===
Virchow<ref>He lived in 1855 A. D.</ref> and Flemming<ref>He lived in 1882 A. D</ref> expounded this theory again in the 19th century. It was propounded as the important biological law like "Omnis cellula e cellula and omnis nucleus e nucleo" respectively by both. It was later proved by the modern scientific means.

==IV. The Stage of Location==
Location of the disease can occur at each and every organ as per Śuśruta. This condition is compared to the rainy clouds in the sky which may rain in the whole region or at specific place. The effect of vitiated triumvirate may be exhibited in the entire body or half of the body or a particular part or organ of it.<ref>Śuśruta Sutra 21, 29</ref> Even Caraka advocates this theory.<ref>Caraka Cikitsā 21, 7</ref>

===Location At A Particular Place===
Locus minoris resistance of the particular system-organ or tissue or obstruction in the body channels determine the location of the vitiating elements. This locus minoris resistance may be due to a particular constitution of that system, organ, part or cell. This can happen even due to any biological inferiority in the growth or through damage caused to them by the previous trauma, stress, disease or otherwise.

Śuśruta explains the theory of location stating that wherever the all-pervading vitia in the provoked state comes in contact with any organ or tissue or part that is already impaired and hence susceptible, there occurs disease-phenomenon.<ref>Śuśruta Sutra 24, 10</ref> In the same way, Caraka also states the reason of location in one place by asserting that the vitium locates its vitiating element whenever it comes in contact with a susceptible spot and causes diseased condition there. This is the mode of local provocation of vitia.<ref>Caraka Cikitsā 15, 37</ref> This stage of location is of a great clinical importance for the early diagnosis of diseased condition.

===Premonitory Symptoms===
Vitiation elements having attained foot-hold somewhere get gradually established therein and produce symptoms which will be indicative not only of the vitiation of the particular vitium or vitia, but also of the location or site where this vitiation process has begun to spread. These combined symptoms help to localize the site of the diseased-condition. Śuśruta differentiates these symptoms produced during this stage of location of vitiation process as the definite premonitory symptom.

These premonitory symptoms manifest when the vitiation process is located. From then onwards the disease is recognized. This is the fourth stage of therapeusis.<ref>Śuśruta Sutra 21, 33</ref> This stage of location manifested clinically by the definite premonitory symptoms is the fourth stage of importance for the therapeutic purpose.

==V. The Stage of Manifestation==
The stage of manifestation of the diseased condition is termed as 'Vyakti'. Śuśruta correlates this pathological stage with the actual appearance of the clinical phenomena of any disease. This diseased condition may be a general or a systematic disease. It can be even the disease of one part or limb according to the location of settling and establishing of the vitiation elements. This is the beginning of the organic or structural deformities in body.

===Classification of Disease===
The diseased condition may be classified in two groups:
# General
# Local
Both these groups can again be further subdivided into two further types.

===Categories of General Disease===
For general condition it is:
# Acute diseased condition
# Chronic diseased condition

===Categories of Local Diseases===
For Local Condition it is:
# Acute diseased condition
# Chronic diseased condition

===Acute General===
The vitiation process spreads across the entire body only if the vitiation elements are very strong; time and place favorable to them and the body constitution being very weak or susceptible to the diseased condition. It then spreads over the entire body very abruptly and overpowers it immediately.The body then succumbs completely and transfers in full vitiation stage followed by dissolution. Caraka describe this condition through the example of spread of snake venom in the human body. Men who are attacked by it succumb to the spread of poison in the entire body very speedily, unless treated promptly. Hence enlightenment regarding the knowledge of the disease is very essential.<ref>Caraka Cikitsā 21, 6-7</ref>

If after the immediate stunning, stupefaction and vitiation, the vital power of the body creates antibodies to save from the diseased situation then the extraneous factors of time and environment becomes helpful to the body. Due to this the whole process of vitiation reverses and the process is slowed down. If the counter-action continues successfully, the body with its triumvirate organization becomes free from vitiation altogether resulting into the survival of man.<ref>Caraka Cikitsā 6, 54-56</ref>

===Chronic General===
The general diseased condition may have periodical clinical course if the fighting forces on the either side are almost of the equal strength. Fighting forces are the vitiation elements versus body-constitution and body-elements. Season, time and other environmental factors may be helpful to any side. Fluctuation in the strength of either side of the fighting forces or supporting help from the extraneous sources may cause abatement or aggravation of the diseased condition. Such condition continues for a long time till one aspect gets sufficiently powerful to subdue the other. Caraka describes such oscillations in disease condition as the morbid toxic factors opposite to the anti-bodies. This situation causes remittent fever which periodically rises and remits.<ref>Caraka Cikitsā 3, 62</ref>

===Local Diseased Condition===
If the vitiation process locates and gets established in the localized area, organ or tissue, same phenomenon of encounter occurs but on a smaller scale and in limited space. Such localized reaction may also occur in the body without the previous internal vitiation process if that particular local part receives a powerful physical, chemical or biological trauma from the external source. These exogenous etiological factors are given different names and descriptions depending on the place of their occurrence. They are differentiated from the endogenous ones which are termed as 'Nīja'. A detailed list of such exogenous and endogenous etiological factors is given in Caraka Samhitā.<ref>Caraka Sutra 18, 4 and 6</ref>

The differential diagnosis between the diseased conditions produced by endogenous and exogenous causes is described by Caraka. The exogenous disease is initiated with pain and later on leads to the discordance of vāta, pitta and kapha. But in the endogenous ones, the discordance of vāta, pitta and kapha occurs first and later on it gives rise to pain.<ref>Caraka Sutra 20, 7</ref>

Fight in the local area of body has an advantage of receiving aid from the rest of the body. The entire body concentrates all it's resistance power towards the affected area to resist it. The local concentration of the struggling phenomena cures the localized disease area which becomes an easy task for the clinicians.

Our body reacts with all its strength to the internal as well as the external disease factors. Hence that particular part becomes enlarged and appears swollen. All these signs are easily observed by the clinician. It is a happy coincidence to find that the ancient clinicians both of the east and west have grouped these clinical appearances in four groups and described them as the classical signs of the localized diseased condition.

Caraka describes that the swelling characterized by pricking pain, burning and redness should be diagnosed to be a suppurated swelling.<ref>Caraka Cikitsā 25, 52</ref> According the his ideology, he also considers swelling<ref>It can also be accounted as tumor.</ref> as the pathognomonic of such conditions. It causes edema with its pathognomonic symptoms of swelling.<ref>Caraka Cikitsā 12, 8</ref> Similarly Celsus, in A. D. 50, described calor, rubor, tumor and dolor as the four cardinal signs manifesting the local phenomena of inflammatory reaction. Cakrapāṇi denotes that it is marked by steady swelling, so it is edema with swelling.<ref>Commentary by Cakrapāṇi</ref>

Clinicians in Greece gave importance to the other physical symptoms like redness and heat. This local phenomenon is termed as an inflammatory reaction. They regarded redness and heat being the qualities of the flame. This difference in significance of particular symptoms in two countries may be an interesting subject to the student of ethnology. Symptoms with kapha constitution will react with swelling as more prominent while signs of pitta will have heat and redness to be more dominant signs.

===Local Acute Inflammatory Condition===
The same process as it occurs in the general diseased condition also takes place in localized disease condition but on a smaller scale. It has an advantage of getting help from the body but it may put the whole body to jeopardy, if vitiation or morbific elements get an upper hand and it crosses over and spreads to the neighboring parts or organs of the body. It can even metastasize into the whole body.

Below mentioned symptoms are described as the complications of local inflammatory reactions. Caraka mentions the sixteen complications of wounds, described by the specialists in that subject<ref>Caraka Cikitsā 25, 29-30</ref>:
* Acute spreading affection
* Hemiplegia
* Vascular thrombosis
* Convulsions
* Stupefaction
* Insanity
* Acute pain in the wound
* Fever
* Thirst
* Lock-jaw
* Cough
* Vomiting
* Diarrhea
* Hiccup
* Dyspepsia
* Tremors

The local diseased conditions terminate in the same way as the general diseased condition. The results of the success or failure of the body resistance power encounter is indicated by the intensity of the resolution and dissolution of local parts.

===Local Chronic Inflammatory Condition===
When the fighting forces are nearly equi-balanced, prolonged war with fluctuation on either side continues till some decisive factor comes in aid of any one side and concludes the warfare. This is considered to be the fifth best of the therapeutic period. This stage is accounted to be better than the last phase of treatment which is the termination stage of the disease.

Here is some of the comparative data of description of such local inflammatory processes which are found in Ayurveda and modern medical treatise. Inflammation or variation in the intensity of the classical signs is due to the domineering actions of particular vitium. In A. D. 50, Celsus describes the four cardinal signs manifesting the local phenomena of inflammatory reaction. They are color, rubor, tumor and dolor which are further co-related with the four humors of the microcosm. These refers to the body-constitution and four corner stones in the humoral pathology of Hippocrates which were again correlated to the four proto-elements of the macrocosm. It is the world of organic existence as described by the philosopher-physician Empedocles who regarded these four proto-elements to be the roots of all the things.

Macrocosmic and microcosmic concepts were based on the triad of vāta, pitta and kapha; but the surgeons suggests blood which is rather a structural system to be more convenient and useful in the diagnosis and treatment, especially of local diseased conditions. Śuśruta thus tried to give nearly the same status to the blood just as to triumvirate and then described four categories. The diseases pertaining to the body have their origin in blood and drink ingested. Hence it happens due to the vitiation and discordance of vāta, pitta, kapha and blood.<ref>Śuśruta Sutra 1, 25</ref>

===Controversy on Blood===
It is an age old conflict whether to consider blood as a part of the base constituent or not. While commencing on one of his verse, Dālhana gives an explanation that why one should include blood in the categories of the constitutional classification. In a wound there is the dominance of blood among the vitia.<ref>Commentary by Dalhana</ref> Śuśruta clarified this point by stating that blood is secondary and dependent upon the primary triumvirate of vitial categories because the blood is never provoked without the vitia.<ref>Śuśruta Sutra 21, 25</ref> Blood is included under the pitta category when the three vitial categories are taken into consideration. A person having pitta tendency also has the same abnormality in the blood.

Equal importance is given to the description of inflammation in Śuśruta Samhitā.<ref>It is a treatise on Surgery.</ref> It is given the same cadre even in the modern surgical text books. In both the reference books, the description of diseases is initiated with this subject and many chapters are dedicated to each topic to give a detailed description of this inflammatory phenomenon in general. Nearly 1/15 of the text in each book deal with this pathological process. Śuśruta concludes this subject by generalization of the local pathological process.

===Classification of Inflammation===
The list of the types of pain and color is not limited to wounds but is applicable to all the types of inflammation. Hence the physician should regard each type of inflammation like a wound.<ref>Śuśruta Sutra 22, 13</ref> Classification of a subject may be made from various points of view to help in understanding it. Modern surgical text books classify inflammation generally as the below mentioned types:
# Acute or sub-acute
# Acute or Chronic
# Parenchymatous or Interstitial
# Serous-Catarrhal-Fibrinosis-Hemorrhagic or Suppurative

This classification is based either on the intensity of the process or the development of the tissues which it attacks. It is even based on the exudation which further gives rise to Ayurveda classification of the inflammation. Ayurveda classifies it into three groups of constitutional triumvirate. This triumvirate classification has great significance not only in clinical diagnosis but also in the practical therapeutics. It is done from clinical pathological-cum-physiological point of view.

===Pathogenic Symptoms of the Triumvirate===
If the etiological factor is excitant of a particular vitium or any particular vitium of the constitution is predisposed to the diseased condition, then the signs, symptoms, characteristic and pathognomonic of that particular vitium will be more dominant than the signs of other two vitia. If two vitia are dominant and acts in the combination then the signs of both the vitia will be displayed dominantly. If all the three are aggravated the symptoms of all the three will be manifested. The pathognomonic signs of each vitia of triumvirate and blood as per Astānga Hṛdaya Sutra is described as follows<ref>Astānga Hṛdaya Sutra 29, 6</ref>:
* Vāta is the present if there are symptoms of pain.
* If there are burning symptoms then pitta is in the root cause of the disease.
* If there is swelling then it is due to kapha.
* The symptoms of redness and suppuration denote abnormalities in the blood.

The below mentioned four signs correspond very close to the triple response theory of Thomas Lewis:
* Vāta - It exhibits pain.<ref>It refers to dolor.</ref>
* Pitta - It denotes heat.<ref>It refers to sudor.</ref>
* Blood - It implies redness.<ref>It refers to color.</ref>
* Kapha - It shows swelling.<ref>It means tumor.</ref>

===Significance of Vaso-Neuropathy===
Due to the clinical experience of each ancient physician and surgeon, there is a comprehensive and detailed knowledge about the variation in the intensity as well as the development rate of these classical signs. This can be very well explained if the full concept of vaso-neurotic constitution is studied. The inflammatory reaction is the resultant action of etiological excitant and reaction of vaso-neurotic constitution. Threshold of contraction and dilatation of the arterioles and capillaries vary in each individual along with the capillary permeability. This is due to the difference in vaso-neurotic constitution in each individual.

Thus vaso-neurotic constitution of an individual plays a very important role in the inflammation phenomena. Writer Krogh while describing the vaso-neurotic constitution declares:
<blockquote>I shall say a few words about the condition of the vaso-neurotic constitution. It is characterized by the great liability or downright instability of the innervation of the vascular system. It manifests itself in the capillaries and arteries. Frequent changes in this cycle either occur spontaneously or from a relatively trivial cause. The redness happens due to the opening and dilatation of the capillaries and venules. Heat is the result of the increased flow of blood due to dilatation of the arterioles. The sweeping happens by exudation of fluid from vessels due to their increased permeability. Pain is caused due the stimulated nerves.</blockquote>

Though these reactions occur for the betterment of the body, it is possible that some of the reactions, if occurring in excess, may be harmful. Similarly poor or inadequate reactions may not be very effective. The knowledge of the constitutional tendency of the comprehensive botany of man as a whole and of the vaso-neurotic constitution of the local organ or part affected along with the particular provoked actions of the etiological factors may aid in controlling or rectifying this protective and restorative reaction for the advantage of the body. Hence the study of the constitutional triumvirate is of great significance to understand the physiology of a man. Triumvirate concept opens up a subtler field of research in the functions of etiological factors as well as the behavior of body tissues.

==VI The Stage of Termination==
===Prologue===
This is the last stage which is referred as termination of the vitiation process. In general, for the diseased-condition, the person may completely recover if his body vitality can counteract the incursion successfully or succumb if the invading forces are too powerful for his body's vitality. If any one factor is not enough to subdue the other totally, then the diseased condition may persist for a prolonged period.

===Process of Suppuration===
Just like the local diseased condition, there may occur complete resolution or dissolution or death of the local part or organ. It is defined as Necrosis, gangrene or ulcer. Local diseased condition has one special method of termination and disposal of the waste or mortified matter which is called as suppuration. This process It tends to suppurate if it is not possible to sedate it by special external or internal treatment. This process initiates even if the wrong treatment is given or morbidity is in excess.<ref>Śuśruta Sutra 17, 5</ref> This will end in producing the condition of wound.

===Determination of Purification process===
The principles of treatment during the vitiation process were formulated primarily with a view to eliminate the vitiated morbid matter resulting from the pathological processes which are accumulated in the body. For this type of elimination, the neatest and the simplest outlet or body channel was chosen. This gave rise to the need of creating the treatment for eliminating this morbid matter and thereby purifying the whole body.

This purification therapy is executed intensely to accomplish the complete elimination of the morbid matter from the body. This procedure requires the body to be previously prepared before undergoing a strong mode of treatment. The body is prepared by oleation and sudation procedures. These procedures facilitated the easy elimination of any kind of morbid matter.

===Significance of Purification as per Caraka===
Caraka declares that these drugs should be used as emetics by the physician in a way conducive to body in gastro-related disorders. These disorders are characterized by morbid accumulation of kapha and pitta.<ref>Caraka Sutra 2, 8</ref> Patient was prescribed the purgation process when the morbid humors are accumulated in the colon.<ref>Caraka Sutra 2, 10</ref> Oleation process cures the morbidity of vāta and makes the body light. It even disintegrates the accumulation of the morbid matter. Sudation process liquefies the morbid matter stuck up in the minute channels of the body of a person who has undergone oleation therapy.<ref>Caraka Siddhi 1, 7</ref> Hence one should undergo oleation process and then sudation process for the complete purification of body.

===Process of Detoxification===
When the body is found not fit and intolerant of the radical treatment, the line of treatment chosen was to initiate the gradual digestion of the morbid matter. This concept is very similar to the detoxication conjugation concept of modern physiology. Liver plays an important part in protecting the organism from various toxic substances. This detoxifying function involves the process of oxidation and conjugation into relatively non-toxic substances. These are subsequently eliminated in the bile and urine. In the early stage of fever, starvation and sudation; gruel diet and the food items having bitter taste digest the imperfectly digested morbid matter in the body.<ref>Caraka Cikitsā 3, 142</ref>

===Process of Rehabilitation===
After the complete elimination of the morbid matter, treatment consists of supplying the deficit nutrients and strengthening the body vitality by drugs as well as dietetic regimen. This process is called as rehabilitation process.<ref>Caraka Sutra 15, 16</ref>

===Other Pathological Processes===
Ancients held some more concepts of pathological conditions or processes in Ayurveda as under:
# The concept of epidemic and pandemic diseases
# The concept of sources and spread of infection or contagion.
# The concept of growth and multiplication of morbific elements in the body and their mode of spread and action.
# Certain abnormal conditions of the body-appearance

===Termination as per Śuśruta===
If the conclusive termination is not brought about by any party being sub-active and is not able to subdue totally the other part, the chronic inflammatory condition or chronic wound condition such as fistula or sinus may continue for a prolonged period. This is the last or the sixth stage of therapeutic period advised by Śuśruta. The description of the various stages of vitiation pathology explains the reasons of thorough study and diagnosis of each stage from the practical therapeutic point of view.

Treatment if started in the earlier stages will be easier and simpler compared to the treatment after the vitiation process intensifies. Vitiation process which are checked or subdued in the accumulation process fails to produce any further development. If it is allowed to progress, it gains strength and intensity in the course of it's further development.<ref>Śuśruta Sutra 21, 37</ref>

==The Concept of Epidemic and Pandemic Diseases==
In epidemic diseases the constitution of the body is not able to play any part in counter-acting the incursion of the infesting elements. The etiological factors have a complete hold over the disease-phenomena. Hence the symptoms and clinical courses are observed as the etiological factors which are uniform. Constitution which is an individual concern is not of prime importance then. Hence minute individual variation can occur on the clinical grounds during the course of disease.

In chrome diseases, individual constitution is able to create resistance and in such condition pronounced individual differences in the clinical course can occur. Caraka Samhitā devotes one chapter to explain the concept of Epidemiology.<ref>Caraka Vimāna 3</ref> It is a thought provoking concept and probably a new insight into radiation physics. Radiation physics may find the equivalence in value between the physical and spiritual universe and rediscover the truth laid down by Atreya.

===Causes of Epidemic Diseases===
It is important to understand the cause of many people being affected by a common ailment at one and the same time. The reasons behind the uniformity of clinical course of disease, in spite of the individual variations of constitution, have to be investigated. It is evident to know the main source of such kind of ailments. Caraka in Vimāna three treats the subject comprehensively.

Sage Agniveṣa asks the reason behind the destruction of communities by epidemic consisting of individuals who differ from each other in constitution, diet, physique, vitality, habits, psychic make-up and age. This query was answered by Atreya saying, <blockquote>"O, Agniveṣa! though a community may be heterogeneous in respect of the constitution of its individual members, there are other common factors that are being adversely affected which will cause simultaneous outbreak of diseases having similar symptoms. Due to this reason the whole population gets devastated. The factors that affect the people in common are wind, water, country and seasons.</blockquote>

===Epidemic due to Wind===
The diseases which can be caused through wind have a specific peculiarity. The peculiar characteristics of this type of wind and it's movement is as follows:
* Non-seasonal
* Totally becalmed
* Violently blowing
* Exceedingly rough
* Intensely cold
* Intensely hot
* Excessively dry
* Excessively humid
* Fearfully clamorous
* Blowing from contrary directions
* Clashing with itself
* Extremely rotatory<ref>It refers to the motion of whirlwind.</ref>
* Having unwholesome odors, moisture, sand, dust and smoke

===Epidemic due to Water===
Water with the below mentioned qualities is believed to be the root cause of epidemic diseases. They are:
* No qualities of normal water
* Having an extremely aberrant smell, color, taste and touch
* Abounding with putrescent matter
* Deserted by aquatic birds and aquatic creatures
* Unpleasant

===Epidemic due to Country===
The country having the following description is to be known as unwholesome to reside. Living in such kind of place can lead a person succumb to the epidemic diseases:
* Having color, taste and touch that are unnatural
* Excessively damp
* Abounding in serpents beasts of prey, mosquitoes, locusts, flies mice, owls, birds and animals such as the jackal
* Abounding in woods of weeds and Ulupa grass
* Abounding in creepers
* Crops have either fallen, withered or been destroyed in an unprecedented manner
* Winds are smoky
* Sound of birds is unceasing
* Baying of dogs always assails the ears
* Herds of animals and flocks of birds of various kinds are always in a state of alarm and pain
* People does not display positive traits like morality, truth, modesty, custom, character and virtue
* Waters are always agitated and up-heaving
* Frequently subjected to the incidence of meteorites thunderbolts and earthquakes
* Nature is full of menacing sounds and sights
* Sun, moon and stars are frequently covered by dry, coppery, ruddy and grey clouds
* Full of constant alarm and lamentation, crying, fright and darkness as if visited by gnomes
* Abounding in sounds of lamentation

===Epidemic due to Season===
A season which has exhibits evincing characteristics that are opposite to it's typical seasonal peculiarities leads to the epidemic diseases.

===Conclusion===
The learned declare these four factors to be destructive of population. But even when these factors are in full swing person who have their medical treatment beforehand does not succumb to the disease condition. Even if all the four factors including time become vitiated, as long as men are sustained by medicines, they will remain free of diseases. For them moreover, the rightful use of vitalizing medications is recommended and the maintenance of the body by the means of medicinal herbs culled beforehand is also commended.<ref>Caraka Vimāna 3, 5- 14</ref>

==Concept of Sources and Spread of infection or Contagion==
Regarding the sources of infection in epidemic diseases, Caraka lays down that a combined vitiation of the air, water, country and season are the sources of vitiation. The factors that affect a people in common are the wind, water, country and season.<ref>Caraka Vimāna 3, 6</ref> The learned declare these very four factors when possessed of the morbidity described above become the cause of destruction of the whole population through the epidemics.<ref>Caraka Vimāna 3, 7</ref>

===As per Śuśruta===
Śuśruta states that epidemic diseases spread from man to man. Dermatosis, fever and eye-sore are the infectious symptoms that spread very rapidly as they are the most contagious among all of them in the outbreak of epidemics.<ref>Śuśruta Sutra 5, 34</ref>

==Concept of Growth and Action of Morbific elements in the Body==
Just as the seed lies dormant in the soil and germinates in season, in the same manner the toxic matter lies quiescent in the body-element and flares up when the time is catalytic for it's growth. Thus the morbific factor gathers strength and bid in the propitious time. Then it manifests itself by the outcome of fever as soon as the disease-resistance power in the body is lessened. In this manner, the disease-generating factors, having worked themselves out, lapse into quiescence and retire to their respective stations in the body. Then it musters up complete strength once again. These toxic elements afflict the patient with fever when they are at the utmost level.<ref>Caraka Cikitsā 3, 68-70</ref>

===As per Caraka===
Caraka had a clearer awareness of the biological factors involved in the vitiating elements. He refers to the phenomenon of the periodicity of fever to the recurring cycles of growth, spread, and withdrawal of the vitiating element. This description concedes with the cycle of evolution of malarial parasite in the human body. Caraka illustrates this by using the simile of the seed and the soil.

===As per Śuśruta===
Śuśruta compares the growth of vitiating elements to the yeast fermentation which has already been explained in the chapter on vitiating pathogenesis.<ref>Śuśruta Sutra 21, 28</ref> Here the simile of yeast fermentation for the explanation of the increase of growth of morbific elements is quite suggestive.

==Abnormal Body Appearances==
It has been observed that there occur certain abnormalities in appearance of the persons who otherwise are healthy. Thence these conditions are not grouped under the disease list but described in a separate chapter just after the enumeration of all the diseased conditions. These conditions are probably connected with some abnormality of the function of glandular system of the body. The eight censurable body conditions described therein are as follows.<ref>Caraka Sutra 21-3</ref>:
# Obesity
# Tenuity
# Dwarfism
# Gigantism
# Albinism
# Pigmentation
# Hirsute
# Baldness

==Significance of Knowledge of Disease Constitution for the Practical Therapeutics==
To diagnose a diseased condition and treat it to achieve complete health back, it is very significant to acquire the knowledge of the whole body constitution as well as the constitutional factors of the disease. These constitutional factors can be divided into four parts as follows:
# Significance of Constitutional Factors in the Etiology of disease
# Significance of Constitutional factors in the Clinical course of disease
# Significance of Constitutional factors in prognostics
# Significance of Constitutional factors in practical Therapeutics

===Significance of Constitutional Factors in the Etiology of Disease===
If the balance-constant of the vitium which is dominant in the body of an individual is placed on a higher threshold, the person is more sensitive towards the etiological factors which are the excitants of that particular vitium. The threshold of tolerance is transgressed even with a small degree of exciting factors. This is the relative condition of the predisposition or susceptibility.

The constituent vitium whose threshold of the sensitivity is low, will require a larger degree of probing factors to manifest the diseased condition. This is the relative condition of immunity. Caraka states that:
<blockquote>In a person of the vāta habitus, indulged in vāta-provoking things, the vāta is readily aggravated and not the other two humors. Similarly in the pitta patient, indulged in pitta-provoking things, the pitta is readily aggravated and not the other two humors. Similarly in the person of kapha habitus given to indulgence in kapha-provoking things, kapha is readily aggravated and not the other two humors.<ref>Caraka Vimāna 6, 16-18</ref></blockquote>

===Significance of Constitutional Factors in Clinical Course of Disease===
Caraka Samhitā gives a succinct but a clear account on the role that body constitution plays in enhancing the clinical picture of the disease. It also lays down a general clinical law that manifestation of actual disease condition is the result of varying interactions in the etiological factors, the triumvirate constitution and the body-tissues.

There are three factors which affects the occurrence of the disease which happens as a result of the variations in the etiological factors, intensity of morbid humors and susceptibility of the body elements. If these three causes, which are mainly the etiological factors, do not mutually support each other or if they do so after a prolonged period or in a very mild form, either there occurs no manifestation of the disease at all or the disease takes a long period to evolve. In this case disease might appear in an ambulatory or abortive form also. Under the contrary conditions, there occur contrary results. This way the the different causes of the modes of all the diseases are displayed.<ref>Caraka Nidāna 4, 4</ref>

Concerning the result of the encounter of the etiological factors with the vitia and susceptible body tissues, the author describes the following possibilities:
# If the etiological excitant and constitutional vitia and body tissues are not mutually agreeable at all, it means that the provoking factors and vitia are of the opposite types and the body tissues are resistant or more or less immune to them, then there does not occur any manifestation of the disease-condition.
# If the excitant and vitia and body tissues are mutually agreeable but all of them are so mild or weak that all combined together do not suffice to produce a full diseased condition, there will be manifestation of a mild abortive or ambulatory type of disease condition.
# If the mutual agreement and combination of all these three factors are engulfed by a long interval, there will be a delayed development of the disease. This condition has a prolonged clinical course. Incubation period is long and clinical course is chronically prolonged.
# If the etiological exciting factors, constitutional vitia and the body tissue are mutually agreeable, there will be full development of the disease condition manifesting all the classical symptoms in due order of time and in degree of intensity giving a theoretical picture of the disease-condition.<ref>Disease condition with typical manifestation of symptoms.</ref>
# If the etiological excitant is more severe and acute, the vitia just on the threshold of provocation and body tissues quite predisposed, the result is the manifestation of very acute or even fulminant type of disease condition which runs a very acute course and there is a huge exaggeration of the general or local symptoms.<ref>Disease conditions with acute or grave clinical course manifesting all symptoms.</ref>

In the above mentioned first two conditions the disease does not run a fixed, regular or constant clinical course. It rather manifests a diversified clinical picture. It may not manifest all the classical symptoms of the disease condition at one time. It may exhibit them in an irregular way. There may not be orderly sequence maintained in the development of the symptoms because they may be highly intense in one part of the body, tissue or system while not even existent on other parts at one and the same time.<ref>Manifestation of the symptoms in an irregular way.</ref>

These are the general postulates of manifestation of clinical course in any disease condition. Constitutional factor is an individual factor, which always results in the individual differences in the clinical picture course and termination of the disease. Hence we can conclude that any type of disease, other than epidemic or pandemic diseases, happens due to the imbalance in the etiological factors, vitia and body tissues.

During the outbreak of epidemic and pandemic diseases, constitutional factors do not play any part or counteract the incursion of the etiological factors. In this situation, the incursion is very strong, powerful and sudden. Hence, the constitutional factors cannot counteract at all. Hence even if the people has different body constitution they suffer simultaneously from a severe symptoms of epidemic diseased condition. Even the clinical course of treatment administered to all the patients having different body constitution is same. These type of epidemic and pandemic diseases are responsible for the devastation of whole population in the geographical area affected.<ref>Caraka Vimāna 3,6</ref>

===Significance of Constitutional Factors in Prognostics===
Caraka gives a comprehensive consideration of the constitutional factors in foretelling the prognosis. Constitution is also given equal important place in the branch of prognostics by Hippocrates. Caraka emphasizes on the value of the knowledge of prognostics for the physician for the full success in his practice. The physician who knows the differential diagnosis between the curable and the incurable diseases and begins the treatment with full knowledge in time, obtains success for his effort without fail.<ref>Caraka Sutra 10, 7</ref>

Caraka divides the disease condition into four categories from prognostic point of view. The curable diseases are of two kinds one which can be easily cured and other which are cured with difficulty. The incurable diseases also fall into two categories those that can be cured after extensive treatment and the ones which can never be cured.<ref>Caraka Sutra 10, 9</ref> Constitutional factors play an important role in determining these four prognostic categories. Moreover the knowledge of constitutional factors helps the physician to some extent to know the prognosis and thus enables one to prepare for present and future line of treatment of the specific disease condition.

===Significance of the Constitutional Factors in Practical Therapeutics===
The diligence of the skillful clinicians which determined the exact role placed by each viz. etiological excitant, constitutional triumvirate and the nature of body-tissue, became extremely rewarding when practical therapeutics are prescribed. The text books of modern medicine prescribe the treatment for Homo-sapiens in general determining the limit of minimum and maximum dose which can be safely administered to humans without harm.

This is the scientific formula worked out comprehensively by experimental and observational methods. These methods are properly standardized. Hence all the essentials for the correct guidance are legitimate for the average. But practical application and use of this scientific knowledge in the best interest of each individual is the real art of medicine. All the achievements of the practical knowledge of the disease or drugs or even diagnostic skills, will be of no use if it is not combined with the practical knowledge of the scientific application of therapeutic measures which can bring the full success in treatment.

Caraka asserts very dominantly that the art of prescription depends on the knowledge of dosage and time. This art is dependent on the success. Hence the skillful physician stands ever superior to those possessing merely a theoretical knowledge of drugs.<ref>Caraka Sutra 2, 16</ref> It is essential to understand and study the environmental etiological excitant but the knowledge of the individual constitution of the patient also plays an important role in the phenomena of disease.

This process is not only necessary but also an indispensable pre-requisite to the exact determination of the dose for that particular stage of disease in that particular constitution of man. It is hardly necessary to emphasize the need for meticulous accuracy in the dosage as deviation on either side fails to produce the desired results. A small dose is not sufficient to counteract the disease condition while larger dose may produce excessive effects on the body. It may also be very much harmful to the body at times. Rash administration of a very strong medication without examination on a weak patient will upset his body constitution. But in strong persons affected with a strong disease, weaker medicinal dose administered without examination also becomes useless.<ref>Caraka Vimāna 8, 94</ref>

The keenness in Ayurveda regarding the accuracy in dosage becomes too evident. The administration of drugs is denoted by using the term 'Mātrā' meaning measure. The word is derived from the root 'Mā' which means to measure. Thus significant importance is laid on the accurate dosage of drugs. The word 'Dose' is derived from the Greek word 'Didomi' which means to give. It is also cognizant to the Sanskrit root which means to give. To have accuracy in dosage is the main purpose of the detailed study of the constitution of triumvirate. Treatment depends on the accurate recognition of the measure of humors and other factors.<ref>Caraka Vimāna 1, 3</ref>

==Administration of Drug in Ancient Times==
The significance of knowledge of constitution in determining the personal regimen of the individual has already been described.<ref>Caraka Sutra 1-6 2</ref> To attain the ideal of easy comprehension combined with exactitude, the ancients reduced the therapeutic science to mathematics. A formula ingestion of food and drug was the sole method of administration during that time. Hence the taste which was the main index, was grouped into six categories, so that it can fit easily with all the three triumvirates. They further evolve the general formula co-ordinating each triumvirate with a group of three taste categories. One group of three increases and the rest other group decreases the force of each vitia.<ref>Caraka Vimāna 1, 6</ref>

===Doṣa and Rasa Phenomena===
The mathematical formula concerning doṣa and rasa has an elaborate work functioning. Doṣa and rasa both are worked out by the permutation and combination method to 63 forms.<ref>Caraka Sutra 26, 22</ref> They were also considered in its comparative<ref>This is called as Tara state.</ref> and superlative<ref>This is called as Tama state.</ref> state.<ref>Caraka Sutra 26, 23</ref> Thus specific determination of rasa and doṣa and reducing them to the mathematical formula of the inter-relation is very significant to attain the exactness in the conceived practical therapeutics achieved by the ancients.

Caraka devotes one full section named 'Vimāna' having 8 chapters which discloses the details of various factors concerned with the production of the disease as well as the factors important in diagnosis and treatment. It discusses this inter-relation of rasa and doṣa in comprehensive details in the first chapter. Hence it emphasizes on the importance of accurate knowledge of constitutional factors for the practical therapeutics.

==The Etiological Factors of the Disease==
===Classification by Caraka===
Caraka classifies all the etiological factors of diseases in two parts on general basis..<ref>Caraka Sutra 18, 4, 6</ref>
# Endogenous
# Exogenous

===Endogenous Factors as per Caraka===
Endogenous etiological factors which causes the diseases can be further sub divided into three conditions:
# Hereditary diseases - These type of diseases are inherited due to defect in genesis of one's parents. These are genetic etiological factors.
# Congenital disease - The disease conditions which occurs during the fetal period of life in the mother's womb is termed as the congenital disease. The factors aggravating this disease are congenital etiological factors.
# Nutritional or metabolic disorders - It includes psychic and somatic conditions due to the internal derangement of the function or structures. These are the nutritional or metabolic etiological factors.

===Exogenous Factors as per Caraka===
This category is based on the different types of external conditions affected. It can be classified into two ways.
# Aadhimautika: The group of diseases that arise due to all the kinds of trauma or injury from physical, chemical and biological sources.<ref>Caraka Sutra 18, 4</ref>
# Aadhidaivika: These are the diseases resulting from abnormality of the climate and season.

===Classification by Śuśruta===
Śuśruta pursues the subject further into its metaphysical origins and declares in his treatise, while keeping with the general concepts of all the branches of science, that disease is the occurrence of sufferings.<ref>Śuśruta Sutra 24, 4</ref> which is of three kinds. The first kind has a source in itself. The second kind has it's source in physical elements and creatures of the world. The third one has it's source in natural and supernatural agencies. This triad of the etiological categories is in the accordance with the Sānkhya concept. Śuśruta makes further subdivision of this triad and forms a practical point of view to make seven further categories in etiological factors of a disease.

===Other Parameters===
Those of the super natural origin or nature such as pandemics, epidemics, emergent conditions due to atmospheric upheaval and such other dreadful disease-conditions is difficult to explain ordinarily. Natural conditions or disabilities characterizing human life are hunger, thirst, sleep, fatigue, decay, senescence and death. These types of conditions may act either as exciting factors or as predisposing factors.<ref>Caraka Sutra 20, 4-5</ref> and they may act either as immediate or as remote causes. Those above-mentioned classifications are exhaustive and the etiological factors, both biological and material, are comprehended by them.

==Nosology and the Triumvirate==
In the vitiation theory, though many factors take part, the main reason of the different display of these causes is based only on the behavior of the triumvirate. Once the constituents of the triumvirate are provoked by the endogenous or exogenous vitiating or toxic factors, the whole body or that particular part of the body where the triumvirate is aggravated, becomes the site where the triumvirate decant the vitiating elements. The part of the body or the whole body, depending on its location, develops the general or special or local symptoms. The degree of development of the diseased symptoms depends on the ratio of body strength versus the intensity of invading vitiating factors. This is also influenced by the effects of environmental factors. All the pathological processes and consequent disease-conditions are represented by the signs and symptoms associated primarily with the triad of vitia. Thus in the broadest outline all the diseased conditions are comprehended by this triad.

===As per Śuśruta===
Śuśruta says vāta, pitta and kapha are the root causes of all the diseases. Symptoms exhibited by the diseases are caused by the direct observation. Just as the entire universe cannot transcend the triad of natural forces of sattva, rajas and tamas, similarly all the diseases classify within the triad of vāta, pitta and kapha.<ref>Śuśruta Sutra 24, 8</ref>

===As per Caraka===
Caraka modifies this statement slightly differentiating endogenous diseases which are primarily due to the triumvirate discordance from exogenous diseases where external trauma is primary and triumvirate discordance develops later on. All the endogenous diseases never occur without the discordance of vāta, pitta and kapha. Only the disorders produced by the exogenous causes are different. Yet the special sites of localisation, affection, consequent variation in manifestations of the forms and various etiological factors give rise to diseases. Physician give different names to specify each condition.

===Cellular Biology in the Classification of Disease===
The body is made of the varieties of tissues, organs, structural and functional systems and millions of cells in each and every part. These cells are believed to have its own separate life. The pathological conditions affecting them in their individual or combined forms are innumerable. Hence there are various manifestations of each of these vitia and their combined conditions. Every degree of variation or proportion in their combination requires a special name giving rise to the endless number of names.

Expressing the impracticability of this, Caraka denotes that when classified according to cause, pain, color, site, form, nomenclature, the number of these diseases becomes countless. Thus a simpler and detailed classification is necessary for the purpose of practical therapeutics. This classification should be all-comprehensive yet allowing the recognition of any peculiar deviations from their folds.

==Foundation for Demarcating the Type of Disease==
There are some systems which should be adapted for general classification. These systems should be comprehensive of all the diseased conditions and at the same time simple but significant guide in the selection of curative measures for the same. This is the ultimate aim of the science of medicine. Caraka and Śuśruta suggests various methods of classification of the diseases for the purpose of nomenclature. Caraka, after enumerating various ways of grouping the disease conditions<ref>Caraka Vimāna 6, 3</ref> declares at the end of the discourse that the triumvirate-wise classification is the only possible practical method which is all-comprehensive and significant in the diagnosis as well as practical therapeutics.

There are innumerable diseases. On the contrary, the morbific humors are strictly limited.<ref>Caraka Vimāna 6, 5</ref> Hence to classify any disease on the basis of it's vitial aspect is more convenient. This arises the pathological plank on which this science is based. After the basic system of classification on the pathological grounds is formulated, it is easier to specify and diagnose a particular disease. On that basis, we can enhance the detailed knowledge of the diseases and facilitate a specific line of treatment. Without this process, it is difficult to come to a specific conclusion for any kind of disease.

===Deputation by Śuśruta===
After having a comprehensive framework of the general diseased classification, names of particular disease condition may be added as the knowledge of that condition is completely understood. There was a progression in this science which becomes evident when one finds that there are 1120 total number of disease conditions which have been given definite names. Śuśruta denotes the number of disease conditions to be 1120. This whole list has been enumerated by the commentator Dālhana in 40 verses.

==Categorization of Disease==
The basic classification was according to the triumvirate organization. Hence any disease condition was first grouped under that organisation which was predominantly disorganized. With the advancement of knowledge, the sub-grouping was made as per following:
# Triumvirate Nomenclature
# Vitium-wise nomenclature
# Tissue-wise nomenclature
# Organ-wise nomenclature
# Symptom-wise nomenclature
# Cause-wise nomenclature

Whatever progress was made in the detailed knowledge of the disease, it does not lessen the significance of triumvirate-wise classification which has fundamental importance in diagnosis, prognosis and complete success of the treatment.

===Triumvirate Nomenclature===
Each and every disease condition falls under this category. It may be the discordance of one or two or all the three vitia. The disease condition occurring due to discordance in two vitia is termed as 'Saṅsarga'. The condition which arise due to the discordance between all the three vitias are termed as 'Sannipata'.

===Vitium Nomenclature===
There are certain disease conditions which are created when only one vitia is affected. They are termed specifically to differentiate it from general. This is also called as system-wise classification. There are 80 disease conditions due to vāta, 40 disease conditions due to pitta and 20 disease conditions due to kapha. This is the organization-wise or vitium-wise classification.

===Tissue Nomenclature===
When body-tissues where vitiation process is located play a more significant role than that of triumvirate, the disease is named after that particular body-tissue. This is called as tissue-wise classification. Śuśruta states that where the body elements or tissues get vitiated and play a major part in the cause of the disease, the conditions are referred to the particular tissue concerned. These diseases can be of the nutrient fluid, blood, flesh, fat, bone, marrow or semen.<ref>Śuśruta Sutra 24, 8</ref> Dalhana while commenting on this, clarifies saying that though the disease conditions are classified and named according to the body - tissues v/s location of vitiation process, it is only a secondary denomination of the primary vitial classification. To explain this phenomena an interesting simile was cited by him. When a person is said to be burnt by heated ghee, heated oil, heated copper or iron, he is actually scalded by the heat through these various media, similarly when the disease is said to be due to body-tissues like blood, nutrient fluid etc., it is actually prevalent due to the vitia of vāta, pitta or kapha working abnormally into these body tissues.

===Organ Nomenclature===
Organ-wise classification is done whenever the structure and functions of that particular organ play an important part in producing the signs and symptoms of the disease. 94 diseases of the eye, 18 diseases of the ear, 18 diseases of the nose, 74 diseases of the mouth etc. were determined in the past.

===Symptom Nomenclature===
When one particular symptom or sign was too dominant to denote the clinical diagnostic condition of the disease, it was named after that symptom. viz., fever, diarrhea, wound, swelling and fracture. This disease condition was termed as the symptom-wise or sign-wise nomenclature.

===Cause Nomenclature===
When the etiological factors play a vital role in producing the disease, it was named after that particular etiological factor viz. Helminthiasis, Toxicosis, alcoholism, Liathiasis etc. The local part or condition or any special factor playing a major dominant part than the triumvirate was allowed to have its own special name applicable to the disease condition to facilitate the understanding of the disease and immediate practical line of treatment was to be adopted.

===Significance of Triumvirate Classification===
Any disease cannot be determined without the consideration of triumvirate. Triumvirate classification of the disease is the foundation of all the sub-classifications. Triumvirate pervades every cell and inter-cellular space of the body. It controls every function. There is no other disease which does not come under the above mentioned classification gateway. The above mentioned conditions may be dominant for the time being, but the clinical course of the disease condition has many factors to be accounted and adapted. The main cause of regenerative or resistant power as well as the digestive power of the body are the essentials of vitial phenomena. This helps in understanding the primary triumvirate classification with a better perspective. Thus triumvirate becomes the foundation in the studies of Nosology.

===Therapeutic Usage of the Triumvirate Classification===
There is an immense basic information regarding the triumvirate-wise classification of the disease-condition. It is natural that the intensive study for the details of this triumvirate is carried out. The specific conditions of the diseases not withstanding it is helpful to arrive to the least common measures of all the diseases. It is only thus that the practical therapeusis can be scientific and intelligible to the expert and the average healer alike. The triumvirate of vitia offers a basic scope for the reduction of diseases to their simplest classification. The concept of nosology in its most comprehensive import has been laid down significantly by Caraka.

When classified according to cause, pain, color, site, form and nomenclature, the number of these diseases becomes countless. It is fine for a physician if he is not able to name a disease as there can be no definite standardization of nomenclature of all the diseases. The physician, who after ascertaining all these three things, begins the treatment systematically will not err in his therapeutic procedures.<ref>Caraka Sutra 18, 42-44-47</ref>

==Importance of the Ayurvedic Treatment==
Medically intellectual thought of the diseases and it's classification from the Ayurvedic view point, is common for both, biological scientist as well as practical clinicians. It has been approved by the scientists and medical practitioners all over the world. A very deep knowledge of Ayurveda enables the practical clinician to understand its immense value in the early diagnosis. This diagnosis is done before any actual structural and deep-seated functional disorders have crept into the organism as well as in the procedures of active immunization and prophylaxis. The daily diet and behavior of the individual along with his continuous adaptation towards the demands of the changing environment are built upon the facts of constitutional peculiarity. The details of the normal living of exigencies of the therapeusis are to be patterned in a view of the fundamental diathesis of the man.

The medical aspect of Ayurveda in particular, which in its entirety is the biological grasp of the secret workings of the life mechanism, is actually based on the practical utility. Its understanding and approach towards the diseased condition along with its treatment is very practical. It is calculated to avoid wastage of time and vacillation. It helps the physician with the most elementary enlightenment of medicine and note the basic nature of the disorder by the symptoms. This highlights the three basic genera of vāta, pitta and kapha. This leads to initiating the suitable medication with the least delay.

A further investigation of its general and local aspects can wait without further aggravating the diseased condition, if the general therapeutic treatment is already administered. In seventy out of a hundred cases, this elementary method of tackling the patient is bound to produce restorative health effects. This gives the physician time to evaluate and scrutinize the disease symptoms in the further stage. After the initiation of the primary treatment, physician investigates the overlapping of the vitia, causative factors, site of affection, degree of the morbid condition and indications and contra-indications in the measures of therapeusis and likely complications.

===Correct Inference of Ayurveda Ideology===
Caraka describes the actual nature of the cryptic method of this exposition and the suggestive nature of the system propounded. Ayurveda ideology thus serves as a guide to the intelligent physicians who use their imaginative and logical skills. But for the average physician, it is advisable to follow the method laid down. Following the treatment in the prescribed way, a physician accomplishes his task successfully owing to the succinct nature of the exposition.<ref>Caraka Vimāna 8, 149</ref>

Such a system though simple and non-intricate in its broadest outline, is eminently fruitful in the application and eliminates the grave risks of incompetence and pretentious ignorance. It is an attempt to simplify the medicine from a practical chart to guide the learned and unlearned alike. But it is comprehensive enough to allow the most intricate and exhaustive details of the various branches of the science. Comprehensive knowledge attained by performing different experiments and microscopic observations can be utilized in making a detailed comprehensive picture bound by these outlines. It can contribute to the further achievement of the objectives of medicine.

The attempt of completing the concept of Ayurveda, filling it with intricate details of modern medicine has been culled from the depths of life. This also denotes that the thinking of the ancient physicians and modern clinicians are alike. Thence, it becomes the prime responsibility of the future medical students and scholars who assert this inheritance to the wisdom of the east and west.

===Physio-Pathological Outlook===
This objective can be attained even if only the basic direction of the perspective and foreground is offered by the physiology and pathology of the triumvirate. They can be illustrated as the stars that guide the helmsman at the head of the ship of life. Ignorance of their existence is like turning the ship of life drift and wreck against the hidden rocks of disease and death. A brief and general outline of the physio-pathological nature and significance of the triumvirate forms the fulcrum of all the life-processes. It is intended mainly for the general reader who needs to be introduced to the Caraka Samhitā. The triumvirate of the biological organizations determine the constitution of each individual. Caraka has dwelt elaborately on the attributes of the various types of human constitution both from the purely psychic point of view<ref>Caraka Sutra 4, 37-40</ref> as well as from the somatic point of view.<ref>Caraka Vimāna 8, 95-100</ref> in the terms of habitus or the preponderant constituent vitium.

The understanding of any constitution in its detail provide the key to allergic reactions along with the psychic and somatic idiosyncrasies. This aspect of medicine is thus very important to clinicians and Ayurveda with its various branches is the a wheel whose spokes are fixed firmly and converge to the navel of the concept of all the three vitia. Thus physio- pathological perspective is ever embracing in its scope and deserves the most intense scrutiny by the modern medical scholars. Hence its
authenticity as a faithful representation of the body organization and mechanism of the functioning can be appreciated just by this. Even the practical applicability and utility can be treasured by its recognizance. It is a subject for profound study and judgement for the sincere students of medicine.

==The Ideal of Health in Ayurveda==
The ideal of health as per the Ayurveda varies from a mere disease-free condition to that of positive and perfect health. Ayurveda has set up a very lofty ideal of positive health which includes all the minutest details. The criteria for the ideal health in Ayurveda is the best method for the synchronized working of spirit, mind and senses. Perfect health is dependent on the undivided and integrated form of body and mind.

Man is the aggregate of the body, mind and spirit as per Ayurveda. The concept of health includes not only the physical but also the mental and spiritual health of an individual. Man's personal hygiene is accounted in Swāstha-Vṛtta. It is supplemented by the right life which inculcates the discipline of the senses, mind and the regulation of the moral life. This results into the happiness and benefits not only for the individuals particularly but for the whole humanity as well. It is therefore social and universal in its conception and application. It comprehends a physical, mental and ethical framework of life. This is the entire concept of life that Ayurveda expounded embodying philosophy, eugenics and ethics.

The concept of health is individualized because each individual is different in appearance and behavior. The word Swāstha which means healthy is signified by one's own individual constitution. Hence the concept of individual constitution is also very significant. Ancient Greek masters and the sages of India like Caraka and Śuśruta have built up their systems of health and disease on the foundation of this constitution.

===Constitutional Phenomena===
This concept of constitution remains very logical with practical efficacy. Its objective aims to the fullest survival. It also helps in overcoming the shortenings of nature and age. This concept gave rise to vitality and virility systems of therapy. Such lofty standard of health had to be implemented by an equally high standard of diagnostic methods. Hence a detailed and perfect deviation from the specific norm of the individual is demarcated in all the aspects. It is easy to set up norms for organizations which are simple and even of lower type on the ladder of the biological evolution. But the higher and subtler the organization are, the greater will be the liability to get disorganized. In such cases the diagnostic methods necessitate the highest sensitivity in detecting deviations.

The edge of this sensitivity is blunted when the concept is not that of ideal health. The trivial deviations go unnoticed and are left unattended. But when the ideal is that of the perfect psycho-somatic health, deviation, however small and insignificant , is noted and taken care of. Anything which is not to the mark is considered to be the positive source of trouble. Even the slightest deviation is enough to initiate the signals of impending alarm.

The three main organizations are of vāta, pitta and kapha. These three co-exist in a single constitution. They are so diverse in nature and function that their equilibrium can be maintained only on a highly sensitive and delicate fulcrum. But this is not enough. All these three factors are not continuously static. They have to constantly adapt themselves to ever changing environmental factors. It is likely to cause the disturbance of the subtle equilibrium of the triumvirate.

===Role of the Psyche in Perfect Health===
The psyche is the most sensitive galvanometer in the body. The psychic changes are more or less subjective symptoms but fortunately they are indicated reflexively on these external features of the body. Due to inherent and prevailing spirit of life, it reacts effectively corresponding to one's personality. The manifestations are perhaps too clear to go unnoticed by the attending physician, but it requires a keen clinical sense to transcribe this script of reflex indication into a comprehensible form by observation, interpretation and correlation. Lord Chesterfield has rightly remarked that if we wish to know the real sentiments of the person we are conversing with, we should look directly into his face because he can more easily command his words and not his expressions.

Even transient disturbances are noticed by Ayurveda. These minute disturbances helps to restore the lost equilibrium in details. It also advises the prophylactic measures to counter adverse environmental factors. This is the most glorious part for the maintenance of the concept of perfect health. Hence the precautionary and preventive measures are practiced for the sustenance of perfect health physically as well as mentally in the field of Ayurveda.

This arises the question as to what is the norm according to Ayurveda. Definitions are always difficult to formulate because it is a common experience that no two individuals are completely alike physically, physiologically, psychologically or in vital reactions. Hence the art of medicine necessitates the study of every man as an individual. Thus any definition of the norm in Ayurveda will have to be defined from the individual point of view which asserts that the norm of one person will be different from another.

For the theoretical purposes, the norm of man in general can be described as a range of values to be accepted as a standard found to be the average in persons who appear healthy and free from any kind of disability or disease.

===Norms as per Śuśruta ===
For the practical application of the study of an individual it is necessary to achieve accuracy in diagnosis and therapeutics. Śuśruta, while describing the norm of the healthy individual, states as under:
* It is not possible to lay down or standardize the exact measure of the triumvirate, body-elements or the excretory matter owing to their varying nature in the process of adaptation to the continually changing environmental factors as well as the individual variations of the body constitution.<ref>Śuśruta Sutra 15,37</ref>
* If a physician wants to know the state of equilibrium of all these he can do it only by finding the signs of the perfect health in that individual. The expert physician diagnoses indirectly their imbalance condition of these body-elements by finding whether the person is in perfect mood or not.<ref>Śuśruta Sutra 15, 38-39</ref>
* A person who is possessing the equilibrium of the triumvirate, balance condition of the gastric fire and harmonious working of digestion, assimilation and elimination processes and also has the best mood of spirit, senses and mind, is said to be in perfect health.<ref>Śuśruta Sutra 15,41</ref>

===Conclusion===
Thus Ayurveda has a dynamic and creative view of health, because it can never be a mere static condition. Hence the need for constant vigilance in its promotion and for revitalizing it essential for better life. Life must be lived as a delight or else it will succumb to disease and death. There is no place in the world where health condition does not change throughout one's life. In dealing with this aspect of health, Ayurveda holds the supremacy over all the other known systems of medical thought. The healthy man should be ever vigilant and diligent in the maintenance and enhancement of his health as the sick one is to get rid of the disease. Such an invincible and essential aspect had been ascribed to medicament right from the ancient times.

==Types of Medicines==
Medicines are of two kinds as follows<ref>Caraka Cikitsā 1,4</ref>:
# Medicines which promotes the vigor in the healthy person
# Medicines which cures the diseased condition

The regimen for hygienic conduct for the society and individual for better lifestyle includes the control of the senses and mind. This moulds a man into a noble citizen of the world. It also lead him a step higher in the ladder of evolution. This is medically very efficacious in uplifting the dangers of psychic and nervous disorders due to the heavy strain on the nervous energies of man due to the distractions, cants and wrong beliefs, enormous and injurious ambitions and frustration that modern civilized life involves. The psychic regimen is very essential in the life nowadays because it provides wholesome nutrition for the mind while the physical regimen heals the physical body.

==Conduct of Leading Life==
Caraka draws a beautiful picture of the life of a man who is possessed of ideal physical and psychic health. A person who is healthy, both physically and psychologically, enjoys the life fully but at the same time adds to the happiness and comfort of the whole world. The life of such a person is called happy because it is not afflicted with either bodily or mental ailments. It is endowed with youth, strength, virility, reputation, enterprise and boldness befitting his abilities in particular. It is reflected in his actions and deeds which are the result of his combined urge of knowledge, science, senses and sense-objects. That kind of person is possessed of multifarious and delightful amenities accruing from great wealth.

Life of a person is accounted to be good who has the below mentioned virtues:<ref>Caraka Sutra 30, 24</ref>
* Well-wisher of all the creatures
* Non covetous towards other people's good
* Truth speaker
* Peace loving
* One with deliberated acts
* Non negligent
* Devoted to the three ends<ref>These three are virtue, wealth and enjoyment.</ref>
* Reverential
* Scholar
* Scientific disposition
* Companion to elders
* Balanced passions of desire, anger, envy, pride and conceit
* Charity loving
* Austere
* Knowledgeable
* Quiet
* Endowed with spiritual insight
* Single-minded
* Contemplative
* Endowed with memory
* Understanding

==References==
{{reflist}}

* The Caraka Samhita published by Shree Gulabkunverba Ayurvedic Society, Jamnagar, India

[[Category:Ayurveda]][[Category:Charak Samhita]]

Rāmāyaṇa where ideology and arts meet narrative and historical context

2024-01-20T04:37:12Z

Deval Sancheti: /* Conclusion */

By Nalini Rao, Assoc. Prof. of World Arts, SUA, CA 

The epic, Rāmāyaṇa, is a living topic of contemporary relevance. It constitutes a substantial part of Indian historical collective memory that influenced the socio-cultural, religious, and political landscape of India to a large extent. Hence, creative minds through ages and across different cross-sections of Indian society have re-interpreted and re-created the epic narrative in varied forms through diverse media. This article examines the interaction between ideology, narrative and historical context with artistic traditions that substantiated relevant values of cultural life. History was made intelligible through religious and social values, visual arts, and geographical locale. Thus, there was a transformation of the protagonist, Rama, into a divinity that resulted in his icons in Hindu temples. Numerous stories about Rama were an outgrowth of an earlier cultural process that ultimately became a dynamic method that sustained kings, kingdoms and the populace.

==Introduction==
The Sanskrit epic Rāmāyaṇa is divided into seven cantos with 24,000 verses. It is the story of Rama, prince of Ayodhya. He is about to be crowned king when Kaikeyi, one of the wives of his father, Dasaratha, demands that her son Bharata be crowned instead. Rama is forced into exile with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana. In the forest, Ravana the king of Lanka, who has coveted Sita, abducts her. Rama assembles an army of monkeys and they invade Lanka, killing Ravana and rescuing Sita. She proves her chastity through a trial by fire. After fourteen years, Rama finally rules Ayodhya, leading to a golden age.

The epic itself, like many Indic texts, is highly revered as religious text. It is one of the earliest and most influential Vaiṣṇava texts, and literary work that is not only a great poem but indeed the very first poem and the forerunner of all subsequent poetry. The story has variations in Indian and S.E.Asian history. Texts on Rāmāyaṇa range from 7th century BCE to 4th century BCE. The most authoritative one was written by Valmiki in Sanskrit in 2nd, century BCE. In the 16th century ACE, it was rewritten by Tulsidas in the 16th century Awadhi dialect under the title Rāmacharitamānas.

There are innumerable versions of the tale; to name a few, they include the 12th-century Tamil language Rāmāvataram, 12th-century Kannada Rāmachandra Charitapurāṇa or Pampa Rāmāyaṇa by Nagachandra, 13th-century Telugu language Sri Ranganatha Rāmāyaṇam, 16th-century Rāmcharitmānas, and the 17th-century Adhyathmarāmāyaṇam Kilippattu. There have been many commentaries in Sanskrit on the epics from the 11th C to the 17th century ACE examining their meaning and intention. For example, a substantial tradition of writing narratives based on the life of lord Rama, which can be traced in Kashmiri literature as early as the 19th century. Around seven Rāmāyaṇas are available namely:
# Rāmāvatāracharita (1847)
# Shankar-Rāmāyaṇa (1870)
# Vishnupratap-Rāmāyaṇa (1904-14)
# Ānanda Rāmavatāracharita (1888)
# Rāmmāyan-i-Sharma (1919-26)
# Tarachand Rāmāyaṇa (1926-27)
# Amar-Rāmāyaṇa (1950)

Ramavatāracharit, which is available in published form, is the most well-known and significant of these. Among the available and unavailable Rāmāyaṇas of Kashmiri mentioned above, 'Rāmavatāracharit ' has a special place in Kashmiri literature and stands out for its popularity. In S.E Asia are the Khmer Reamker, the Old Javanese Kakawin Rāmāyaṇa; the Thai Ramakien, the Lao Phra Lak Phra Lam; and the Burmese Yama Zatdaw.

==Historicity==
There are many reasons to consider the epic or a part of it as historical truth. Rāma, is portrayed as a living personality; he suffered mental, emotional and physical pain to which ordinary mortals are prey but he is also as an ideal king. Secondly historicity as we understand it today, was not of much concern to the authors and audience of past times; it was an oral tradition which was considered as a historical document. The journey of the triad and territorial identity should be included by the historian noting that past documents could have been lost. The Valmiki Rāmāyaṇa in its original form was an oral narrative which became a sacred book and a text on dharma. There is reason to believe that some part of it happened in the past. It was refashioned time and again to convert into a religious text or for other purposes. Rāma who is worshipped as the supreme form and main manifestation of Vishnu did not rise into prominence before the 11th and 12th Centuries CE.

==Oral Tradition to Narrative==
There are several versions of the Rāmāyaṇa that vary according to historical period, regional literary tradition, religious affiliation and political and social context. The original text, an epic composed by bards, was recited at sacrificial rituals, during feasts and the courts of the kings (rajas). The hero, Rama, rules from the city of Ayodhya over the kingdom of Kosala situated in the middle Ganges plain, claims descent from the solar dynasty. Rama is the chief of the righteous fighting against Ravana, a demon who fills the world with terror. Rama is the personification of an ideal king and his reign is symbolic in social memory, being a period of prosperity that has the term in Rāma-rājya.

==History or Myth==
Tales of the king’s adventures through the journey can be read as we see the architecture and arts in Ayodhya, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Hampi and Anegundi. From Rishyamuk Parbat to King Bali’s cave, local folklore connects many spots to the stories in the Ramayana. That he was deified as a god was equally relevant during the early medieval period as found in artistic traditions of sculpture and architecture.

Naturally a question mark has been put about the reality of incidences that has been narrated in the text. The debate whether the king Rama, is a mythical character or a real-life ruler can run on for hours. The spreading of the epic throughout the human society from years after years was accompanied orally by many disciples from generation to generation. As it had been carried through oral recitation there was a lot of possibilities of addition and alteration at different stages of such progress.

But an inevitable question always arises whether the personality of Rāma mentioned in the epic is fact or fictitious? So, always there is a question mark whether the epic contains any historical fact, or it is a simple epic novel? It is quite evident that there are several portions found in the story which seems to be exaggerated. The composed verse was being spread from generation to generation through preceptors. During the passage of long journey quote from memory addition and alteration were incorporated. However, aggrandizement and magnification was a very common issue in the ancient period and can be compared to what was in ancient Greece. Thus it is difficult to dismiss it as mythology. There are many archaeological sources that have been lost, given the heavy building layered activity in areas associated with the Rāmāyaṇa. While positive evidences have been found regarding the Mahābhārata <ref>It particularly denotes in Dvaraka by the archaeologist, Dr. S.R. Rao.</ref> it is possible that some evidence will be found about Rāmāyaṇa in the future.

==Historical Context==
The question that should be asked is what was the historical circumstances that led to the rise of the hero and might have happened in the context of ancient Indian historical evidence. The reason that there are different versions of it is that it was an oral tradition<ref>Similar to the Iliad in Greece.</ref> and hence the poets’ imagination of an ideal king reigns supreme. However, it might have been true that Rama was a more compassionate leader than earlier ones. Secondly there was a reason why people had collective memory and built upon the ideology of Rama, his personality, and the narrative stories that were told and retold. They struck a chord to every class and group of people. A glance at the ancient historical period of various cultures gives us an idea why epics and narratives were exaggerated or held in historical memory. It was the historical context in which Rāma ruled that made him an ideal king, perhaps due to many wars or confusion, jealousies, intrigues, tribals, forest areas, that occur in the epic.

The historical circumstances during the post Indus Valley and pre-Buddhist period, the post second urbanization era, rise of kingdoms, strife at various levels probably contributed to his rise. Historically during a troubled period of confusion, a leader with values made sense. The epic was created with an adventure - a variety of personal, public, and popular themes and ideals.

The intervention by Rāma for a degenerating society; his enlightened way of living was the ideal. Historical circumstances probably provoked it as it had done during the ancient Greek period, when Homer wrote the Iliad. Authors exaggerated the accomplishments of the king, his ideals, his humanistic values of a king who stood for some sort of an ideal of dharma and justices. Society was perhaps, illogical, and unjust; elders were not respected; there was discord between man and nature, self and society. There was a quest for the infinite that provided a basis for understanding behavior and relationships, social relations, norms, practices, interests conflicts, difference of opinions, which was idealized by Rāma through respect, love and sacrifice. The epic built a social system that discouraged selfishness, anger, hate, greed, lust particularly among family members and turned towards stability through individual and social values of patience, tolerance, and duty.

Rama’s heroism was not merely on the battlefield but on his sacrifices and ideals that were magnified in the epic. It was going to be a golden Age where hope comes back; a peaceful era, with wealth and harvest and renewal. Rāma stood for renovation, continuity and preservation of ancient values. There was hope for man. It is not surprising that they associated him to be an avatār of Vishnu, the god of Preservation.

A cultural context normally gives rise to unknown events, unique leaders as it was in Greece. Perhaps, there was famine or environmental disturbances during the period; there might have been problems with village economies and hunger, and the hero promised release from these. History has been what is relevant, and useful in collective memory not what was necessarily written in India, which is differenct from western viewpoint. History (like art) constructs what is educative, useful, dramatic and enlightening.

Indian culture recognized the insecurity in man, environment and injustices. It strove to elaborate a condition and an atmosphere that portrayed stability, to reflect upon what is right and wrong. The Rāmāyaṇa provided the theoretical and peaceful structure for Indian culture. To the unlettered, purely as a narrative of India, it provided roots to tap into many places which were named by kings with sites associated with the epic, that lent a sacredness to the local territory. In UP and Bihar, stories were appropriated as their own story, providing a sense of history. Lanka, Nepal, Karnataka and several other places were associated with the epic.

Rāma, among royalty, has reinforced a certain image of political leadership and kingly power that stood for an ideology of respect, righteous leadership and a peaceful life. Hence later kings called themselves as Rāma. The Guptas, Chalukyas, Gangas, Cholas and Rajputs, all considered themselves as Rāma and renamed their territories as one of the sites related to Rāmāyaṇa.

==Dramatization of Themes==
Survival demanded imagination. The epic of Rāmāyaṇa is particularly interesting in its various themes, namely, the leadership of a king, his trials and tribulations, and his success. The Rāmāyaṇa evokes emotional and intellectual interests. Whether it is the Surpanakha’s episode or Bali-Sugriva duel, or for that matter, Vibhishan’s role in bringing down the downfall of his brother, the writers have not navigated the space between the right and the wrong.

The impact of the epic is due to numerous reasons. The narrative of Rāma in the forest evokes sympathy, his success in the war and return to his kingdom is refreshing and joyful. The story is magical, Hanuman could fly to the magical mountain; his rescue of Sita and uproot the mountain, the devotion of Lakshmana shows his magnanimity and most importantly, Rāvaṇa the evil king of Lanka led to the rise of an ideal king of dharma. Sita is the queen of the Hindu womanhood, and her devotion to Rama was unflinching.

It is not uncommon in mythology to create elaborate stories around historic heroic figures to elevate them to the level of gods who have time and again formed the basis for the development of religious sects. The same was true with the Greeks who created their gods. In the epic Iliad, there are mentioned more gods than what is mentioned in the Rāmāyaṇa. A critical comparative examination of ancient epics and narratives within a historical context will provide a reasonable understanding and interpretation of the epic.

Rāmāyaṇa created a god out of a person, and it did not matter whether he ruled a small or a big kingdom, whether Kaikeyi loved or hated Rama, whether Ravana was a real demon with ten heads, or whether Sita was born in Nepal or India, or whether Rama built the bridge to Sri Lanka. Rama’s banishment was unjust, the personality of Kaikeyi, Manthara are ugly, unnerving, Dasaratha’s guilt, his obligations, and despondency impactful.

In the forest, far from the anguish of family politics, the moral imagination of Rama and Sita has expanded. As honored guests of the forest and its inhabitants, they begin to reconsider what it means to be human-not divine, armed and separate from the earthly habitat, but mortal, disarmed and in harmony with nature. The visual images are hypnotic. They are not merely illustrations, but condense different narrative incidents leading up to a crucial moment.

Sita is a vital moral presence whose imagination is alert to the strangeness and wonder of the forest world. She understands that here is something profound and essential for a life to be called good life from which all social, traditional, or religious presuppositions have been erased. For instance, before meeting Jatayu, Rama had promised Agastya he would kill the asuras. Overcoming her shyness, Sita tells Rama that while he is the embodiment of dharma his vow is morally wrong. The desire for power can lead to adharma, she says. In her hierarchy of evil acts, three are particularly dangerous. Telling lies is bad and adultery is shameful. It is a moment of ethical choice for Rama; of reconsidering human responsibilities and duties and she wants Rama to think and act like an ideal he aspires to be rather than a theologically bound prince. With respect and love, Sita tells Rama a story about how violence destroys an ethical man. Sita's moral stature is thus equal to that of Rama's.

Dramatic aspects of emotion, conversation, ethics, idealism, were woven around as the story of Rama was an oral tradition that was spread by word of mouth. They were enacted in folk theaters, and given detailed content in Valmiki’s Ramayana dynamically adapted to social and cultural changes. The narrative enforce the people with meaning - religious, theological through poems, Sanskrit writings, and folk stories. Valmiki’s epic poem (ca. 750–500 BCE) was enticing for generations. Hence we encounter a number of Rāmāyaṇa, produced – written, painted, sculpted, enacted with vividness, on a human and divine level.

There is truth and beauty in them due to philosophical, spiritual, real and fictious portraits, that provides an unending theme to the artist. In it we find the power of imagination - a variety of emotions of grief, longing ecstasy, vindictiveness. Subjects, kings, parents, children all can relate to it. It realizes the complexities of life; faithfulness, dharma, righteousness, filial piety, martial power, governance, land and leadership. The dramatization of Ram Lila dramatization, a fostered divinization. The Hanuman chalisā shaped the world of the medieval. The imaginary of ordinary folk was important .The institutional frameworks and environments in which these artistic works exist are multiple and serve as a methodological tool for understanding folk art practices from India, for they are often found in local communities, museums, private collections, or the handicraft market simultaneously.

==Arts, Sacredness and Divinization==
The epic is dramatic; it is a story to focus upon in drama, theater, dance, music, painting, sculpture, metal work and textiles. Emotional and intellectual content was appealing to all arts. Deification of Rama was achieved through various means, narrative, enactments, ethics, belief, drama and folk lore and particularly via artistic media - in visual and performing arts all considered on an equal plane.

In Indian folklore, songs, oral traditions and practices, the popular worship of Ram and Sita as one entity has existed from time immemorial. Mela of Rāmāyaṇa promotes the original Awadhi composed by Tulsidas between 16th and 17th centuries CE. Other rishis such as Rishi Valmiki, Acharya Vasishtha, Rishi Vishwamitra, Agastya Muni, Nishad, Jatayu and Mata Sabri were minor deities. Bhajans and Kirtans, the Ramcharit Manas Path, and Sunderkand, Ram Stuti are recited and followed by Shuddh Nritya (pure dance) including todas, paran, tukada, tihai and jugalbandi are enacted.

On the walls of temples, in the Pappanatha in Pattadakal, are embodiments of the story, in the paintings in Mewar, on textiles are the combat of Rama and Ravana, prints of Raja Ravi Verma, and on photographs of devotion. Mewar, Kishangarh, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Chamba, Kangra or Guler assumed that the paintings had merit because they were illustrations of either religious motifs, legendary heroes, courtly life or decorative styles. This gave miniature art a social, moral and sacred purpose. It succeeded in making miniature paintings part of our social, moral world.

The artist created his sublime visions. Sita is a simple lady, compassionate, and listens to Jatayu’s tales. The forest is sacred, with birds, deer, trees. Nature is seen through beauty. Arts capture the peaceful, the tranquil, and the elementary. Models of goodness that avert tragedy were portrayed. Ravana with his multiple heads and arms, his golden palace as a dramatic battle can be seen on stage, poetry and paintings. The waking of Kumbhakarna and his going to the battle is hillarious. Hanuman’s journey to obtain the herb and taking back the entire mountain on his back as he soars through the air is captivating. The story telling devices in paintings of perceptual, conceptual view and continuous narration is common in Indian arts. The artist's facility in organizing the space is remarkable. A sense of balance Himalaya in search of the special herb that will save between the figures, landscape is depicted with a sense of time and space.

Many times when patronized by kings had a political function of propaganda as it was with the Rajputs. In the temple complex of Prambanan Indonesia is the iconographical programme with innumerable narrative scenes from the epic patronized by kings. The temple houses an outstanding iconographic program in its architecture, comprising scenes from the epic. Ramayana has disseminated across many parts of Southeast Asia in different ways, irrespective of the religious beliefs of these societies. Lanka is associated with Ravana and Sita’s vana.

The plant sanjivani - a herbal medicine that Lord Hanuman brought by lifting the mountain on which it was planted to cure Lord Ram's brother Lakshman) from Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was central to the Hindu epic the Ramayana, being the scene of the battle between the Indian king Rama and the Sri Lankan Ravana. The epic had an important place in the unlikeliest places in Southern Sri Lanka, the Muslim Malay community. In Java, as in the rest of South East Asia and became a part of the local folk culture from the 9th C. CE onwards. Given that it spans more than one kind of society, the epic was immensely popular both as a linear narrative of the heroic as well as in the embroidered intricacies of the stories, all of which led to Rama being a God, avatar of Vishnu that changed the character of the epic.

==Conclusion==
The Rāmāyaṇa is an integral part of Indian culture. It is an epic of unending themes that arose within an historical and cultural context. The dramatic narrative weaved royalty, leadership, narrative, family life and values simultaneously. The interaction between ideology, narrative, and artistic traditions substantiated relevant values of cultural life. Ultimately Rama deified as a god that was equally relevant during the early medieval period. It was a dynamic method that reverberated and sustained kings, kingdoms and the populace in ancient and medieval times.

The narrative unfolds chronologically keeping in mind the human aspect of Rama as well as his ideology. The collective psychology of the people that needed the story of Rama and its spread and spatial occurrence is not a new phenomenon in the ancient world. History was made intelligible through folk lore, locale, drama and visual arts and geographical locale that was an outgrowth of earlier cultural process.

There is a range of texts, beliefs, and practices regarding the ritual and divine status of the image. A single sculpture possesses a range of possible meanings and significations depending upon its cultural context. It is essential to recognize the importance of the arts as influential factors for the sacredness of the epic. Historians need to recognize this fact and value its importance for a multitude of purposes. Narratives and arts acted together, and are interwoven in the religious, social, political, artistic, philosophical realms. The history of this interaction between Hindu imagery and practitioners, priests, curators, reformers, leaders can be still found today.

Rama and Sita should be viewed together by historians as it was and is in public consciousness. From ancient times, Rama and Sita preserved in public and historical memory suggests a discourse based on an ordered society on ideas of duty, compassion, and service. They are are cultural icons. Rama as an ideal leader and king. Sita is often seen as the uniting force, the ideal and keeper of dharma and human love. In Indian folklore, songs, oral traditions and practices, arts and the popular worship of Ram and Sita as one entity has existed from long.

A comparative understanding of the particular circumstances that led to the rise of the Rama will provide an accurate understanding of the hero. Rāmāyaṇa is not a purāṇa. The nature and function of an epic is tremendous, its spread, retention in collective memory, territorial relation, imaginative literature, substantiation in artistic modes is tremendous. Literary masterpieces are a product of historical circumstances and more research can be directed to the historical period.

==References==
{{reflist}}

Rāmāyaṇa where ideology and arts meet narrative and historical context

2024-01-20T04:36:04Z

Deval Sancheti: /* Conclusion */

Rāmāyaṇa where ideology and arts meet narrative and historical context

2024-01-20T04:32:47Z

Deval Sancheti: /* Arts, Sacredness and Divinization */

By Nalini Rao, Assoc. Prof. of World Arts, SUA, CA 

The epic, Rāmāyaṇa, is a living topic of contemporary relevance. It constitutes a substantial part of Indian historical collective memory that influenced the socio-cultural, religious, and political landscape of India to a large extent. Hence, creative minds through ages and across different cross-sections of Indian society have re-interpreted and re-created the epic narrative in varied forms through diverse media. This article examines the interaction between ideology, narrative and historical context with artistic traditions that substantiated relevant values of cultural life. History was made intelligible through religious and social values, visual arts, and geographical locale. Thus, there was a transformation of the protagonist, Rama, into a divinity that resulted in his icons in Hindu temples. Numerous stories about Rama were an outgrowth of an earlier cultural process that ultimately became a dynamic method that sustained kings, kingdoms and the populace.

==Introduction==
The Sanskrit epic Rāmāyaṇa is divided into seven cantos with 24,000 verses. It is the story of Rama, prince of Ayodhya. He is about to be crowned king when Kaikeyi, one of the wives of his father, Dasaratha, demands that her son Bharata be crowned instead. Rama is forced into exile with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana. In the forest, Ravana the king of Lanka, who has coveted Sita, abducts her. Rama assembles an army of monkeys and they invade Lanka, killing Ravana and rescuing Sita. She proves her chastity through a trial by fire. After fourteen years, Rama finally rules Ayodhya, leading to a golden age.

The epic itself, like many Indic texts, is highly revered as religious text. It is one of the earliest and most influential Vaiṣṇava texts, and literary work that is not only a great poem but indeed the very first poem and the forerunner of all subsequent poetry. The story has variations in Indian and S.E.Asian history. Texts on Rāmāyaṇa range from 7th century BCE to 4th century BCE. The most authoritative one was written by Valmiki in Sanskrit in 2nd, century BCE. In the 16th century ACE, it was rewritten by Tulsidas in the 16th century Awadhi dialect under the title Rāmacharitamānas.

There are innumerable versions of the tale; to name a few, they include the 12th-century Tamil language Rāmāvataram, 12th-century Kannada Rāmachandra Charitapurāṇa or Pampa Rāmāyaṇa by Nagachandra, 13th-century Telugu language Sri Ranganatha Rāmāyaṇam, 16th-century Rāmcharitmānas, and the 17th-century Adhyathmarāmāyaṇam Kilippattu. There have been many commentaries in Sanskrit on the epics from the 11th C to the 17th century ACE examining their meaning and intention. For example, a substantial tradition of writing narratives based on the life of lord Rama, which can be traced in Kashmiri literature as early as the 19th century. Around seven Rāmāyaṇas are available namely:
# Rāmāvatāracharita (1847)
# Shankar-Rāmāyaṇa (1870)
# Vishnupratap-Rāmāyaṇa (1904-14)
# Ānanda Rāmavatāracharita (1888)
# Rāmmāyan-i-Sharma (1919-26)
# Tarachand Rāmāyaṇa (1926-27)
# Amar-Rāmāyaṇa (1950)

Ramavatāracharit, which is available in published form, is the most well-known and significant of these. Among the available and unavailable Rāmāyaṇas of Kashmiri mentioned above, 'Rāmavatāracharit ' has a special place in Kashmiri literature and stands out for its popularity. In S.E Asia are the Khmer Reamker, the Old Javanese Kakawin Rāmāyaṇa; the Thai Ramakien, the Lao Phra Lak Phra Lam; and the Burmese Yama Zatdaw.

==Historicity==
There are many reasons to consider the epic or a part of it as historical truth. Rāma, is portrayed as a living personality; he suffered mental, emotional and physical pain to which ordinary mortals are prey but he is also as an ideal king. Secondly historicity as we understand it today, was not of much concern to the authors and audience of past times; it was an oral tradition which was considered as a historical document. The journey of the triad and territorial identity should be included by the historian noting that past documents could have been lost. The Valmiki Rāmāyaṇa in its original form was an oral narrative which became a sacred book and a text on dharma. There is reason to believe that some part of it happened in the past. It was refashioned time and again to convert into a religious text or for other purposes. Rāma who is worshipped as the supreme form and main manifestation of Vishnu did not rise into prominence before the 11th and 12th Centuries CE.

==Oral Tradition to Narrative==
There are several versions of the Rāmāyaṇa that vary according to historical period, regional literary tradition, religious affiliation and political and social context. The original text, an epic composed by bards, was recited at sacrificial rituals, during feasts and the courts of the kings (rajas). The hero, Rama, rules from the city of Ayodhya over the kingdom of Kosala situated in the middle Ganges plain, claims descent from the solar dynasty. Rama is the chief of the righteous fighting against Ravana, a demon who fills the world with terror. Rama is the personification of an ideal king and his reign is symbolic in social memory, being a period of prosperity that has the term in Rāma-rājya.

==History or Myth==
Tales of the king’s adventures through the journey can be read as we see the architecture and arts in Ayodhya, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Hampi and Anegundi. From Rishyamuk Parbat to King Bali’s cave, local folklore connects many spots to the stories in the Ramayana. That he was deified as a god was equally relevant during the early medieval period as found in artistic traditions of sculpture and architecture.

Naturally a question mark has been put about the reality of incidences that has been narrated in the text. The debate whether the king Rama, is a mythical character or a real-life ruler can run on for hours. The spreading of the epic throughout the human society from years after years was accompanied orally by many disciples from generation to generation. As it had been carried through oral recitation there was a lot of possibilities of addition and alteration at different stages of such progress.

But an inevitable question always arises whether the personality of Rāma mentioned in the epic is fact or fictitious? So, always there is a question mark whether the epic contains any historical fact, or it is a simple epic novel? It is quite evident that there are several portions found in the story which seems to be exaggerated. The composed verse was being spread from generation to generation through preceptors. During the passage of long journey quote from memory addition and alteration were incorporated. However, aggrandizement and magnification was a very common issue in the ancient period and can be compared to what was in ancient Greece. Thus it is difficult to dismiss it as mythology. There are many archaeological sources that have been lost, given the heavy building layered activity in areas associated with the Rāmāyaṇa. While positive evidences have been found regarding the Mahābhārata <ref>It particularly denotes in Dvaraka by the archaeologist, Dr. S.R. Rao.</ref> it is possible that some evidence will be found about Rāmāyaṇa in the future.

==Historical Context==
The question that should be asked is what was the historical circumstances that led to the rise of the hero and might have happened in the context of ancient Indian historical evidence. The reason that there are different versions of it is that it was an oral tradition<ref>Similar to the Iliad in Greece.</ref> and hence the poets’ imagination of an ideal king reigns supreme. However, it might have been true that Rama was a more compassionate leader than earlier ones. Secondly there was a reason why people had collective memory and built upon the ideology of Rama, his personality, and the narrative stories that were told and retold. They struck a chord to every class and group of people. A glance at the ancient historical period of various cultures gives us an idea why epics and narratives were exaggerated or held in historical memory. It was the historical context in which Rāma ruled that made him an ideal king, perhaps due to many wars or confusion, jealousies, intrigues, tribals, forest areas, that occur in the epic.

The historical circumstances during the post Indus Valley and pre-Buddhist period, the post second urbanization era, rise of kingdoms, strife at various levels probably contributed to his rise. Historically during a troubled period of confusion, a leader with values made sense. The epic was created with an adventure - a variety of personal, public, and popular themes and ideals.

The intervention by Rāma for a degenerating society; his enlightened way of living was the ideal. Historical circumstances probably provoked it as it had done during the ancient Greek period, when Homer wrote the Iliad. Authors exaggerated the accomplishments of the king, his ideals, his humanistic values of a king who stood for some sort of an ideal of dharma and justices. Society was perhaps, illogical, and unjust; elders were not respected; there was discord between man and nature, self and society. There was a quest for the infinite that provided a basis for understanding behavior and relationships, social relations, norms, practices, interests conflicts, difference of opinions, which was idealized by Rāma through respect, love and sacrifice. The epic built a social system that discouraged selfishness, anger, hate, greed, lust particularly among family members and turned towards stability through individual and social values of patience, tolerance, and duty.

Rama’s heroism was not merely on the battlefield but on his sacrifices and ideals that were magnified in the epic. It was going to be a golden Age where hope comes back; a peaceful era, with wealth and harvest and renewal. Rāma stood for renovation, continuity and preservation of ancient values. There was hope for man. It is not surprising that they associated him to be an avatār of Vishnu, the god of Preservation.

A cultural context normally gives rise to unknown events, unique leaders as it was in Greece. Perhaps, there was famine or environmental disturbances during the period; there might have been problems with village economies and hunger, and the hero promised release from these. History has been what is relevant, and useful in collective memory not what was necessarily written in India, which is differenct from western viewpoint. History (like art) constructs what is educative, useful, dramatic and enlightening.

Indian culture recognized the insecurity in man, environment and injustices. It strove to elaborate a condition and an atmosphere that portrayed stability, to reflect upon what is right and wrong. The Rāmāyaṇa provided the theoretical and peaceful structure for Indian culture. To the unlettered, purely as a narrative of India, it provided roots to tap into many places which were named by kings with sites associated with the epic, that lent a sacredness to the local territory. In UP and Bihar, stories were appropriated as their own story, providing a sense of history. Lanka, Nepal, Karnataka and several other places were associated with the epic.

Rāma, among royalty, has reinforced a certain image of political leadership and kingly power that stood for an ideology of respect, righteous leadership and a peaceful life. Hence later kings called themselves as Rāma. The Guptas, Chalukyas, Gangas, Cholas and Rajputs, all considered themselves as Rāma and renamed their territories as one of the sites related to Rāmāyaṇa.

==Dramatization of Themes==
Survival demanded imagination. The epic of Rāmāyaṇa is particularly interesting in its various themes, namely, the leadership of a king, his trials and tribulations, and his success. The Rāmāyaṇa evokes emotional and intellectual interests. Whether it is the Surpanakha’s episode or Bali-Sugriva duel, or for that matter, Vibhishan’s role in bringing down the downfall of his brother, the writers have not navigated the space between the right and the wrong.

The impact of the epic is due to numerous reasons. The narrative of Rāma in the forest evokes sympathy, his success in the war and return to his kingdom is refreshing and joyful. The story is magical, Hanuman could fly to the magical mountain; his rescue of Sita and uproot the mountain, the devotion of Lakshmana shows his magnanimity and most importantly, Rāvaṇa the evil king of Lanka led to the rise of an ideal king of dharma. Sita is the queen of the Hindu womanhood, and her devotion to Rama was unflinching.

It is not uncommon in mythology to create elaborate stories around historic heroic figures to elevate them to the level of gods who have time and again formed the basis for the development of religious sects. The same was true with the Greeks who created their gods. In the epic Iliad, there are mentioned more gods than what is mentioned in the Rāmāyaṇa. A critical comparative examination of ancient epics and narratives within a historical context will provide a reasonable understanding and interpretation of the epic.

Rāmāyaṇa created a god out of a person, and it did not matter whether he ruled a small or a big kingdom, whether Kaikeyi loved or hated Rama, whether Ravana was a real demon with ten heads, or whether Sita was born in Nepal or India, or whether Rama built the bridge to Sri Lanka. Rama’s banishment was unjust, the personality of Kaikeyi, Manthara are ugly, unnerving, Dasaratha’s guilt, his obligations, and despondency impactful.

In the forest, far from the anguish of family politics, the moral imagination of Rama and Sita has expanded. As honored guests of the forest and its inhabitants, they begin to reconsider what it means to be human-not divine, armed and separate from the earthly habitat, but mortal, disarmed and in harmony with nature. The visual images are hypnotic. They are not merely illustrations, but condense different narrative incidents leading up to a crucial moment.

Sita is a vital moral presence whose imagination is alert to the strangeness and wonder of the forest world. She understands that here is something profound and essential for a life to be called good life from which all social, traditional, or religious presuppositions have been erased. For instance, before meeting Jatayu, Rama had promised Agastya he would kill the asuras. Overcoming her shyness, Sita tells Rama that while he is the embodiment of dharma his vow is morally wrong. The desire for power can lead to adharma, she says. In her hierarchy of evil acts, three are particularly dangerous. Telling lies is bad and adultery is shameful. It is a moment of ethical choice for Rama; of reconsidering human responsibilities and duties and she wants Rama to think and act like an ideal he aspires to be rather than a theologically bound prince. With respect and love, Sita tells Rama a story about how violence destroys an ethical man. Sita's moral stature is thus equal to that of Rama's.

Dramatic aspects of emotion, conversation, ethics, idealism, were woven around as the story of Rama was an oral tradition that was spread by word of mouth. They were enacted in folk theaters, and given detailed content in Valmiki’s Ramayana dynamically adapted to social and cultural changes. The narrative enforce the people with meaning - religious, theological through poems, Sanskrit writings, and folk stories. Valmiki’s epic poem (ca. 750–500 BCE) was enticing for generations. Hence we encounter a number of Rāmāyaṇa, produced – written, painted, sculpted, enacted with vividness, on a human and divine level.

There is truth and beauty in them due to philosophical, spiritual, real and fictious portraits, that provides an unending theme to the artist. In it we find the power of imagination - a variety of emotions of grief, longing ecstasy, vindictiveness. Subjects, kings, parents, children all can relate to it. It realizes the complexities of life; faithfulness, dharma, righteousness, filial piety, martial power, governance, land and leadership. The dramatization of Ram Lila dramatization, a fostered divinization. The Hanuman chalisā shaped the world of the medieval. The imaginary of ordinary folk was important .The institutional frameworks and environments in which these artistic works exist are multiple and serve as a methodological tool for understanding folk art practices from India, for they are often found in local communities, museums, private collections, or the handicraft market simultaneously.

==Arts, Sacredness and Divinization==
The epic is dramatic; it is a story to focus upon in drama, theater, dance, music, painting, sculpture, metal work and textiles. Emotional and intellectual content was appealing to all arts. Deification of Rama was achieved through various means, narrative, enactments, ethics, belief, drama and folk lore and particularly via artistic media - in visual and performing arts all considered on an equal plane.

In Indian folklore, songs, oral traditions and practices, the popular worship of Ram and Sita as one entity has existed from time immemorial. Mela of Rāmāyaṇa promotes the original Awadhi composed by Tulsidas between 16th and 17th centuries CE. Other rishis such as Rishi Valmiki, Acharya Vasishtha, Rishi Vishwamitra, Agastya Muni, Nishad, Jatayu and Mata Sabri were minor deities. Bhajans and Kirtans, the Ramcharit Manas Path, and Sunderkand, Ram Stuti are recited and followed by Shuddh Nritya (pure dance) including todas, paran, tukada, tihai and jugalbandi are enacted.

On the walls of temples, in the Pappanatha in Pattadakal, are embodiments of the story, in the paintings in Mewar, on textiles are the combat of Rama and Ravana, prints of Raja Ravi Verma, and on photographs of devotion. Mewar, Kishangarh, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Chamba, Kangra or Guler assumed that the paintings had merit because they were illustrations of either religious motifs, legendary heroes, courtly life or decorative styles. This gave miniature art a social, moral and sacred purpose. It succeeded in making miniature paintings part of our social, moral world.

The artist created his sublime visions. Sita is a simple lady, compassionate, and listens to Jatayu’s tales. The forest is sacred, with birds, deer, trees. Nature is seen through beauty. Arts capture the peaceful, the tranquil, and the elementary. Models of goodness that avert tragedy were portrayed. Ravana with his multiple heads and arms, his golden palace as a dramatic battle can be seen on stage, poetry and paintings. The waking of Kumbhakarna and his going to the battle is hillarious. Hanuman’s journey to obtain the herb and taking back the entire mountain on his back as he soars through the air is captivating. The story telling devices in paintings of perceptual, conceptual view and continuous narration is common in Indian arts. The artist's facility in organizing the space is remarkable. A sense of balance Himalaya in search of the special herb that will save between the figures, landscape is depicted with a sense of time and space.

Many times when patronized by kings had a political function of propaganda as it was with the Rajputs. In the temple complex of Prambanan Indonesia is the iconographical programme with innumerable narrative scenes from the epic patronized by kings. The temple houses an outstanding iconographic program in its architecture, comprising scenes from the epic. Ramayana has disseminated across many parts of Southeast Asia in different ways, irrespective of the religious beliefs of these societies. Lanka is associated with Ravana and Sita’s vana.

The plant sanjivani - a herbal medicine that Lord Hanuman brought by lifting the mountain on which it was planted to cure Lord Ram's brother Lakshman) from Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was central to the Hindu epic the Ramayana, being the scene of the battle between the Indian king Rama and the Sri Lankan Ravana. The epic had an important place in the unlikeliest places in Southern Sri Lanka, the Muslim Malay community. In Java, as in the rest of South East Asia and became a part of the local folk culture from the 9th C. CE onwards. Given that it spans more than one kind of society, the epic was immensely popular both as a linear narrative of the heroic as well as in the embroidered intricacies of the stories, all of which led to Rama being a God, avatar of Vishnu that changed the character of the epic.

==Conclusion==

The Ramanayan is an integral part of Indian culture. It is an epic of unending themes that arose within an historical and cultural context. The dramatic narrative weaved royalty, leadership, narrative, family life and values simultaneously. The interaction between ideology, narrative, and artistic traditions substantiated relevant values of cultural life. Ultimately Rama deified as a god that was equally relevant during the early medieval period. It was a dynamic method that reverberated and sustained kings, kingdoms and the populace in ancient and medieval times.

The narrative unfolds chronologically keeping in mind the human aspect of Rama as well as his ideology. The collective psychology of the people that needed the story of Rama and its spread and spatial occurrence is not a new phenomenon in the ancient world. History was made intelligible through folk lore, locale, drama and visual arts and geographical locale that was an outgrowth of earlier cultural process.
There is a range of texts, beliefs, and practices regarding the ritual and divine status of the image. A single sculpture possesses a range of possible meanings and significations depending upon its cultural context. It is essential to recognize the importance of the arts as influential factors for the sacredness of the epic. Historians need to recognize this fact and value its importance for a multitude of purposes. Narratives and arts acted together, and are interwoven in the religious, social, political, artistic, philosophical realms. The history of this interaction between Hindu imagery and practitioners, priests, curators, reformers, leaders can be still found today.

Rama and Sita should be viewed together by historians as it was and is in public consciousness. From ancient times, Rama and Sita preserved in public and historical memory suggests a discourse based on an ordered society. – on ideas of duty, compassion, and service. They are are cultural icons. Rama as an ideal leader and king. Sita is often seen as the uniting force, the ideal and keeper of dharma and human love. In Indian folklore, songs, oral traditions and practices, arts and the popular worship of Ram and Sita as one entity has existed from long.

A comparative understanding of the particular circumstances that led to the rise of the Rama will provide an accurate understanding of the hero. Ramayana is not a purana. The nature and function of an epic is tremendous, its spread, retention in collective memory, territorial relation, imaginative literature, substantiation in artistic modes is tremendous. Literary masterpieces are a product of historical circumstances and more research can be directed to the historical period.

Rāmāyaṇa where ideology and arts meet narrative and historical context

2024-01-20T04:26:19Z

Deval Sancheti: /* Dramatization of Themes */

By Nalini Rao, Assoc. Prof. of World Arts, SUA, CA 

The epic, Rāmāyaṇa, is a living topic of contemporary relevance. It constitutes a substantial part of Indian historical collective memory that influenced the socio-cultural, religious, and political landscape of India to a large extent. Hence, creative minds through ages and across different cross-sections of Indian society have re-interpreted and re-created the epic narrative in varied forms through diverse media. This article examines the interaction between ideology, narrative and historical context with artistic traditions that substantiated relevant values of cultural life. History was made intelligible through religious and social values, visual arts, and geographical locale. Thus, there was a transformation of the protagonist, Rama, into a divinity that resulted in his icons in Hindu temples. Numerous stories about Rama were an outgrowth of an earlier cultural process that ultimately became a dynamic method that sustained kings, kingdoms and the populace.

==Introduction==
The Sanskrit epic Rāmāyaṇa is divided into seven cantos with 24,000 verses. It is the story of Rama, prince of Ayodhya. He is about to be crowned king when Kaikeyi, one of the wives of his father, Dasaratha, demands that her son Bharata be crowned instead. Rama is forced into exile with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana. In the forest, Ravana the king of Lanka, who has coveted Sita, abducts her. Rama assembles an army of monkeys and they invade Lanka, killing Ravana and rescuing Sita. She proves her chastity through a trial by fire. After fourteen years, Rama finally rules Ayodhya, leading to a golden age.

The epic itself, like many Indic texts, is highly revered as religious text. It is one of the earliest and most influential Vaiṣṇava texts, and literary work that is not only a great poem but indeed the very first poem and the forerunner of all subsequent poetry. The story has variations in Indian and S.E.Asian history. Texts on Rāmāyaṇa range from 7th century BCE to 4th century BCE. The most authoritative one was written by Valmiki in Sanskrit in 2nd, century BCE. In the 16th century ACE, it was rewritten by Tulsidas in the 16th century Awadhi dialect under the title Rāmacharitamānas.

There are innumerable versions of the tale; to name a few, they include the 12th-century Tamil language Rāmāvataram, 12th-century Kannada Rāmachandra Charitapurāṇa or Pampa Rāmāyaṇa by Nagachandra, 13th-century Telugu language Sri Ranganatha Rāmāyaṇam, 16th-century Rāmcharitmānas, and the 17th-century Adhyathmarāmāyaṇam Kilippattu. There have been many commentaries in Sanskrit on the epics from the 11th C to the 17th century ACE examining their meaning and intention. For example, a substantial tradition of writing narratives based on the life of lord Rama, which can be traced in Kashmiri literature as early as the 19th century. Around seven Rāmāyaṇas are available namely:
# Rāmāvatāracharita (1847)
# Shankar-Rāmāyaṇa (1870)
# Vishnupratap-Rāmāyaṇa (1904-14)
# Ānanda Rāmavatāracharita (1888)
# Rāmmāyan-i-Sharma (1919-26)
# Tarachand Rāmāyaṇa (1926-27)
# Amar-Rāmāyaṇa (1950)

Ramavatāracharit, which is available in published form, is the most well-known and significant of these. Among the available and unavailable Rāmāyaṇas of Kashmiri mentioned above, 'Rāmavatāracharit ' has a special place in Kashmiri literature and stands out for its popularity. In S.E Asia are the Khmer Reamker, the Old Javanese Kakawin Rāmāyaṇa; the Thai Ramakien, the Lao Phra Lak Phra Lam; and the Burmese Yama Zatdaw.

==Historicity==
There are many reasons to consider the epic or a part of it as historical truth. Rāma, is portrayed as a living personality; he suffered mental, emotional and physical pain to which ordinary mortals are prey but he is also as an ideal king. Secondly historicity as we understand it today, was not of much concern to the authors and audience of past times; it was an oral tradition which was considered as a historical document. The journey of the triad and territorial identity should be included by the historian noting that past documents could have been lost. The Valmiki Rāmāyaṇa in its original form was an oral narrative which became a sacred book and a text on dharma. There is reason to believe that some part of it happened in the past. It was refashioned time and again to convert into a religious text or for other purposes. Rāma who is worshipped as the supreme form and main manifestation of Vishnu did not rise into prominence before the 11th and 12th Centuries CE.

==Oral Tradition to Narrative==
There are several versions of the Rāmāyaṇa that vary according to historical period, regional literary tradition, religious affiliation and political and social context. The original text, an epic composed by bards, was recited at sacrificial rituals, during feasts and the courts of the kings (rajas). The hero, Rama, rules from the city of Ayodhya over the kingdom of Kosala situated in the middle Ganges plain, claims descent from the solar dynasty. Rama is the chief of the righteous fighting against Ravana, a demon who fills the world with terror. Rama is the personification of an ideal king and his reign is symbolic in social memory, being a period of prosperity that has the term in Rāma-rājya.

==History or Myth==
Tales of the king’s adventures through the journey can be read as we see the architecture and arts in Ayodhya, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Hampi and Anegundi. From Rishyamuk Parbat to King Bali’s cave, local folklore connects many spots to the stories in the Ramayana. That he was deified as a god was equally relevant during the early medieval period as found in artistic traditions of sculpture and architecture.

Naturally a question mark has been put about the reality of incidences that has been narrated in the text. The debate whether the king Rama, is a mythical character or a real-life ruler can run on for hours. The spreading of the epic throughout the human society from years after years was accompanied orally by many disciples from generation to generation. As it had been carried through oral recitation there was a lot of possibilities of addition and alteration at different stages of such progress.

But an inevitable question always arises whether the personality of Rāma mentioned in the epic is fact or fictitious? So, always there is a question mark whether the epic contains any historical fact, or it is a simple epic novel? It is quite evident that there are several portions found in the story which seems to be exaggerated. The composed verse was being spread from generation to generation through preceptors. During the passage of long journey quote from memory addition and alteration were incorporated. However, aggrandizement and magnification was a very common issue in the ancient period and can be compared to what was in ancient Greece. Thus it is difficult to dismiss it as mythology. There are many archaeological sources that have been lost, given the heavy building layered activity in areas associated with the Rāmāyaṇa. While positive evidences have been found regarding the Mahābhārata <ref>It particularly denotes in Dvaraka by the archaeologist, Dr. S.R. Rao.</ref> it is possible that some evidence will be found about Rāmāyaṇa in the future.

==Historical Context==
The question that should be asked is what was the historical circumstances that led to the rise of the hero and might have happened in the context of ancient Indian historical evidence. The reason that there are different versions of it is that it was an oral tradition<ref>Similar to the Iliad in Greece.</ref> and hence the poets’ imagination of an ideal king reigns supreme. However, it might have been true that Rama was a more compassionate leader than earlier ones. Secondly there was a reason why people had collective memory and built upon the ideology of Rama, his personality, and the narrative stories that were told and retold. They struck a chord to every class and group of people. A glance at the ancient historical period of various cultures gives us an idea why epics and narratives were exaggerated or held in historical memory. It was the historical context in which Rāma ruled that made him an ideal king, perhaps due to many wars or confusion, jealousies, intrigues, tribals, forest areas, that occur in the epic.

The historical circumstances during the post Indus Valley and pre-Buddhist period, the post second urbanization era, rise of kingdoms, strife at various levels probably contributed to his rise. Historically during a troubled period of confusion, a leader with values made sense. The epic was created with an adventure - a variety of personal, public, and popular themes and ideals.

The intervention by Rāma for a degenerating society; his enlightened way of living was the ideal. Historical circumstances probably provoked it as it had done during the ancient Greek period, when Homer wrote the Iliad. Authors exaggerated the accomplishments of the king, his ideals, his humanistic values of a king who stood for some sort of an ideal of dharma and justices. Society was perhaps, illogical, and unjust; elders were not respected; there was discord between man and nature, self and society. There was a quest for the infinite that provided a basis for understanding behavior and relationships, social relations, norms, practices, interests conflicts, difference of opinions, which was idealized by Rāma through respect, love and sacrifice. The epic built a social system that discouraged selfishness, anger, hate, greed, lust particularly among family members and turned towards stability through individual and social values of patience, tolerance, and duty.

Rama’s heroism was not merely on the battlefield but on his sacrifices and ideals that were magnified in the epic. It was going to be a golden Age where hope comes back; a peaceful era, with wealth and harvest and renewal. Rāma stood for renovation, continuity and preservation of ancient values. There was hope for man. It is not surprising that they associated him to be an avatār of Vishnu, the god of Preservation.

A cultural context normally gives rise to unknown events, unique leaders as it was in Greece. Perhaps, there was famine or environmental disturbances during the period; there might have been problems with village economies and hunger, and the hero promised release from these. History has been what is relevant, and useful in collective memory not what was necessarily written in India, which is differenct from western viewpoint. History (like art) constructs what is educative, useful, dramatic and enlightening.

Indian culture recognized the insecurity in man, environment and injustices. It strove to elaborate a condition and an atmosphere that portrayed stability, to reflect upon what is right and wrong. The Rāmāyaṇa provided the theoretical and peaceful structure for Indian culture. To the unlettered, purely as a narrative of India, it provided roots to tap into many places which were named by kings with sites associated with the epic, that lent a sacredness to the local territory. In UP and Bihar, stories were appropriated as their own story, providing a sense of history. Lanka, Nepal, Karnataka and several other places were associated with the epic.

Rāma, among royalty, has reinforced a certain image of political leadership and kingly power that stood for an ideology of respect, righteous leadership and a peaceful life. Hence later kings called themselves as Rāma. The Guptas, Chalukyas, Gangas, Cholas and Rajputs, all considered themselves as Rāma and renamed their territories as one of the sites related to Rāmāyaṇa.

==Dramatization of Themes==
Survival demanded imagination. The epic of Rāmāyaṇa is particularly interesting in its various themes, namely, the leadership of a king, his trials and tribulations, and his success. The Rāmāyaṇa evokes emotional and intellectual interests. Whether it is the Surpanakha’s episode or Bali-Sugriva duel, or for that matter, Vibhishan’s role in bringing down the downfall of his brother, the writers have not navigated the space between the right and the wrong.

The impact of the epic is due to numerous reasons. The narrative of Rāma in the forest evokes sympathy, his success in the war and return to his kingdom is refreshing and joyful. The story is magical, Hanuman could fly to the magical mountain; his rescue of Sita and uproot the mountain, the devotion of Lakshmana shows his magnanimity and most importantly, Rāvaṇa the evil king of Lanka led to the rise of an ideal king of dharma. Sita is the queen of the Hindu womanhood, and her devotion to Rama was unflinching.

It is not uncommon in mythology to create elaborate stories around historic heroic figures to elevate them to the level of gods who have time and again formed the basis for the development of religious sects. The same was true with the Greeks who created their gods. In the epic Iliad, there are mentioned more gods than what is mentioned in the Rāmāyaṇa. A critical comparative examination of ancient epics and narratives within a historical context will provide a reasonable understanding and interpretation of the epic.

Rāmāyaṇa created a god out of a person, and it did not matter whether he ruled a small or a big kingdom, whether Kaikeyi loved or hated Rama, whether Ravana was a real demon with ten heads, or whether Sita was born in Nepal or India, or whether Rama built the bridge to Sri Lanka. Rama’s banishment was unjust, the personality of Kaikeyi, Manthara are ugly, unnerving, Dasaratha’s guilt, his obligations, and despondency impactful.

In the forest, far from the anguish of family politics, the moral imagination of Rama and Sita has expanded. As honored guests of the forest and its inhabitants, they begin to reconsider what it means to be human-not divine, armed and separate from the earthly habitat, but mortal, disarmed and in harmony with nature. The visual images are hypnotic. They are not merely illustrations, but condense different narrative incidents leading up to a crucial moment.

Sita is a vital moral presence whose imagination is alert to the strangeness and wonder of the forest world. She understands that here is something profound and essential for a life to be called good life from which all social, traditional, or religious presuppositions have been erased. For instance, before meeting Jatayu, Rama had promised Agastya he would kill the asuras. Overcoming her shyness, Sita tells Rama that while he is the embodiment of dharma his vow is morally wrong. The desire for power can lead to adharma, she says. In her hierarchy of evil acts, three are particularly dangerous. Telling lies is bad and adultery is shameful. It is a moment of ethical choice for Rama; of reconsidering human responsibilities and duties and she wants Rama to think and act like an ideal he aspires to be rather than a theologically bound prince. With respect and love, Sita tells Rama a story about how violence destroys an ethical man. Sita's moral stature is thus equal to that of Rama's.

Dramatic aspects of emotion, conversation, ethics, idealism, were woven around as the story of Rama was an oral tradition that was spread by word of mouth. They were enacted in folk theaters, and given detailed content in Valmiki’s Ramayana dynamically adapted to social and cultural changes. The narrative enforce the people with meaning - religious, theological through poems, Sanskrit writings, and folk stories. Valmiki’s epic poem (ca. 750–500 BCE) was enticing for generations. Hence we encounter a number of Rāmāyaṇa, produced – written, painted, sculpted, enacted with vividness, on a human and divine level.

There is truth and beauty in them due to philosophical, spiritual, real and fictious portraits, that provides an unending theme to the artist. In it we find the power of imagination - a variety of emotions of grief, longing ecstasy, vindictiveness. Subjects, kings, parents, children all can relate to it. It realizes the complexities of life; faithfulness, dharma, righteousness, filial piety, martial power, governance, land and leadership. The dramatization of Ram Lila dramatization, a fostered divinization. The Hanuman chalisā shaped the world of the medieval. The imaginary of ordinary folk was important .The institutional frameworks and environments in which these artistic works exist are multiple and serve as a methodological tool for understanding folk art practices from India, for they are often found in local communities, museums, private collections, or the handicraft market simultaneously.

==Arts, Sacredness and Divinization==
The epic is dramatic; it is a story to focus upon in drama, theater, dance, music, painting, sculpture, metal work and textiles. Emotional and intellectual content was appealing to all arts. Deification of Rama was achieved through various means, narrative, enactments, ethics, belief, drama and folk lore and particularly via artistic media - in visual and performing arts all considered on an equal plane.

In Indian folklore, songs, oral traditions and practices, the popular worship of Ram and Sita as one entity has existed from time immemorial. Mela of Ramayana promotes the original Awadhi composed by Tulsidas between 16th and 17th centuries CE. Other rishis such as Rishi Valmiki, Acharya Vasishtha, Rishi Vishwamitra, Agastya Muni, Nishad, Jatayu and Mata Sabri were minor deities. Bhajans and Kirtans, the Ramcharit Manas Path, and Sunderkand, Ram Stuti are recited and followed by Shuddh Nritya (pure dance) including todas, paran, tukada, tihai and jugalbandi are enacted.

On the walls of temples, in the Pappanatha in Pattadakal, are embodiments of the story, in the paintings in Mewar, on textiles are the combat of Rama and Ravana, prints of Raja Ravi Verma, and on photographs of devotion. Mewar, Kishangarh, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Chamba, Kangra or Guler assumed that the paintings had merit because they were illustrations of either religious motifs, legendary heroes, courtly life or decorative styles. This gave miniature art a social, moral and sacred purpose. It succeeded in making miniature paintings part of our social, moral world.

The artist created his sublime visions. Sita is a simple lady, compassionate, and listens to Jatayu’s tales. The forest is sacred, with birds, deer, trees. Nature is seen through beauty. Arts capture the peaceful, the tranquil, and the elementary. Models of goodness that avert tragedy were portrayed. Ravana with his multiple heads and arms, his golden palace as a dramatic battle can be seen on stage, poetry and paintings. The waking of Kumbhakarna and his going to the battle is hillarious. Hanuman’s journey to obtain the herb and taking back the entire mountain on his back as he soars through the air is captivating.
The story telling devices in paintings - of perceptual, conceptual view and continuous narration is common in Indian arts. The artist's facility in organizing the space is remarkable. A sense of balance Himalaya in search of the special herb that will save between the figures, landscape is depicted with a sense of time and space.

Many times when patronized by kings had a political function of propaganda as it was with the Rajputs. In the temple complex of Prambanan Indonesia is the iconographical programme with innumerable narrative scenes from the epic patronized by kings. The temple houses an outstanding iconographic programme in its architecture, comprising scenes from the epic. Ramayana has disseminated across many parts of Southeast Asia in different ways, irrespective of the religious beliefs of these societies. Lanka is associated with Ravana and Sita’s vana. The plant sanjivani - a herbal medicine that Lord Hanuman brought by lifting the mountain on which it was planted to cure Lord Ram's brother Lakshman) from Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was central to the Hindu epic the Ramayana, being the scene of the battle between the Indian king Rama and the Sri Lankan Ravana. The epic had an important place in the unlikeliest places in Southern Sri Lanka, the Muslim Malay community.In Java, as in the rest of South East Asia and became a part of the local folk culture from the 9th C. CE onwards.
Given that it spans more than one kind of society, the epic was immensely popular both as a linear narrative of the heroic as well as in the embroidered intricacies of the stories, all of which led to Rama being a God, avatar of Vishnu that changed the character of the epic.

==Conclusion==

The Ramanayan is an integral part of Indian culture. It is an epic of unending themes that arose within an historical and cultural context. The dramatic narrative weaved royalty, leadership, narrative, family life and values simultaneously. The interaction between ideology, narrative, and artistic traditions substantiated relevant values of cultural life. Ultimately Rama deified as a god that was equally relevant during the early medieval period. It was a dynamic method that reverberated and sustained kings, kingdoms and the populace in ancient and medieval times.

The narrative unfolds chronologically keeping in mind the human aspect of Rama as well as his ideology. The collective psychology of the people that needed the story of Rama and its spread and spatial occurrence is not a new phenomenon in the ancient world. History was made intelligible through folk lore, locale, drama and visual arts and geographical locale that was an outgrowth of earlier cultural process.
There is a range of texts, beliefs, and practices regarding the ritual and divine status of the image. A single sculpture possesses a range of possible meanings and significations depending upon its cultural context. It is essential to recognize the importance of the arts as influential factors for the sacredness of the epic. Historians need to recognize this fact and value its importance for a multitude of purposes. Narratives and arts acted together, and are interwoven in the religious, social, political, artistic, philosophical realms. The history of this interaction between Hindu imagery and practitioners, priests, curators, reformers, leaders can be still found today.

Rama and Sita should be viewed together by historians as it was and is in public consciousness. From ancient times, Rama and Sita preserved in public and historical memory suggests a discourse based on an ordered society. – on ideas of duty, compassion, and service. They are are cultural icons. Rama as an ideal leader and king. Sita is often seen as the uniting force, the ideal and keeper of dharma and human love. In Indian folklore, songs, oral traditions and practices, arts and the popular worship of Ram and Sita as one entity has existed from long.

A comparative understanding of the particular circumstances that led to the rise of the Rama will provide an accurate understanding of the hero. Ramayana is not a purana. The nature and function of an epic is tremendous, its spread, retention in collective memory, territorial relation, imaginative literature, substantiation in artistic modes is tremendous. Literary masterpieces are a product of historical circumstances and more research can be directed to the historical period.

Rāmāyaṇa where ideology and arts meet narrative and historical context

2024-01-20T04:11:08Z

Deval Sancheti: /* Historical Context */

By Nalini Rao, Assoc. Prof. of World Arts, SUA, CA 

The epic, Rāmāyaṇa, is a living topic of contemporary relevance. It constitutes a substantial part of Indian historical collective memory that influenced the socio-cultural, religious, and political landscape of India to a large extent. Hence, creative minds through ages and across different cross-sections of Indian society have re-interpreted and re-created the epic narrative in varied forms through diverse media. This article examines the interaction between ideology, narrative and historical context with artistic traditions that substantiated relevant values of cultural life. History was made intelligible through religious and social values, visual arts, and geographical locale. Thus, there was a transformation of the protagonist, Rama, into a divinity that resulted in his icons in Hindu temples. Numerous stories about Rama were an outgrowth of an earlier cultural process that ultimately became a dynamic method that sustained kings, kingdoms and the populace.

==Introduction==
The Sanskrit epic Rāmāyaṇa is divided into seven cantos with 24,000 verses. It is the story of Rama, prince of Ayodhya. He is about to be crowned king when Kaikeyi, one of the wives of his father, Dasaratha, demands that her son Bharata be crowned instead. Rama is forced into exile with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana. In the forest, Ravana the king of Lanka, who has coveted Sita, abducts her. Rama assembles an army of monkeys and they invade Lanka, killing Ravana and rescuing Sita. She proves her chastity through a trial by fire. After fourteen years, Rama finally rules Ayodhya, leading to a golden age.

The epic itself, like many Indic texts, is highly revered as religious text. It is one of the earliest and most influential Vaiṣṇava texts, and literary work that is not only a great poem but indeed the very first poem and the forerunner of all subsequent poetry. The story has variations in Indian and S.E.Asian history. Texts on Rāmāyaṇa range from 7th century BCE to 4th century BCE. The most authoritative one was written by Valmiki in Sanskrit in 2nd, century BCE. In the 16th century ACE, it was rewritten by Tulsidas in the 16th century Awadhi dialect under the title Rāmacharitamānas.

There are innumerable versions of the tale; to name a few, they include the 12th-century Tamil language Rāmāvataram, 12th-century Kannada Rāmachandra Charitapurāṇa or Pampa Rāmāyaṇa by Nagachandra, 13th-century Telugu language Sri Ranganatha Rāmāyaṇam, 16th-century Rāmcharitmānas, and the 17th-century Adhyathmarāmāyaṇam Kilippattu. There have been many commentaries in Sanskrit on the epics from the 11th C to the 17th century ACE examining their meaning and intention. For example, a substantial tradition of writing narratives based on the life of lord Rama, which can be traced in Kashmiri literature as early as the 19th century. Around seven Rāmāyaṇas are available namely:
# Rāmāvatāracharita (1847)
# Shankar-Rāmāyaṇa (1870)
# Vishnupratap-Rāmāyaṇa (1904-14)
# Ānanda Rāmavatāracharita (1888)
# Rāmmāyan-i-Sharma (1919-26)
# Tarachand Rāmāyaṇa (1926-27)
# Amar-Rāmāyaṇa (1950)

Ramavatāracharit, which is available in published form, is the most well-known and significant of these. Among the available and unavailable Rāmāyaṇas of Kashmiri mentioned above, 'Rāmavatāracharit ' has a special place in Kashmiri literature and stands out for its popularity. In S.E Asia are the Khmer Reamker, the Old Javanese Kakawin Rāmāyaṇa; the Thai Ramakien, the Lao Phra Lak Phra Lam; and the Burmese Yama Zatdaw.

==Historicity==
There are many reasons to consider the epic or a part of it as historical truth. Rāma, is portrayed as a living personality; he suffered mental, emotional and physical pain to which ordinary mortals are prey but he is also as an ideal king. Secondly historicity as we understand it today, was not of much concern to the authors and audience of past times; it was an oral tradition which was considered as a historical document. The journey of the triad and territorial identity should be included by the historian noting that past documents could have been lost. The Valmiki Rāmāyaṇa in its original form was an oral narrative which became a sacred book and a text on dharma. There is reason to believe that some part of it happened in the past. It was refashioned time and again to convert into a religious text or for other purposes. Rāma who is worshipped as the supreme form and main manifestation of Vishnu did not rise into prominence before the 11th and 12th Centuries CE.

==Oral Tradition to Narrative==
There are several versions of the Rāmāyaṇa that vary according to historical period, regional literary tradition, religious affiliation and political and social context. The original text, an epic composed by bards, was recited at sacrificial rituals, during feasts and the courts of the kings (rajas). The hero, Rama, rules from the city of Ayodhya over the kingdom of Kosala situated in the middle Ganges plain, claims descent from the solar dynasty. Rama is the chief of the righteous fighting against Ravana, a demon who fills the world with terror. Rama is the personification of an ideal king and his reign is symbolic in social memory, being a period of prosperity that has the term in Rāma-rājya.

==History or Myth==
Tales of the king’s adventures through the journey can be read as we see the architecture and arts in Ayodhya, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Hampi and Anegundi. From Rishyamuk Parbat to King Bali’s cave, local folklore connects many spots to the stories in the Ramayana. That he was deified as a god was equally relevant during the early medieval period as found in artistic traditions of sculpture and architecture.

Naturally a question mark has been put about the reality of incidences that has been narrated in the text. The debate whether the king Rama, is a mythical character or a real-life ruler can run on for hours. The spreading of the epic throughout the human society from years after years was accompanied orally by many disciples from generation to generation. As it had been carried through oral recitation there was a lot of possibilities of addition and alteration at different stages of such progress.

But an inevitable question always arises whether the personality of Rāma mentioned in the epic is fact or fictitious? So, always there is a question mark whether the epic contains any historical fact, or it is a simple epic novel? It is quite evident that there are several portions found in the story which seems to be exaggerated. The composed verse was being spread from generation to generation through preceptors. During the passage of long journey quote from memory addition and alteration were incorporated. However, aggrandizement and magnification was a very common issue in the ancient period and can be compared to what was in ancient Greece. Thus it is difficult to dismiss it as mythology. There are many archaeological sources that have been lost, given the heavy building layered activity in areas associated with the Rāmāyaṇa. While positive evidences have been found regarding the Mahābhārata <ref>It particularly denotes in Dvaraka by the archaeologist, Dr. S.R. Rao.</ref> it is possible that some evidence will be found about Rāmāyaṇa in the future.

==Historical Context==
The question that should be asked is what was the historical circumstances that led to the rise of the hero and might have happened in the context of ancient Indian historical evidence. The reason that there are different versions of it is that it was an oral tradition<ref>Similar to the Iliad in Greece.</ref> and hence the poets’ imagination of an ideal king reigns supreme. However, it might have been true that Rama was a more compassionate leader than earlier ones. Secondly there was a reason why people had collective memory and built upon the ideology of Rama, his personality, and the narrative stories that were told and retold. They struck a chord to every class and group of people. A glance at the ancient historical period of various cultures gives us an idea why epics and narratives were exaggerated or held in historical memory. It was the historical context in which Rāma ruled that made him an ideal king, perhaps due to many wars or confusion, jealousies, intrigues, tribals, forest areas, that occur in the epic.

The historical circumstances during the post Indus Valley and pre-Buddhist period, the post second urbanization era, rise of kingdoms, strife at various levels probably contributed to his rise. Historically during a troubled period of confusion, a leader with values made sense. The epic was created with an adventure - a variety of personal, public, and popular themes and ideals.

The intervention by Rāma for a degenerating society; his enlightened way of living was the ideal. Historical circumstances probably provoked it as it had done during the ancient Greek period, when Homer wrote the Iliad. Authors exaggerated the accomplishments of the king, his ideals, his humanistic values of a king who stood for some sort of an ideal of dharma and justices. Society was perhaps, illogical, and unjust; elders were not respected; there was discord between man and nature, self and society. There was a quest for the infinite that provided a basis for understanding behavior and relationships, social relations, norms, practices, interests conflicts, difference of opinions, which was idealized by Rāma through respect, love and sacrifice. The epic built a social system that discouraged selfishness, anger, hate, greed, lust particularly among family members and turned towards stability through individual and social values of patience, tolerance, and duty.

Rama’s heroism was not merely on the battlefield but on his sacrifices and ideals that were magnified in the epic. It was going to be a golden Age where hope comes back; a peaceful era, with wealth and harvest and renewal. Rāma stood for renovation, continuity and preservation of ancient values. There was hope for man. It is not surprising that they associated him to be an avatār of Vishnu, the god of Preservation.

A cultural context normally gives rise to unknown events, unique leaders as it was in Greece. Perhaps, there was famine or environmental disturbances during the period; there might have been problems with village economies and hunger, and the hero promised release from these. History has been what is relevant, and useful in collective memory not what was necessarily written in India, which is differenct from western viewpoint. History (like art) constructs what is educative, useful, dramatic and enlightening.

Indian culture recognized the insecurity in man, environment and injustices. It strove to elaborate a condition and an atmosphere that portrayed stability, to reflect upon what is right and wrong. The Rāmāyaṇa provided the theoretical and peaceful structure for Indian culture. To the unlettered, purely as a narrative of India, it provided roots to tap into many places which were named by kings with sites associated with the epic, that lent a sacredness to the local territory. In UP and Bihar, stories were appropriated as their own story, providing a sense of history. Lanka, Nepal, Karnataka and several other places were associated with the epic.

Rāma, among royalty, has reinforced a certain image of political leadership and kingly power that stood for an ideology of respect, righteous leadership and a peaceful life. Hence later kings called themselves as Rāma. The Guptas, Chalukyas, Gangas, Cholas and Rajputs, all considered themselves as Rāma and renamed their territories as one of the sites related to Rāmāyaṇa.

==Dramatization of Themes==
Survival demanded imagination. The epic of Ramayana is particularly interesting in its various themes – namely – the leadership of a king, his trials and tribulations, and his success. The Ramayana evokes emotional and intellectual interests. Whether it is the Surpanakha’s episode or Bali-Sugriva duel, or for that matter, Vibhishan’s role in bringing down the downfall of his brother, the writers have not navigated the space between the right and the wrong.
The impact of the epic is due to numerous reasons. The narrative of Rama in the forest evokes sympathy, his success in the war and return to his kingdom is refreshing and joyful. The story is magical, Hanuman could fly to the magical mountain; his rescue of Sita and uproot the mountain, the devotion of Lakshmana shows his magnanimity and most importantly, Ravana the evil king of Lanka led to the rise of an ideal king of dharma. Sita is the queen of the Hindu woman -hood, and her devotion to Rama was unflinching.

It is not uncommon in mythology to create elaborate stories around historic heroic figures to elevate them to the level of gods who have time and again formed the basis for the development of religious sects. The same was true with the Greeks who created their gods. In the epic Iliad, there are mentioned more gods than what is mentioned in the Ramayana. A critical comparative examination of ancient epics and narratives within a historical context will provide a reasonable understanding and interpretation of the epic.

Ramayana created a god out of a person, and it did not matter whether he ruled a small or a big kingdom, whether Kaikeyi loved or hated Rama, whether Ravana was a real demon with ten heads, or whether Sita was born in Nepal or India, or whether Rama built the bridge to Sri Lanka. Rama’s banishment was unjust, the personality of Kaikeyi, Manthara are ugly, unnerving, Dasaratha’s guilt, his obligations, and despondency impactful.

In the forest, far from the anguish of family politics, the moral imagination of Rama and Sita has expanded. As honoured guests of the forest and its inhabitants, they begin to reconsider what it means to be human-not divine, armed and separate from the earthly habitat, but mortal, disarmed and in harmony with nature. The visual images are hypnotic. They are not merely illustrations, but condense different narrative incidents leading up to a crucial moment.

Sita is a vital moral presence whose imagination is alert to the strangeness and wonder of the forest world. She understands that here is something profound and essential for a life to be called good life from which all social, traditional, or religious presuppositions have been erased. For instance, before meeting Jatayu, Rama had promised Agastya he would kill the asuras. Overcoming her shyness, Sita tells Rama that while he is the embodiment of dharma his vow is morally wrong. The desire for power can lead to adharma, she says. In her hierarchy of evil acts, three are particularly dangerous. Telling lies is bad and adultery is shameful. It is a moment of ethical choice for Rama; of reconsidering human responsibilities and duties and she wants Rama to think and act like an ideal he aspires to be rather than a theologically bound prince. With respect and love, Sita tells Rama a story about how violence destroys an ethical man. Sita's moral stature is thus equal to that of Rama's.

Dramatic aspects of emotion, conversation, ethics, idealism, were woven around as the story of Rama was an oral tradition that was spread by word of mouth. They were enacted in folk theaters, and given detailed content in Valmiki’s Ramayana dynamically adapted to social and cultural changes.
The narrative enforce the people with meaning - religious, theological through poems, Sanskrit writings, and folk stories. Valmiki’s epic poem (ca. 750–500 BCE) was enticing for generations. Hence we encounter a number of Ramanayanas, produced – written, painted, sculpted, enacted with vividness, on a human and divine level. There is truth and beauty in them due to philosophical , spiritual, real and fictious portraits , that provides an unending theme to the artist. In it we find the power of imagination—a variety of emotions - of grief, longing ecstasy, vindictiveness. Subjects, kings, parents, children all can relate to it. It realizes the complexties of life; faithfulness, dharma, righteousness, filial piety, martial power, governance, land and leadership. The dramatization of Ram Lila dramatisation — a— fostered divinzation. The Hanuman chalisa shaped the world of the medieval.

The imaginary of ordinary folk was important .The institutional frameworks and environments in which these artistic works exist are multiple and serve as a methodological tool for understanding folk art practices from India, for they are often found in local communities, museums, private collections, or the handicraft market simultaneously.

==Arts, Sacredness and Divinization==
The epic is dramatic; it is a story to focus upon in drama, theater, dance, music, painting, sculpture, metal work and textiles. Emotional and intellectual content was appealing to all arts. Deification of Rama was achieved through various means, narrative, enactments, ethics, belief, drama and folk lore and particularly via artistic media - in visual and performing arts all considered on an equal plane.

In Indian folklore, songs, oral traditions and practices, the popular worship of Ram and Sita as one entity has existed from time immemorial. Mela of Ramayana promotes the original Awadhi composed by Tulsidas between 16th and 17th centuries CE. Other rishis such as Rishi Valmiki, Acharya Vasishtha, Rishi Vishwamitra, Agastya Muni, Nishad, Jatayu and Mata Sabri were minor deities. Bhajans and Kirtans, the Ramcharit Manas Path, and Sunderkand, Ram Stuti are recited and followed by Shuddh Nritya (pure dance) including todas, paran, tukada, tihai and jugalbandi are enacted.

On the walls of temples, in the Pappanatha in Pattadakal, are embodiments of the story, in the paintings in Mewar, on textiles are the combat of Rama and Ravana, prints of Raja Ravi Verma, and on photographs of devotion. Mewar, Kishangarh, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Chamba, Kangra or Guler assumed that the paintings had merit because they were illustrations of either religious motifs, legendary heroes, courtly life or decorative styles. This gave miniature art a social, moral and sacred purpose. It succeeded in making miniature paintings part of our social, moral world.

The artist created his sublime visions. Sita is a simple lady, compassionate, and listens to Jatayu’s tales. The forest is sacred, with birds, deer, trees. Nature is seen through beauty. Arts capture the peaceful, the tranquil, and the elementary. Models of goodness that avert tragedy were portrayed. Ravana with his multiple heads and arms, his golden palace as a dramatic battle can be seen on stage, poetry and paintings. The waking of Kumbhakarna and his going to the battle is hillarious. Hanuman’s journey to obtain the herb and taking back the entire mountain on his back as he soars through the air is captivating.
The story telling devices in paintings - of perceptual, conceptual view and continuous narration is common in Indian arts. The artist's facility in organizing the space is remarkable. A sense of balance Himalaya in search of the special herb that will save between the figures, landscape is depicted with a sense of time and space.

Many times when patronized by kings had a political function of propaganda as it was with the Rajputs. In the temple complex of Prambanan Indonesia is the iconographical programme with innumerable narrative scenes from the epic patronized by kings. The temple houses an outstanding iconographic programme in its architecture, comprising scenes from the epic. Ramayana has disseminated across many parts of Southeast Asia in different ways, irrespective of the religious beliefs of these societies. Lanka is associated with Ravana and Sita’s vana. The plant sanjivani - a herbal medicine that Lord Hanuman brought by lifting the mountain on which it was planted to cure Lord Ram's brother Lakshman) from Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was central to the Hindu epic the Ramayana, being the scene of the battle between the Indian king Rama and the Sri Lankan Ravana. The epic had an important place in the unlikeliest places in Southern Sri Lanka, the Muslim Malay community.In Java, as in the rest of South East Asia and became a part of the local folk culture from the 9th C. CE onwards.
Given that it spans more than one kind of society, the epic was immensely popular both as a linear narrative of the heroic as well as in the embroidered intricacies of the stories, all of which led to Rama being a God, avatar of Vishnu that changed the character of the epic.

==Conclusion==

The Ramanayan is an integral part of Indian culture. It is an epic of unending themes that arose within an historical and cultural context. The dramatic narrative weaved royalty, leadership, narrative, family life and values simultaneously. The interaction between ideology, narrative, and artistic traditions substantiated relevant values of cultural life. Ultimately Rama deified as a god that was equally relevant during the early medieval period. It was a dynamic method that reverberated and sustained kings, kingdoms and the populace in ancient and medieval times.

The narrative unfolds chronologically keeping in mind the human aspect of Rama as well as his ideology. The collective psychology of the people that needed the story of Rama and its spread and spatial occurrence is not a new phenomenon in the ancient world. History was made intelligible through folk lore, locale, drama and visual arts and geographical locale that was an outgrowth of earlier cultural process.
There is a range of texts, beliefs, and practices regarding the ritual and divine status of the image. A single sculpture possesses a range of possible meanings and significations depending upon its cultural context. It is essential to recognize the importance of the arts as influential factors for the sacredness of the epic. Historians need to recognize this fact and value its importance for a multitude of purposes. Narratives and arts acted together, and are interwoven in the religious, social, political, artistic, philosophical realms. The history of this interaction between Hindu imagery and practitioners, priests, curators, reformers, leaders can be still found today.

Rama and Sita should be viewed together by historians as it was and is in public consciousness. From ancient times, Rama and Sita preserved in public and historical memory suggests a discourse based on an ordered society. – on ideas of duty, compassion, and service. They are are cultural icons. Rama as an ideal leader and king. Sita is often seen as the uniting force, the ideal and keeper of dharma and human love. In Indian folklore, songs, oral traditions and practices, arts and the popular worship of Ram and Sita as one entity has existed from long.

A comparative understanding of the particular circumstances that led to the rise of the Rama will provide an accurate understanding of the hero. Ramayana is not a purana. The nature and function of an epic is tremendous, its spread, retention in collective memory, territorial relation, imaginative literature, substantiation in artistic modes is tremendous. Literary masterpieces are a product of historical circumstances and more research can be directed to the historical period.

Rāmāyaṇa where ideology and arts meet narrative and historical context

2024-01-20T03:54:10Z

Deval Sancheti: /* History or Myth */

By Nalini Rao, Assoc. Prof. of World Arts, SUA, CA 

The epic, Rāmāyaṇa, is a living topic of contemporary relevance. It constitutes a substantial part of Indian historical collective memory that influenced the socio-cultural, religious, and political landscape of India to a large extent. Hence, creative minds through ages and across different cross-sections of Indian society have re-interpreted and re-created the epic narrative in varied forms through diverse media. This article examines the interaction between ideology, narrative and historical context with artistic traditions that substantiated relevant values of cultural life. History was made intelligible through religious and social values, visual arts, and geographical locale. Thus, there was a transformation of the protagonist, Rama, into a divinity that resulted in his icons in Hindu temples. Numerous stories about Rama were an outgrowth of an earlier cultural process that ultimately became a dynamic method that sustained kings, kingdoms and the populace.

==Introduction==
The Sanskrit epic Rāmāyaṇa is divided into seven cantos with 24,000 verses. It is the story of Rama, prince of Ayodhya. He is about to be crowned king when Kaikeyi, one of the wives of his father, Dasaratha, demands that her son Bharata be crowned instead. Rama is forced into exile with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana. In the forest, Ravana the king of Lanka, who has coveted Sita, abducts her. Rama assembles an army of monkeys and they invade Lanka, killing Ravana and rescuing Sita. She proves her chastity through a trial by fire. After fourteen years, Rama finally rules Ayodhya, leading to a golden age.

The epic itself, like many Indic texts, is highly revered as religious text. It is one of the earliest and most influential Vaiṣṇava texts, and literary work that is not only a great poem but indeed the very first poem and the forerunner of all subsequent poetry. The story has variations in Indian and S.E.Asian history. Texts on Rāmāyaṇa range from 7th century BCE to 4th century BCE. The most authoritative one was written by Valmiki in Sanskrit in 2nd, century BCE. In the 16th century ACE, it was rewritten by Tulsidas in the 16th century Awadhi dialect under the title Rāmacharitamānas.

There are innumerable versions of the tale; to name a few, they include the 12th-century Tamil language Rāmāvataram, 12th-century Kannada Rāmachandra Charitapurāṇa or Pampa Rāmāyaṇa by Nagachandra, 13th-century Telugu language Sri Ranganatha Rāmāyaṇam, 16th-century Rāmcharitmānas, and the 17th-century Adhyathmarāmāyaṇam Kilippattu. There have been many commentaries in Sanskrit on the epics from the 11th C to the 17th century ACE examining their meaning and intention. For example, a substantial tradition of writing narratives based on the life of lord Rama, which can be traced in Kashmiri literature as early as the 19th century. Around seven Rāmāyaṇas are available namely:
# Rāmāvatāracharita (1847)
# Shankar-Rāmāyaṇa (1870)
# Vishnupratap-Rāmāyaṇa (1904-14)
# Ānanda Rāmavatāracharita (1888)
# Rāmmāyan-i-Sharma (1919-26)
# Tarachand Rāmāyaṇa (1926-27)
# Amar-Rāmāyaṇa (1950)

Ramavatāracharit, which is available in published form, is the most well-known and significant of these. Among the available and unavailable Rāmāyaṇas of Kashmiri mentioned above, 'Rāmavatāracharit ' has a special place in Kashmiri literature and stands out for its popularity. In S.E Asia are the Khmer Reamker, the Old Javanese Kakawin Rāmāyaṇa; the Thai Ramakien, the Lao Phra Lak Phra Lam; and the Burmese Yama Zatdaw.

==Historicity==
There are many reasons to consider the epic or a part of it as historical truth. Rāma, is portrayed as a living personality; he suffered mental, emotional and physical pain to which ordinary mortals are prey but he is also as an ideal king. Secondly historicity as we understand it today, was not of much concern to the authors and audience of past times; it was an oral tradition which was considered as a historical document. The journey of the triad and territorial identity should be included by the historian noting that past documents could have been lost. The Valmiki Rāmāyaṇa in its original form was an oral narrative which became a sacred book and a text on dharma. There is reason to believe that some part of it happened in the past. It was refashioned time and again to convert into a religious text or for other purposes. Rāma who is worshipped as the supreme form and main manifestation of Vishnu did not rise into prominence before the 11th and 12th Centuries CE.

==Oral Tradition to Narrative==
There are several versions of the Rāmāyaṇa that vary according to historical period, regional literary tradition, religious affiliation and political and social context. The original text, an epic composed by bards, was recited at sacrificial rituals, during feasts and the courts of the kings (rajas). The hero, Rama, rules from the city of Ayodhya over the kingdom of Kosala situated in the middle Ganges plain, claims descent from the solar dynasty. Rama is the chief of the righteous fighting against Ravana, a demon who fills the world with terror. Rama is the personification of an ideal king and his reign is symbolic in social memory, being a period of prosperity that has the term in Rāma-rājya.

==History or Myth==
Tales of the king’s adventures through the journey can be read as we see the architecture and arts in Ayodhya, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Hampi and Anegundi. From Rishyamuk Parbat to King Bali’s cave, local folklore connects many spots to the stories in the Ramayana. That he was deified as a god was equally relevant during the early medieval period as found in artistic traditions of sculpture and architecture.

Naturally a question mark has been put about the reality of incidences that has been narrated in the text. The debate whether the king Rama, is a mythical character or a real-life ruler can run on for hours. The spreading of the epic throughout the human society from years after years was accompanied orally by many disciples from generation to generation. As it had been carried through oral recitation there was a lot of possibilities of addition and alteration at different stages of such progress.

But an inevitable question always arises whether the personality of Rāma mentioned in the epic is fact or fictitious? So, always there is a question mark whether the epic contains any historical fact, or it is a simple epic novel? It is quite evident that there are several portions found in the story which seems to be exaggerated. The composed verse was being spread from generation to generation through preceptors. During the passage of long journey quote from memory addition and alteration were incorporated. However, aggrandizement and magnification was a very common issue in the ancient period and can be compared to what was in ancient Greece. Thus it is difficult to dismiss it as mythology. There are many archaeological sources that have been lost, given the heavy building layered activity in areas associated with the Rāmāyaṇa. While positive evidences have been found regarding the Mahābhārata <ref>It particularly denotes in Dvaraka by the archaeologist, Dr. S.R. Rao.</ref> it is possible that some evidence will be found about Rāmāyaṇa in the future.

==Historical Context==
The question that should be asked is what was the historical circumstances that led to the rise of the hero and might have happened in the context of ancient Indian historical evidence. The Reason that there are diff versions is that it was an oral tradition (as the Iliad in Greece) and hence the poets’ imagination of an ideal king reigns supreme. However, it might have been true that Rama was a more compassionate leader than earlier ones. Secondly there was a reason why people had collective memory and built upon the ideology of Rama, his personality, and the narrative stories that were told and retold. They struck a chord to every class and group of people. A glance at the ancient historical period of various cultures gives us an idea why epics and narratives were exaggerated or held in historical memory. It was the historical context in which Rama ruled that made him an ideal king, perhaps the many wars or confusion, jealousies, intrigues, tribals, forest areas, that occur in the epic.

The historical circumstances during the post Indus Valley (and pre-Buddhist) period, the post second urbanization era, rise of kingdoms, strife at various levels probably contributed to his rise. Historically during a troubled period of confusion, a leader wi†˙ values made sense. The epic was created with an adventure - a variety of personal, public, and popular themes and ideals .e

The intervention by Rama for a degnerating society; his enlightened way of living was the ideal. Historical circumstances probably provoked it as it had done during the ancient Greek period, when Homer wrote the Iliad. Authors exaggerated the accomplishments of the king, his ideals, his humanistic values of a king who stood for some sort of an ideal of dharma and justices . Society was perhaps, illogical, and unjust; elders were not respected; there was discord between man and nature, self and society. There was a quest for the infinite that provided a basis for understanding behavior and relationships. Social relations, norms, practices Interests conflicts, differnces of opinion had come up, and Rama achieved order achieved through respect, love, and sacrifice. The epic built a social system that discouraged selfishness, anger, hate, greed, lust particularly among family members and turned towards stability through individual and social values of patience, tolerance, and duty. Rama’s heroism was not merely ion the battlefield but on his sacrifices and ideals that were magnified in the epic. It was going to be a golden Age where hope comes back; a peaceful era, with wealth and harvest and renewal. Rama stood for renovation, continuity and preservation of ancient values. There was hope for man. It is not surprising that they associated him to be an avatar of Vishnu, the god of Preservation.
A cultural context normally gives rise to unknown events, unique leaders as it was in Greece. Perhaps , there was famine or environmental disturbances during the period; there might have been problems with village economies, and hunger, and the hero promised release from these. History has been what is relevant, and useful in collective memory not what was necessarily written in India, which is differenct from western viewpoint. History (like art) constructs what is educative, useful, dramatic and enlightening.

Indian culture recognized the insecurity in man, environment, and injustices. It strove to elaborate a condition and an atmosphere that portrayed stability, to reflect upon what is right and wrong. The Ramayana provided the theoretical and peaceful structure for Indian culture.
To the unlettered, purely as a narrative of India, it provided roots to tap into. Many of the places were named by kings with sites associated with the epic,that lent a sacredness to the local territory. In UP and Bihar, stories were appropriated as their own story, providing a sense of history. Lanka, Nepal, Karnataka and several other places were associated with the epic.

Rama (among royalty) has reinforced a certain image of political leadership and kingly power that stood for an ideology of respect, righteous leadership and a peaceful life. Hence later kings called themselves as Rama. The Guptas, Chalukyas, Gangas, Cholas and Rajputs, all considered themselves as Rama and rename their territories as one of the sites related to Ramayana.

==Dramatization of Themes==
Survival demanded imagination. The epic of Ramayana is particularly interesting in its various themes – namely – the leadership of a king, his trials and tribulations, and his success. The Ramayana evokes emotional and intellectual interests. Whether it is the Surpanakha’s episode or Bali-Sugriva duel, or for that matter, Vibhishan’s role in bringing down the downfall of his brother, the writers have not navigated the space between the right and the wrong.
The impact of the epic is due to numerous reasons. The narrative of Rama in the forest evokes sympathy, his success in the war and return to his kingdom is refreshing and joyful. The story is magical, Hanuman could fly to the magical mountain; his rescue of Sita and uproot the mountain, the devotion of Lakshmana shows his magnanimity and most importantly, Ravana the evil king of Lanka led to the rise of an ideal king of dharma. Sita is the queen of the Hindu woman -hood, and her devotion to Rama was unflinching.

It is not uncommon in mythology to create elaborate stories around historic heroic figures to elevate them to the level of gods who have time and again formed the basis for the development of religious sects. The same was true with the Greeks who created their gods. In the epic Iliad, there are mentioned more gods than what is mentioned in the Ramayana. A critical comparative examination of ancient epics and narratives within a historical context will provide a reasonable understanding and interpretation of the epic.

Ramayana created a god out of a person, and it did not matter whether he ruled a small or a big kingdom, whether Kaikeyi loved or hated Rama, whether Ravana was a real demon with ten heads, or whether Sita was born in Nepal or India, or whether Rama built the bridge to Sri Lanka. Rama’s banishment was unjust, the personality of Kaikeyi, Manthara are ugly, unnerving, Dasaratha’s guilt, his obligations, and despondency impactful.

In the forest, far from the anguish of family politics, the moral imagination of Rama and Sita has expanded. As honoured guests of the forest and its inhabitants, they begin to reconsider what it means to be human-not divine, armed and separate from the earthly habitat, but mortal, disarmed and in harmony with nature. The visual images are hypnotic. They are not merely illustrations, but condense different narrative incidents leading up to a crucial moment.

Sita is a vital moral presence whose imagination is alert to the strangeness and wonder of the forest world. She understands that here is something profound and essential for a life to be called good life from which all social, traditional, or religious presuppositions have been erased. For instance, before meeting Jatayu, Rama had promised Agastya he would kill the asuras. Overcoming her shyness, Sita tells Rama that while he is the embodiment of dharma his vow is morally wrong. The desire for power can lead to adharma, she says. In her hierarchy of evil acts, three are particularly dangerous. Telling lies is bad and adultery is shameful. It is a moment of ethical choice for Rama; of reconsidering human responsibilities and duties and she wants Rama to think and act like an ideal he aspires to be rather than a theologically bound prince. With respect and love, Sita tells Rama a story about how violence destroys an ethical man. Sita's moral stature is thus equal to that of Rama's.

Dramatic aspects of emotion, conversation, ethics, idealism, were woven around as the story of Rama was an oral tradition that was spread by word of mouth. They were enacted in folk theaters, and given detailed content in Valmiki’s Ramayana dynamically adapted to social and cultural changes.
The narrative enforce the people with meaning - religious, theological through poems, Sanskrit writings, and folk stories. Valmiki’s epic poem (ca. 750–500 BCE) was enticing for generations. Hence we encounter a number of Ramanayanas, produced – written, painted, sculpted, enacted with vividness, on a human and divine level. There is truth and beauty in them due to philosophical , spiritual, real and fictious portraits , that provides an unending theme to the artist. In it we find the power of imagination—a variety of emotions - of grief, longing ecstasy, vindictiveness. Subjects, kings, parents, children all can relate to it. It realizes the complexties of life; faithfulness, dharma, righteousness, filial piety, martial power, governance, land and leadership. The dramatization of Ram Lila dramatisation — a— fostered divinzation. The Hanuman chalisa shaped the world of the medieval.

The imaginary of ordinary folk was important .The institutional frameworks and environments in which these artistic works exist are multiple and serve as a methodological tool for understanding folk art practices from India, for they are often found in local communities, museums, private collections, or the handicraft market simultaneously.

==Arts, Sacredness and Divinization==
The epic is dramatic; it is a story to focus upon in drama, theater, dance, music, painting, sculpture, metal work and textiles. Emotional and intellectual content was appealing to all arts. Deification of Rama was achieved through various means, narrative, enactments, ethics, belief, drama and folk lore and particularly via artistic media - in visual and performing arts all considered on an equal plane.

In Indian folklore, songs, oral traditions and practices, the popular worship of Ram and Sita as one entity has existed from time immemorial. Mela of Ramayana promotes the original Awadhi composed by Tulsidas between 16th and 17th centuries CE. Other rishis such as Rishi Valmiki, Acharya Vasishtha, Rishi Vishwamitra, Agastya Muni, Nishad, Jatayu and Mata Sabri were minor deities. Bhajans and Kirtans, the Ramcharit Manas Path, and Sunderkand, Ram Stuti are recited and followed by Shuddh Nritya (pure dance) including todas, paran, tukada, tihai and jugalbandi are enacted.

On the walls of temples, in the Pappanatha in Pattadakal, are embodiments of the story, in the paintings in Mewar, on textiles are the combat of Rama and Ravana, prints of Raja Ravi Verma, and on photographs of devotion. Mewar, Kishangarh, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Chamba, Kangra or Guler assumed that the paintings had merit because they were illustrations of either religious motifs, legendary heroes, courtly life or decorative styles. This gave miniature art a social, moral and sacred purpose. It succeeded in making miniature paintings part of our social, moral world.

The artist created his sublime visions. Sita is a simple lady, compassionate, and listens to Jatayu’s tales. The forest is sacred, with birds, deer, trees. Nature is seen through beauty. Arts capture the peaceful, the tranquil, and the elementary. Models of goodness that avert tragedy were portrayed. Ravana with his multiple heads and arms, his golden palace as a dramatic battle can be seen on stage, poetry and paintings. The waking of Kumbhakarna and his going to the battle is hillarious. Hanuman’s journey to obtain the herb and taking back the entire mountain on his back as he soars through the air is captivating.
The story telling devices in paintings - of perceptual, conceptual view and continuous narration is common in Indian arts. The artist's facility in organizing the space is remarkable. A sense of balance Himalaya in search of the special herb that will save between the figures, landscape is depicted with a sense of time and space.

Many times when patronized by kings had a political function of propaganda as it was with the Rajputs. In the temple complex of Prambanan Indonesia is the iconographical programme with innumerable narrative scenes from the epic patronized by kings. The temple houses an outstanding iconographic programme in its architecture, comprising scenes from the epic. Ramayana has disseminated across many parts of Southeast Asia in different ways, irrespective of the religious beliefs of these societies. Lanka is associated with Ravana and Sita’s vana. The plant sanjivani - a herbal medicine that Lord Hanuman brought by lifting the mountain on which it was planted to cure Lord Ram's brother Lakshman) from Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was central to the Hindu epic the Ramayana, being the scene of the battle between the Indian king Rama and the Sri Lankan Ravana. The epic had an important place in the unlikeliest places in Southern Sri Lanka, the Muslim Malay community.In Java, as in the rest of South East Asia and became a part of the local folk culture from the 9th C. CE onwards.
Given that it spans more than one kind of society, the epic was immensely popular both as a linear narrative of the heroic as well as in the embroidered intricacies of the stories, all of which led to Rama being a God, avatar of Vishnu that changed the character of the epic.

==Conclusion==

The Ramanayan is an integral part of Indian culture. It is an epic of unending themes that arose within an historical and cultural context. The dramatic narrative weaved royalty, leadership, narrative, family life and values simultaneously. The interaction between ideology, narrative, and artistic traditions substantiated relevant values of cultural life. Ultimately Rama deified as a god that was equally relevant during the early medieval period. It was a dynamic method that reverberated and sustained kings, kingdoms and the populace in ancient and medieval times.

The narrative unfolds chronologically keeping in mind the human aspect of Rama as well as his ideology. The collective psychology of the people that needed the story of Rama and its spread and spatial occurrence is not a new phenomenon in the ancient world. History was made intelligible through folk lore, locale, drama and visual arts and geographical locale that was an outgrowth of earlier cultural process.
There is a range of texts, beliefs, and practices regarding the ritual and divine status of the image. A single sculpture possesses a range of possible meanings and significations depending upon its cultural context. It is essential to recognize the importance of the arts as influential factors for the sacredness of the epic. Historians need to recognize this fact and value its importance for a multitude of purposes. Narratives and arts acted together, and are interwoven in the religious, social, political, artistic, philosophical realms. The history of this interaction between Hindu imagery and practitioners, priests, curators, reformers, leaders can be still found today.

Rama and Sita should be viewed together by historians as it was and is in public consciousness. From ancient times, Rama and Sita preserved in public and historical memory suggests a discourse based on an ordered society. – on ideas of duty, compassion, and service. They are are cultural icons. Rama as an ideal leader and king. Sita is often seen as the uniting force, the ideal and keeper of dharma and human love. In Indian folklore, songs, oral traditions and practices, arts and the popular worship of Ram and Sita as one entity has existed from long.

A comparative understanding of the particular circumstances that led to the rise of the Rama will provide an accurate understanding of the hero. Ramayana is not a purana. The nature and function of an epic is tremendous, its spread, retention in collective memory, territorial relation, imaginative literature, substantiation in artistic modes is tremendous. Literary masterpieces are a product of historical circumstances and more research can be directed to the historical period.

Rāmāyaṇa where ideology and arts meet narrative and historical context

2024-01-20T03:47:46Z

Deval Sancheti: /* Oral Tradition to Narrative */

By Nalini Rao, Assoc. Prof. of World Arts, SUA, CA 

The epic, Rāmāyaṇa, is a living topic of contemporary relevance. It constitutes a substantial part of Indian historical collective memory that influenced the socio-cultural, religious, and political landscape of India to a large extent. Hence, creative minds through ages and across different cross-sections of Indian society have re-interpreted and re-created the epic narrative in varied forms through diverse media. This article examines the interaction between ideology, narrative and historical context with artistic traditions that substantiated relevant values of cultural life. History was made intelligible through religious and social values, visual arts, and geographical locale. Thus, there was a transformation of the protagonist, Rama, into a divinity that resulted in his icons in Hindu temples. Numerous stories about Rama were an outgrowth of an earlier cultural process that ultimately became a dynamic method that sustained kings, kingdoms and the populace.

==Introduction==
The Sanskrit epic Rāmāyaṇa is divided into seven cantos with 24,000 verses. It is the story of Rama, prince of Ayodhya. He is about to be crowned king when Kaikeyi, one of the wives of his father, Dasaratha, demands that her son Bharata be crowned instead. Rama is forced into exile with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana. In the forest, Ravana the king of Lanka, who has coveted Sita, abducts her. Rama assembles an army of monkeys and they invade Lanka, killing Ravana and rescuing Sita. She proves her chastity through a trial by fire. After fourteen years, Rama finally rules Ayodhya, leading to a golden age.

The epic itself, like many Indic texts, is highly revered as religious text. It is one of the earliest and most influential Vaiṣṇava texts, and literary work that is not only a great poem but indeed the very first poem and the forerunner of all subsequent poetry. The story has variations in Indian and S.E.Asian history. Texts on Rāmāyaṇa range from 7th century BCE to 4th century BCE. The most authoritative one was written by Valmiki in Sanskrit in 2nd, century BCE. In the 16th century ACE, it was rewritten by Tulsidas in the 16th century Awadhi dialect under the title Rāmacharitamānas.

There are innumerable versions of the tale; to name a few, they include the 12th-century Tamil language Rāmāvataram, 12th-century Kannada Rāmachandra Charitapurāṇa or Pampa Rāmāyaṇa by Nagachandra, 13th-century Telugu language Sri Ranganatha Rāmāyaṇam, 16th-century Rāmcharitmānas, and the 17th-century Adhyathmarāmāyaṇam Kilippattu. There have been many commentaries in Sanskrit on the epics from the 11th C to the 17th century ACE examining their meaning and intention. For example, a substantial tradition of writing narratives based on the life of lord Rama, which can be traced in Kashmiri literature as early as the 19th century. Around seven Rāmāyaṇas are available namely:
# Rāmāvatāracharita (1847)
# Shankar-Rāmāyaṇa (1870)
# Vishnupratap-Rāmāyaṇa (1904-14)
# Ānanda Rāmavatāracharita (1888)
# Rāmmāyan-i-Sharma (1919-26)
# Tarachand Rāmāyaṇa (1926-27)
# Amar-Rāmāyaṇa (1950)

Ramavatāracharit, which is available in published form, is the most well-known and significant of these. Among the available and unavailable Rāmāyaṇas of Kashmiri mentioned above, 'Rāmavatāracharit ' has a special place in Kashmiri literature and stands out for its popularity. In S.E Asia are the Khmer Reamker, the Old Javanese Kakawin Rāmāyaṇa; the Thai Ramakien, the Lao Phra Lak Phra Lam; and the Burmese Yama Zatdaw.

==Historicity==
There are many reasons to consider the epic or a part of it as historical truth. Rāma, is portrayed as a living personality; he suffered mental, emotional and physical pain to which ordinary mortals are prey but he is also as an ideal king. Secondly historicity as we understand it today, was not of much concern to the authors and audience of past times; it was an oral tradition which was considered as a historical document. The journey of the triad and territorial identity should be included by the historian noting that past documents could have been lost. The Valmiki Rāmāyaṇa in its original form was an oral narrative which became a sacred book and a text on dharma. There is reason to believe that some part of it happened in the past. It was refashioned time and again to convert into a religious text or for other purposes. Rāma who is worshipped as the supreme form and main manifestation of Vishnu did not rise into prominence before the 11th and 12th Centuries CE.

==Oral Tradition to Narrative==
There are several versions of the Rāmāyaṇa that vary according to historical period, regional literary tradition, religious affiliation and political and social context. The original text, an epic composed by bards, was recited at sacrificial rituals, during feasts and the courts of the kings (rajas). The hero, Rama, rules from the city of Ayodhya over the kingdom of Kosala situated in the middle Ganges plain, claims descent from the solar dynasty. Rama is the chief of the righteous fighting against Ravana, a demon who fills the world with terror. Rama is the personification of an ideal king and his reign is symbolic in social memory, being a period of prosperity that has the term in Rāma-rājya.

==History or Myth==
Tales of the king’s adventures through the journey can be read as we see the architecture and arts in Ayodhya, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Hampi and Anegundi. From Rishyamuk Parbat to King Bali’s cave, local folklore connects many spots to the stories in the Ramayana. That he was deified as a god was equally relevant during the early medieval period as found in artistic traditions of sculpture and architecture.
Naturally a question mark has been put about the reality of incidences that has been narrated in the text. The debate whether the king Rama, is a mythical character or a real-life ruler can run on for hours. The spreading of the epic throughout the human society from years after years was accompanied orally by many disciples from generation to generation. As it had been carried through oral recitation there was a lot of possibilities of addition and alteration at different stages of such progress.

But an inevitable question always arises whether the personality of Rama mentioned in the epic are fact or fictitious? So, always there is a question mark whether the epic contains any historical fact, or it is a simple epic novel? It is quite evident that there are several portions found in the story which seems to be exaggerated. The composed verse was being spread from generation to generation through preceptors. During the passage of long journey quote from memory addition and alteration were incorporated. However, aggrandizement and magnification was very common issue in the ancient period and can be compared to what was in ancient Greece. Thus it is difficult to dismiss it as mythology. There are many archaeological sources that have been lost, given the heavy building layered activity in areas associated with the Ramayana. While positive evidence have been found regarding the Mahabharata (particularly in Dvaraka by the archaeologist, Dr. S.R. Rao) it is possible that some evidence will be found about Ramayana in the future.

==Historical Context==
The question that should be asked is what was the historical circumstances that led to the rise of the hero and might have happened in the context of ancient Indian historical evidence. The Reason that there are diff versions is that it was an oral tradition (as the Iliad in Greece) and hence the poets’ imagination of an ideal king reigns supreme. However, it might have been true that Rama was a more compassionate leader than earlier ones. Secondly there was a reason why people had collective memory and built upon the ideology of Rama, his personality, and the narrative stories that were told and retold. They struck a chord to every class and group of people. A glance at the ancient historical period of various cultures gives us an idea why epics and narratives were exaggerated or held in historical memory. It was the historical context in which Rama ruled that made him an ideal king, perhaps the many wars or confusion, jealousies, intrigues, tribals, forest areas, that occur in the epic.

The historical circumstances during the post Indus Valley (and pre-Buddhist) period, the post second urbanization era, rise of kingdoms, strife at various levels probably contributed to his rise. Historically during a troubled period of confusion, a leader wi†˙ values made sense. The epic was created with an adventure - a variety of personal, public, and popular themes and ideals .e

The intervention by Rama for a degnerating society; his enlightened way of living was the ideal. Historical circumstances probably provoked it as it had done during the ancient Greek period, when Homer wrote the Iliad. Authors exaggerated the accomplishments of the king, his ideals, his humanistic values of a king who stood for some sort of an ideal of dharma and justices . Society was perhaps, illogical, and unjust; elders were not respected; there was discord between man and nature, self and society. There was a quest for the infinite that provided a basis for understanding behavior and relationships. Social relations, norms, practices Interests conflicts, differnces of opinion had come up, and Rama achieved order achieved through respect, love, and sacrifice. The epic built a social system that discouraged selfishness, anger, hate, greed, lust particularly among family members and turned towards stability through individual and social values of patience, tolerance, and duty. Rama’s heroism was not merely ion the battlefield but on his sacrifices and ideals that were magnified in the epic. It was going to be a golden Age where hope comes back; a peaceful era, with wealth and harvest and renewal. Rama stood for renovation, continuity and preservation of ancient values. There was hope for man. It is not surprising that they associated him to be an avatar of Vishnu, the god of Preservation.
A cultural context normally gives rise to unknown events, unique leaders as it was in Greece. Perhaps , there was famine or environmental disturbances during the period; there might have been problems with village economies, and hunger, and the hero promised release from these. History has been what is relevant, and useful in collective memory not what was necessarily written in India, which is differenct from western viewpoint. History (like art) constructs what is educative, useful, dramatic and enlightening.

Indian culture recognized the insecurity in man, environment, and injustices. It strove to elaborate a condition and an atmosphere that portrayed stability, to reflect upon what is right and wrong. The Ramayana provided the theoretical and peaceful structure for Indian culture.
To the unlettered, purely as a narrative of India, it provided roots to tap into. Many of the places were named by kings with sites associated with the epic,that lent a sacredness to the local territory. In UP and Bihar, stories were appropriated as their own story, providing a sense of history. Lanka, Nepal, Karnataka and several other places were associated with the epic.

Rama (among royalty) has reinforced a certain image of political leadership and kingly power that stood for an ideology of respect, righteous leadership and a peaceful life. Hence later kings called themselves as Rama. The Guptas, Chalukyas, Gangas, Cholas and Rajputs, all considered themselves as Rama and rename their territories as one of the sites related to Ramayana.

==Dramatization of Themes==
Survival demanded imagination. The epic of Ramayana is particularly interesting in its various themes – namely – the leadership of a king, his trials and tribulations, and his success. The Ramayana evokes emotional and intellectual interests. Whether it is the Surpanakha’s episode or Bali-Sugriva duel, or for that matter, Vibhishan’s role in bringing down the downfall of his brother, the writers have not navigated the space between the right and the wrong.
The impact of the epic is due to numerous reasons. The narrative of Rama in the forest evokes sympathy, his success in the war and return to his kingdom is refreshing and joyful. The story is magical, Hanuman could fly to the magical mountain; his rescue of Sita and uproot the mountain, the devotion of Lakshmana shows his magnanimity and most importantly, Ravana the evil king of Lanka led to the rise of an ideal king of dharma. Sita is the queen of the Hindu woman -hood, and her devotion to Rama was unflinching.

It is not uncommon in mythology to create elaborate stories around historic heroic figures to elevate them to the level of gods who have time and again formed the basis for the development of religious sects. The same was true with the Greeks who created their gods. In the epic Iliad, there are mentioned more gods than what is mentioned in the Ramayana. A critical comparative examination of ancient epics and narratives within a historical context will provide a reasonable understanding and interpretation of the epic.

Ramayana created a god out of a person, and it did not matter whether he ruled a small or a big kingdom, whether Kaikeyi loved or hated Rama, whether Ravana was a real demon with ten heads, or whether Sita was born in Nepal or India, or whether Rama built the bridge to Sri Lanka. Rama’s banishment was unjust, the personality of Kaikeyi, Manthara are ugly, unnerving, Dasaratha’s guilt, his obligations, and despondency impactful.

In the forest, far from the anguish of family politics, the moral imagination of Rama and Sita has expanded. As honoured guests of the forest and its inhabitants, they begin to reconsider what it means to be human-not divine, armed and separate from the earthly habitat, but mortal, disarmed and in harmony with nature. The visual images are hypnotic. They are not merely illustrations, but condense different narrative incidents leading up to a crucial moment.

Sita is a vital moral presence whose imagination is alert to the strangeness and wonder of the forest world. She understands that here is something profound and essential for a life to be called good life from which all social, traditional, or religious presuppositions have been erased. For instance, before meeting Jatayu, Rama had promised Agastya he would kill the asuras. Overcoming her shyness, Sita tells Rama that while he is the embodiment of dharma his vow is morally wrong. The desire for power can lead to adharma, she says. In her hierarchy of evil acts, three are particularly dangerous. Telling lies is bad and adultery is shameful. It is a moment of ethical choice for Rama; of reconsidering human responsibilities and duties and she wants Rama to think and act like an ideal he aspires to be rather than a theologically bound prince. With respect and love, Sita tells Rama a story about how violence destroys an ethical man. Sita's moral stature is thus equal to that of Rama's.

Dramatic aspects of emotion, conversation, ethics, idealism, were woven around as the story of Rama was an oral tradition that was spread by word of mouth. They were enacted in folk theaters, and given detailed content in Valmiki’s Ramayana dynamically adapted to social and cultural changes.
The narrative enforce the people with meaning - religious, theological through poems, Sanskrit writings, and folk stories. Valmiki’s epic poem (ca. 750–500 BCE) was enticing for generations. Hence we encounter a number of Ramanayanas, produced – written, painted, sculpted, enacted with vividness, on a human and divine level. There is truth and beauty in them due to philosophical , spiritual, real and fictious portraits , that provides an unending theme to the artist. In it we find the power of imagination—a variety of emotions - of grief, longing ecstasy, vindictiveness. Subjects, kings, parents, children all can relate to it. It realizes the complexties of life; faithfulness, dharma, righteousness, filial piety, martial power, governance, land and leadership. The dramatization of Ram Lila dramatisation — a— fostered divinzation. The Hanuman chalisa shaped the world of the medieval.

The imaginary of ordinary folk was important .The institutional frameworks and environments in which these artistic works exist are multiple and serve as a methodological tool for understanding folk art practices from India, for they are often found in local communities, museums, private collections, or the handicraft market simultaneously.

==Arts, Sacredness and Divinization==
The epic is dramatic; it is a story to focus upon in drama, theater, dance, music, painting, sculpture, metal work and textiles. Emotional and intellectual content was appealing to all arts. Deification of Rama was achieved through various means, narrative, enactments, ethics, belief, drama and folk lore and particularly via artistic media - in visual and performing arts all considered on an equal plane.

In Indian folklore, songs, oral traditions and practices, the popular worship of Ram and Sita as one entity has existed from time immemorial. Mela of Ramayana promotes the original Awadhi composed by Tulsidas between 16th and 17th centuries CE. Other rishis such as Rishi Valmiki, Acharya Vasishtha, Rishi Vishwamitra, Agastya Muni, Nishad, Jatayu and Mata Sabri were minor deities. Bhajans and Kirtans, the Ramcharit Manas Path, and Sunderkand, Ram Stuti are recited and followed by Shuddh Nritya (pure dance) including todas, paran, tukada, tihai and jugalbandi are enacted.

On the walls of temples, in the Pappanatha in Pattadakal, are embodiments of the story, in the paintings in Mewar, on textiles are the combat of Rama and Ravana, prints of Raja Ravi Verma, and on photographs of devotion. Mewar, Kishangarh, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Chamba, Kangra or Guler assumed that the paintings had merit because they were illustrations of either religious motifs, legendary heroes, courtly life or decorative styles. This gave miniature art a social, moral and sacred purpose. It succeeded in making miniature paintings part of our social, moral world.

The artist created his sublime visions. Sita is a simple lady, compassionate, and listens to Jatayu’s tales. The forest is sacred, with birds, deer, trees. Nature is seen through beauty. Arts capture the peaceful, the tranquil, and the elementary. Models of goodness that avert tragedy were portrayed. Ravana with his multiple heads and arms, his golden palace as a dramatic battle can be seen on stage, poetry and paintings. The waking of Kumbhakarna and his going to the battle is hillarious. Hanuman’s journey to obtain the herb and taking back the entire mountain on his back as he soars through the air is captivating.
The story telling devices in paintings - of perceptual, conceptual view and continuous narration is common in Indian arts. The artist's facility in organizing the space is remarkable. A sense of balance Himalaya in search of the special herb that will save between the figures, landscape is depicted with a sense of time and space.

Many times when patronized by kings had a political function of propaganda as it was with the Rajputs. In the temple complex of Prambanan Indonesia is the iconographical programme with innumerable narrative scenes from the epic patronized by kings. The temple houses an outstanding iconographic programme in its architecture, comprising scenes from the epic. Ramayana has disseminated across many parts of Southeast Asia in different ways, irrespective of the religious beliefs of these societies. Lanka is associated with Ravana and Sita’s vana. The plant sanjivani - a herbal medicine that Lord Hanuman brought by lifting the mountain on which it was planted to cure Lord Ram's brother Lakshman) from Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was central to the Hindu epic the Ramayana, being the scene of the battle between the Indian king Rama and the Sri Lankan Ravana. The epic had an important place in the unlikeliest places in Southern Sri Lanka, the Muslim Malay community.In Java, as in the rest of South East Asia and became a part of the local folk culture from the 9th C. CE onwards.
Given that it spans more than one kind of society, the epic was immensely popular both as a linear narrative of the heroic as well as in the embroidered intricacies of the stories, all of which led to Rama being a God, avatar of Vishnu that changed the character of the epic.

==Conclusion==

The Ramanayan is an integral part of Indian culture. It is an epic of unending themes that arose within an historical and cultural context. The dramatic narrative weaved royalty, leadership, narrative, family life and values simultaneously. The interaction between ideology, narrative, and artistic traditions substantiated relevant values of cultural life. Ultimately Rama deified as a god that was equally relevant during the early medieval period. It was a dynamic method that reverberated and sustained kings, kingdoms and the populace in ancient and medieval times.

The narrative unfolds chronologically keeping in mind the human aspect of Rama as well as his ideology. The collective psychology of the people that needed the story of Rama and its spread and spatial occurrence is not a new phenomenon in the ancient world. History was made intelligible through folk lore, locale, drama and visual arts and geographical locale that was an outgrowth of earlier cultural process.
There is a range of texts, beliefs, and practices regarding the ritual and divine status of the image. A single sculpture possesses a range of possible meanings and significations depending upon its cultural context. It is essential to recognize the importance of the arts as influential factors for the sacredness of the epic. Historians need to recognize this fact and value its importance for a multitude of purposes. Narratives and arts acted together, and are interwoven in the religious, social, political, artistic, philosophical realms. The history of this interaction between Hindu imagery and practitioners, priests, curators, reformers, leaders can be still found today.

Rama and Sita should be viewed together by historians as it was and is in public consciousness. From ancient times, Rama and Sita preserved in public and historical memory suggests a discourse based on an ordered society. – on ideas of duty, compassion, and service. They are are cultural icons. Rama as an ideal leader and king. Sita is often seen as the uniting force, the ideal and keeper of dharma and human love. In Indian folklore, songs, oral traditions and practices, arts and the popular worship of Ram and Sita as one entity has existed from long.

A comparative understanding of the particular circumstances that led to the rise of the Rama will provide an accurate understanding of the hero. Ramayana is not a purana. The nature and function of an epic is tremendous, its spread, retention in collective memory, territorial relation, imaginative literature, substantiation in artistic modes is tremendous. Literary masterpieces are a product of historical circumstances and more research can be directed to the historical period.

Rāmāyaṇa where ideology and arts meet narrative and historical context

2024-01-20T03:46:23Z

Deval Sancheti: /* Historicity */

By Nalini Rao, Assoc. Prof. of World Arts, SUA, CA 

The epic, Rāmāyaṇa, is a living topic of contemporary relevance. It constitutes a substantial part of Indian historical collective memory that influenced the socio-cultural, religious, and political landscape of India to a large extent. Hence, creative minds through ages and across different cross-sections of Indian society have re-interpreted and re-created the epic narrative in varied forms through diverse media. This article examines the interaction between ideology, narrative and historical context with artistic traditions that substantiated relevant values of cultural life. History was made intelligible through religious and social values, visual arts, and geographical locale. Thus, there was a transformation of the protagonist, Rama, into a divinity that resulted in his icons in Hindu temples. Numerous stories about Rama were an outgrowth of an earlier cultural process that ultimately became a dynamic method that sustained kings, kingdoms and the populace.

==Introduction==
The Sanskrit epic Rāmāyaṇa is divided into seven cantos with 24,000 verses. It is the story of Rama, prince of Ayodhya. He is about to be crowned king when Kaikeyi, one of the wives of his father, Dasaratha, demands that her son Bharata be crowned instead. Rama is forced into exile with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana. In the forest, Ravana the king of Lanka, who has coveted Sita, abducts her. Rama assembles an army of monkeys and they invade Lanka, killing Ravana and rescuing Sita. She proves her chastity through a trial by fire. After fourteen years, Rama finally rules Ayodhya, leading to a golden age.

The epic itself, like many Indic texts, is highly revered as religious text. It is one of the earliest and most influential Vaiṣṇava texts, and literary work that is not only a great poem but indeed the very first poem and the forerunner of all subsequent poetry. The story has variations in Indian and S.E.Asian history. Texts on Rāmāyaṇa range from 7th century BCE to 4th century BCE. The most authoritative one was written by Valmiki in Sanskrit in 2nd, century BCE. In the 16th century ACE, it was rewritten by Tulsidas in the 16th century Awadhi dialect under the title Rāmacharitamānas.

There are innumerable versions of the tale; to name a few, they include the 12th-century Tamil language Rāmāvataram, 12th-century Kannada Rāmachandra Charitapurāṇa or Pampa Rāmāyaṇa by Nagachandra, 13th-century Telugu language Sri Ranganatha Rāmāyaṇam, 16th-century Rāmcharitmānas, and the 17th-century Adhyathmarāmāyaṇam Kilippattu. There have been many commentaries in Sanskrit on the epics from the 11th C to the 17th century ACE examining their meaning and intention. For example, a substantial tradition of writing narratives based on the life of lord Rama, which can be traced in Kashmiri literature as early as the 19th century. Around seven Rāmāyaṇas are available namely:
# Rāmāvatāracharita (1847)
# Shankar-Rāmāyaṇa (1870)
# Vishnupratap-Rāmāyaṇa (1904-14)
# Ānanda Rāmavatāracharita (1888)
# Rāmmāyan-i-Sharma (1919-26)
# Tarachand Rāmāyaṇa (1926-27)
# Amar-Rāmāyaṇa (1950)

Ramavatāracharit, which is available in published form, is the most well-known and significant of these. Among the available and unavailable Rāmāyaṇas of Kashmiri mentioned above, 'Rāmavatāracharit ' has a special place in Kashmiri literature and stands out for its popularity. In S.E Asia are the Khmer Reamker, the Old Javanese Kakawin Rāmāyaṇa; the Thai Ramakien, the Lao Phra Lak Phra Lam; and the Burmese Yama Zatdaw.

==Historicity==
There are many reasons to consider the epic or a part of it as historical truth. Rāma, is portrayed as a living personality; he suffered mental, emotional and physical pain to which ordinary mortals are prey but he is also as an ideal king. Secondly historicity as we understand it today, was not of much concern to the authors and audience of past times; it was an oral tradition which was considered as a historical document. The journey of the triad and territorial identity should be included by the historian noting that past documents could have been lost. The Valmiki Rāmāyaṇa in its original form was an oral narrative which became a sacred book and a text on dharma. There is reason to believe that some part of it happened in the past. It was refashioned time and again to convert into a religious text or for other purposes. Rāma who is worshipped as the supreme form and main manifestation of Vishnu did not rise into prominence before the 11th and 12th Centuries CE.

==Oral Tradition to Narrative==
There are several versions of the Ramayana that vary according to historical period, regional literary tradition, religious affiliation, and political and social context. The original text, an epic composed by bards, was recited at sacrificial rituals, during feasts and the courts of the kings (rajas). The hero, Rama, rules from the city of Ayodhya over the kingdom of Kosala situated in the middle Ganges plain, claims descent from the solar dynasty. Rama is the chief of the righteous fighting against Ravana, a demon who fills the world with terror. Rama is the personification of an ideal king and his reign is symbolic in social memory, being a period of prosperity that has the term in Rama-rajya.

==History or Myth==
Tales of the king’s adventures through the journey can be read as we see the architecture and arts in Ayodhya, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Hampi and Anegundi. From Rishyamuk Parbat to King Bali’s cave, local folklore connects many spots to the stories in the Ramayana. That he was deified as a god was equally relevant during the early medieval period as found in artistic traditions of sculpture and architecture.
Naturally a question mark has been put about the reality of incidences that has been narrated in the text. The debate whether the king Rama, is a mythical character or a real-life ruler can run on for hours. The spreading of the epic throughout the human society from years after years was accompanied orally by many disciples from generation to generation. As it had been carried through oral recitation there was a lot of possibilities of addition and alteration at different stages of such progress.

But an inevitable question always arises whether the personality of Rama mentioned in the epic are fact or fictitious? So, always there is a question mark whether the epic contains any historical fact, or it is a simple epic novel? It is quite evident that there are several portions found in the story which seems to be exaggerated. The composed verse was being spread from generation to generation through preceptors. During the passage of long journey quote from memory addition and alteration were incorporated. However, aggrandizement and magnification was very common issue in the ancient period and can be compared to what was in ancient Greece. Thus it is difficult to dismiss it as mythology. There are many archaeological sources that have been lost, given the heavy building layered activity in areas associated with the Ramayana. While positive evidence have been found regarding the Mahabharata (particularly in Dvaraka by the archaeologist, Dr. S.R. Rao) it is possible that some evidence will be found about Ramayana in the future.

==Historical Context==
The question that should be asked is what was the historical circumstances that led to the rise of the hero and might have happened in the context of ancient Indian historical evidence. The Reason that there are diff versions is that it was an oral tradition (as the Iliad in Greece) and hence the poets’ imagination of an ideal king reigns supreme. However, it might have been true that Rama was a more compassionate leader than earlier ones. Secondly there was a reason why people had collective memory and built upon the ideology of Rama, his personality, and the narrative stories that were told and retold. They struck a chord to every class and group of people. A glance at the ancient historical period of various cultures gives us an idea why epics and narratives were exaggerated or held in historical memory. It was the historical context in which Rama ruled that made him an ideal king, perhaps the many wars or confusion, jealousies, intrigues, tribals, forest areas, that occur in the epic.

The historical circumstances during the post Indus Valley (and pre-Buddhist) period, the post second urbanization era, rise of kingdoms, strife at various levels probably contributed to his rise. Historically during a troubled period of confusion, a leader wi†˙ values made sense. The epic was created with an adventure - a variety of personal, public, and popular themes and ideals .e

The intervention by Rama for a degnerating society; his enlightened way of living was the ideal. Historical circumstances probably provoked it as it had done during the ancient Greek period, when Homer wrote the Iliad. Authors exaggerated the accomplishments of the king, his ideals, his humanistic values of a king who stood for some sort of an ideal of dharma and justices . Society was perhaps, illogical, and unjust; elders were not respected; there was discord between man and nature, self and society. There was a quest for the infinite that provided a basis for understanding behavior and relationships. Social relations, norms, practices Interests conflicts, differnces of opinion had come up, and Rama achieved order achieved through respect, love, and sacrifice. The epic built a social system that discouraged selfishness, anger, hate, greed, lust particularly among family members and turned towards stability through individual and social values of patience, tolerance, and duty. Rama’s heroism was not merely ion the battlefield but on his sacrifices and ideals that were magnified in the epic. It was going to be a golden Age where hope comes back; a peaceful era, with wealth and harvest and renewal. Rama stood for renovation, continuity and preservation of ancient values. There was hope for man. It is not surprising that they associated him to be an avatar of Vishnu, the god of Preservation.
A cultural context normally gives rise to unknown events, unique leaders as it was in Greece. Perhaps , there was famine or environmental disturbances during the period; there might have been problems with village economies, and hunger, and the hero promised release from these. History has been what is relevant, and useful in collective memory not what was necessarily written in India, which is differenct from western viewpoint. History (like art) constructs what is educative, useful, dramatic and enlightening.

Indian culture recognized the insecurity in man, environment, and injustices. It strove to elaborate a condition and an atmosphere that portrayed stability, to reflect upon what is right and wrong. The Ramayana provided the theoretical and peaceful structure for Indian culture.
To the unlettered, purely as a narrative of India, it provided roots to tap into. Many of the places were named by kings with sites associated with the epic,that lent a sacredness to the local territory. In UP and Bihar, stories were appropriated as their own story, providing a sense of history. Lanka, Nepal, Karnataka and several other places were associated with the epic.

Rama (among royalty) has reinforced a certain image of political leadership and kingly power that stood for an ideology of respect, righteous leadership and a peaceful life. Hence later kings called themselves as Rama. The Guptas, Chalukyas, Gangas, Cholas and Rajputs, all considered themselves as Rama and rename their territories as one of the sites related to Ramayana.

==Dramatization of Themes==
Survival demanded imagination. The epic of Ramayana is particularly interesting in its various themes – namely – the leadership of a king, his trials and tribulations, and his success. The Ramayana evokes emotional and intellectual interests. Whether it is the Surpanakha’s episode or Bali-Sugriva duel, or for that matter, Vibhishan’s role in bringing down the downfall of his brother, the writers have not navigated the space between the right and the wrong.
The impact of the epic is due to numerous reasons. The narrative of Rama in the forest evokes sympathy, his success in the war and return to his kingdom is refreshing and joyful. The story is magical, Hanuman could fly to the magical mountain; his rescue of Sita and uproot the mountain, the devotion of Lakshmana shows his magnanimity and most importantly, Ravana the evil king of Lanka led to the rise of an ideal king of dharma. Sita is the queen of the Hindu woman -hood, and her devotion to Rama was unflinching.

It is not uncommon in mythology to create elaborate stories around historic heroic figures to elevate them to the level of gods who have time and again formed the basis for the development of religious sects. The same was true with the Greeks who created their gods. In the epic Iliad, there are mentioned more gods than what is mentioned in the Ramayana. A critical comparative examination of ancient epics and narratives within a historical context will provide a reasonable understanding and interpretation of the epic.

Ramayana created a god out of a person, and it did not matter whether he ruled a small or a big kingdom, whether Kaikeyi loved or hated Rama, whether Ravana was a real demon with ten heads, or whether Sita was born in Nepal or India, or whether Rama built the bridge to Sri Lanka. Rama’s banishment was unjust, the personality of Kaikeyi, Manthara are ugly, unnerving, Dasaratha’s guilt, his obligations, and despondency impactful.

In the forest, far from the anguish of family politics, the moral imagination of Rama and Sita has expanded. As honoured guests of the forest and its inhabitants, they begin to reconsider what it means to be human-not divine, armed and separate from the earthly habitat, but mortal, disarmed and in harmony with nature. The visual images are hypnotic. They are not merely illustrations, but condense different narrative incidents leading up to a crucial moment.

Sita is a vital moral presence whose imagination is alert to the strangeness and wonder of the forest world. She understands that here is something profound and essential for a life to be called good life from which all social, traditional, or religious presuppositions have been erased. For instance, before meeting Jatayu, Rama had promised Agastya he would kill the asuras. Overcoming her shyness, Sita tells Rama that while he is the embodiment of dharma his vow is morally wrong. The desire for power can lead to adharma, she says. In her hierarchy of evil acts, three are particularly dangerous. Telling lies is bad and adultery is shameful. It is a moment of ethical choice for Rama; of reconsidering human responsibilities and duties and she wants Rama to think and act like an ideal he aspires to be rather than a theologically bound prince. With respect and love, Sita tells Rama a story about how violence destroys an ethical man. Sita's moral stature is thus equal to that of Rama's.

Dramatic aspects of emotion, conversation, ethics, idealism, were woven around as the story of Rama was an oral tradition that was spread by word of mouth. They were enacted in folk theaters, and given detailed content in Valmiki’s Ramayana dynamically adapted to social and cultural changes.
The narrative enforce the people with meaning - religious, theological through poems, Sanskrit writings, and folk stories. Valmiki’s epic poem (ca. 750–500 BCE) was enticing for generations. Hence we encounter a number of Ramanayanas, produced – written, painted, sculpted, enacted with vividness, on a human and divine level. There is truth and beauty in them due to philosophical , spiritual, real and fictious portraits , that provides an unending theme to the artist. In it we find the power of imagination—a variety of emotions - of grief, longing ecstasy, vindictiveness. Subjects, kings, parents, children all can relate to it. It realizes the complexties of life; faithfulness, dharma, righteousness, filial piety, martial power, governance, land and leadership. The dramatization of Ram Lila dramatisation — a— fostered divinzation. The Hanuman chalisa shaped the world of the medieval.

The imaginary of ordinary folk was important .The institutional frameworks and environments in which these artistic works exist are multiple and serve as a methodological tool for understanding folk art practices from India, for they are often found in local communities, museums, private collections, or the handicraft market simultaneously.

==Arts, Sacredness and Divinization==
The epic is dramatic; it is a story to focus upon in drama, theater, dance, music, painting, sculpture, metal work and textiles. Emotional and intellectual content was appealing to all arts. Deification of Rama was achieved through various means, narrative, enactments, ethics, belief, drama and folk lore and particularly via artistic media - in visual and performing arts all considered on an equal plane.

In Indian folklore, songs, oral traditions and practices, the popular worship of Ram and Sita as one entity has existed from time immemorial. Mela of Ramayana promotes the original Awadhi composed by Tulsidas between 16th and 17th centuries CE. Other rishis such as Rishi Valmiki, Acharya Vasishtha, Rishi Vishwamitra, Agastya Muni, Nishad, Jatayu and Mata Sabri were minor deities. Bhajans and Kirtans, the Ramcharit Manas Path, and Sunderkand, Ram Stuti are recited and followed by Shuddh Nritya (pure dance) including todas, paran, tukada, tihai and jugalbandi are enacted.

On the walls of temples, in the Pappanatha in Pattadakal, are embodiments of the story, in the paintings in Mewar, on textiles are the combat of Rama and Ravana, prints of Raja Ravi Verma, and on photographs of devotion. Mewar, Kishangarh, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Chamba, Kangra or Guler assumed that the paintings had merit because they were illustrations of either religious motifs, legendary heroes, courtly life or decorative styles. This gave miniature art a social, moral and sacred purpose. It succeeded in making miniature paintings part of our social, moral world.

The artist created his sublime visions. Sita is a simple lady, compassionate, and listens to Jatayu’s tales. The forest is sacred, with birds, deer, trees. Nature is seen through beauty. Arts capture the peaceful, the tranquil, and the elementary. Models of goodness that avert tragedy were portrayed. Ravana with his multiple heads and arms, his golden palace as a dramatic battle can be seen on stage, poetry and paintings. The waking of Kumbhakarna and his going to the battle is hillarious. Hanuman’s journey to obtain the herb and taking back the entire mountain on his back as he soars through the air is captivating.
The story telling devices in paintings - of perceptual, conceptual view and continuous narration is common in Indian arts. The artist's facility in organizing the space is remarkable. A sense of balance Himalaya in search of the special herb that will save between the figures, landscape is depicted with a sense of time and space.

Many times when patronized by kings had a political function of propaganda as it was with the Rajputs. In the temple complex of Prambanan Indonesia is the iconographical programme with innumerable narrative scenes from the epic patronized by kings. The temple houses an outstanding iconographic programme in its architecture, comprising scenes from the epic. Ramayana has disseminated across many parts of Southeast Asia in different ways, irrespective of the religious beliefs of these societies. Lanka is associated with Ravana and Sita’s vana. The plant sanjivani - a herbal medicine that Lord Hanuman brought by lifting the mountain on which it was planted to cure Lord Ram's brother Lakshman) from Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was central to the Hindu epic the Ramayana, being the scene of the battle between the Indian king Rama and the Sri Lankan Ravana. The epic had an important place in the unlikeliest places in Southern Sri Lanka, the Muslim Malay community.In Java, as in the rest of South East Asia and became a part of the local folk culture from the 9th C. CE onwards.
Given that it spans more than one kind of society, the epic was immensely popular both as a linear narrative of the heroic as well as in the embroidered intricacies of the stories, all of which led to Rama being a God, avatar of Vishnu that changed the character of the epic.

==Conclusion==

The Ramanayan is an integral part of Indian culture. It is an epic of unending themes that arose within an historical and cultural context. The dramatic narrative weaved royalty, leadership, narrative, family life and values simultaneously. The interaction between ideology, narrative, and artistic traditions substantiated relevant values of cultural life. Ultimately Rama deified as a god that was equally relevant during the early medieval period. It was a dynamic method that reverberated and sustained kings, kingdoms and the populace in ancient and medieval times.

The narrative unfolds chronologically keeping in mind the human aspect of Rama as well as his ideology. The collective psychology of the people that needed the story of Rama and its spread and spatial occurrence is not a new phenomenon in the ancient world. History was made intelligible through folk lore, locale, drama and visual arts and geographical locale that was an outgrowth of earlier cultural process.
There is a range of texts, beliefs, and practices regarding the ritual and divine status of the image. A single sculpture possesses a range of possible meanings and significations depending upon its cultural context. It is essential to recognize the importance of the arts as influential factors for the sacredness of the epic. Historians need to recognize this fact and value its importance for a multitude of purposes. Narratives and arts acted together, and are interwoven in the religious, social, political, artistic, philosophical realms. The history of this interaction between Hindu imagery and practitioners, priests, curators, reformers, leaders can be still found today.

Rama and Sita should be viewed together by historians as it was and is in public consciousness. From ancient times, Rama and Sita preserved in public and historical memory suggests a discourse based on an ordered society. – on ideas of duty, compassion, and service. They are are cultural icons. Rama as an ideal leader and king. Sita is often seen as the uniting force, the ideal and keeper of dharma and human love. In Indian folklore, songs, oral traditions and practices, arts and the popular worship of Ram and Sita as one entity has existed from long.

A comparative understanding of the particular circumstances that led to the rise of the Rama will provide an accurate understanding of the hero. Ramayana is not a purana. The nature and function of an epic is tremendous, its spread, retention in collective memory, territorial relation, imaginative literature, substantiation in artistic modes is tremendous. Literary masterpieces are a product of historical circumstances and more research can be directed to the historical period.

Rāmāyaṇa where ideology and arts meet narrative and historical context

2024-01-20T03:41:51Z

Deval Sancheti: /* Introduction */

By Nalini Rao, Assoc. Prof. of World Arts, SUA, CA 

The epic, Rāmāyaṇa, is a living topic of contemporary relevance. It constitutes a substantial part of Indian historical collective memory that influenced the socio-cultural, religious, and political landscape of India to a large extent. Hence, creative minds through ages and across different cross-sections of Indian society have re-interpreted and re-created the epic narrative in varied forms through diverse media. This article examines the interaction between ideology, narrative and historical context with artistic traditions that substantiated relevant values of cultural life. History was made intelligible through religious and social values, visual arts, and geographical locale. Thus, there was a transformation of the protagonist, Rama, into a divinity that resulted in his icons in Hindu temples. Numerous stories about Rama were an outgrowth of an earlier cultural process that ultimately became a dynamic method that sustained kings, kingdoms and the populace.

==Introduction==
The Sanskrit epic Rāmāyaṇa is divided into seven cantos with 24,000 verses. It is the story of Rama, prince of Ayodhya. He is about to be crowned king when Kaikeyi, one of the wives of his father, Dasaratha, demands that her son Bharata be crowned instead. Rama is forced into exile with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana. In the forest, Ravana the king of Lanka, who has coveted Sita, abducts her. Rama assembles an army of monkeys and they invade Lanka, killing Ravana and rescuing Sita. She proves her chastity through a trial by fire. After fourteen years, Rama finally rules Ayodhya, leading to a golden age.

The epic itself, like many Indic texts, is highly revered as religious text. It is one of the earliest and most influential Vaiṣṇava texts, and literary work that is not only a great poem but indeed the very first poem and the forerunner of all subsequent poetry. The story has variations in Indian and S.E.Asian history. Texts on Rāmāyaṇa range from 7th century BCE to 4th century BCE. The most authoritative one was written by Valmiki in Sanskrit in 2nd, century BCE. In the 16th century ACE, it was rewritten by Tulsidas in the 16th century Awadhi dialect under the title Rāmacharitamānas.

There are innumerable versions of the tale; to name a few, they include the 12th-century Tamil language Rāmāvataram, 12th-century Kannada Rāmachandra Charitapurāṇa or Pampa Rāmāyaṇa by Nagachandra, 13th-century Telugu language Sri Ranganatha Rāmāyaṇam, 16th-century Rāmcharitmānas, and the 17th-century Adhyathmarāmāyaṇam Kilippattu. There have been many commentaries in Sanskrit on the epics from the 11th C to the 17th century ACE examining their meaning and intention. For example, a substantial tradition of writing narratives based on the life of lord Rama, which can be traced in Kashmiri literature as early as the 19th century. Around seven Rāmāyaṇas are available namely:
# Rāmāvatāracharita (1847)
# Shankar-Rāmāyaṇa (1870)
# Vishnupratap-Rāmāyaṇa (1904-14)
# Ānanda Rāmavatāracharita (1888)
# Rāmmāyan-i-Sharma (1919-26)
# Tarachand Rāmāyaṇa (1926-27)
# Amar-Rāmāyaṇa (1950)

Ramavatāracharit, which is available in published form, is the most well-known and significant of these. Among the available and unavailable Rāmāyaṇas of Kashmiri mentioned above, 'Rāmavatāracharit ' has a special place in Kashmiri literature and stands out for its popularity. In S.E Asia are the Khmer Reamker, the Old Javanese Kakawin Rāmāyaṇa; the Thai Ramakien, the Lao Phra Lak Phra Lam; and the Burmese Yama Zatdaw.

==Historicity==
There are many reasons to consider the epic or a part of it as historical truth. Rama, is portrayed as a living personality; he suffers all of the mental, emotional, and physical pain to which ordinary mortals are prey but he is also as an ideal king. Secondly historicity as we understand it today, was not of much concern to the authors and to the audience of past times; it was an oral tradition which was considered as a historical document. The journey of the triad and territorial identity should be included by the historian noting that past documents could have been lost. The Valmiki Ramayana in its original form was an oral narrative which became a sacred book and a text on dharma. There is reason to believe that some part of it happened in the past. That it was refashioned time and again to convert it into a religious text or for other purposes. Rama who is worshipped as the supreme form and main manifestation of Vishnu did not rise into prominence before the 11th and 12th Centuries CE.

==Oral Tradition to Narrative==
There are several versions of the Ramayana that vary according to historical period, regional literary tradition, religious affiliation, and political and social context. The original text, an epic composed by bards, was recited at sacrificial rituals, during feasts and the courts of the kings (rajas). The hero, Rama, rules from the city of Ayodhya over the kingdom of Kosala situated in the middle Ganges plain, claims descent from the solar dynasty. Rama is the chief of the righteous fighting against Ravana, a demon who fills the world with terror. Rama is the personification of an ideal king and his reign is symbolic in social memory, being a period of prosperity that has the term in Rama-rajya.

==History or Myth==
Tales of the king’s adventures through the journey can be read as we see the architecture and arts in Ayodhya, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Hampi and Anegundi. From Rishyamuk Parbat to King Bali’s cave, local folklore connects many spots to the stories in the Ramayana. That he was deified as a god was equally relevant during the early medieval period as found in artistic traditions of sculpture and architecture.
Naturally a question mark has been put about the reality of incidences that has been narrated in the text. The debate whether the king Rama, is a mythical character or a real-life ruler can run on for hours. The spreading of the epic throughout the human society from years after years was accompanied orally by many disciples from generation to generation. As it had been carried through oral recitation there was a lot of possibilities of addition and alteration at different stages of such progress.

But an inevitable question always arises whether the personality of Rama mentioned in the epic are fact or fictitious? So, always there is a question mark whether the epic contains any historical fact, or it is a simple epic novel? It is quite evident that there are several portions found in the story which seems to be exaggerated. The composed verse was being spread from generation to generation through preceptors. During the passage of long journey quote from memory addition and alteration were incorporated. However, aggrandizement and magnification was very common issue in the ancient period and can be compared to what was in ancient Greece. Thus it is difficult to dismiss it as mythology. There are many archaeological sources that have been lost, given the heavy building layered activity in areas associated with the Ramayana. While positive evidence have been found regarding the Mahabharata (particularly in Dvaraka by the archaeologist, Dr. S.R. Rao) it is possible that some evidence will be found about Ramayana in the future.

==Historical Context==
The question that should be asked is what was the historical circumstances that led to the rise of the hero and might have happened in the context of ancient Indian historical evidence. The Reason that there are diff versions is that it was an oral tradition (as the Iliad in Greece) and hence the poets’ imagination of an ideal king reigns supreme. However, it might have been true that Rama was a more compassionate leader than earlier ones. Secondly there was a reason why people had collective memory and built upon the ideology of Rama, his personality, and the narrative stories that were told and retold. They struck a chord to every class and group of people. A glance at the ancient historical period of various cultures gives us an idea why epics and narratives were exaggerated or held in historical memory. It was the historical context in which Rama ruled that made him an ideal king, perhaps the many wars or confusion, jealousies, intrigues, tribals, forest areas, that occur in the epic.

The historical circumstances during the post Indus Valley (and pre-Buddhist) period, the post second urbanization era, rise of kingdoms, strife at various levels probably contributed to his rise. Historically during a troubled period of confusion, a leader wi†˙ values made sense. The epic was created with an adventure - a variety of personal, public, and popular themes and ideals .e

The intervention by Rama for a degnerating society; his enlightened way of living was the ideal. Historical circumstances probably provoked it as it had done during the ancient Greek period, when Homer wrote the Iliad. Authors exaggerated the accomplishments of the king, his ideals, his humanistic values of a king who stood for some sort of an ideal of dharma and justices . Society was perhaps, illogical, and unjust; elders were not respected; there was discord between man and nature, self and society. There was a quest for the infinite that provided a basis for understanding behavior and relationships. Social relations, norms, practices Interests conflicts, differnces of opinion had come up, and Rama achieved order achieved through respect, love, and sacrifice. The epic built a social system that discouraged selfishness, anger, hate, greed, lust particularly among family members and turned towards stability through individual and social values of patience, tolerance, and duty. Rama’s heroism was not merely ion the battlefield but on his sacrifices and ideals that were magnified in the epic. It was going to be a golden Age where hope comes back; a peaceful era, with wealth and harvest and renewal. Rama stood for renovation, continuity and preservation of ancient values. There was hope for man. It is not surprising that they associated him to be an avatar of Vishnu, the god of Preservation.
A cultural context normally gives rise to unknown events, unique leaders as it was in Greece. Perhaps , there was famine or environmental disturbances during the period; there might have been problems with village economies, and hunger, and the hero promised release from these. History has been what is relevant, and useful in collective memory not what was necessarily written in India, which is differenct from western viewpoint. History (like art) constructs what is educative, useful, dramatic and enlightening.

Indian culture recognized the insecurity in man, environment, and injustices. It strove to elaborate a condition and an atmosphere that portrayed stability, to reflect upon what is right and wrong. The Ramayana provided the theoretical and peaceful structure for Indian culture.
To the unlettered, purely as a narrative of India, it provided roots to tap into. Many of the places were named by kings with sites associated with the epic,that lent a sacredness to the local territory. In UP and Bihar, stories were appropriated as their own story, providing a sense of history. Lanka, Nepal, Karnataka and several other places were associated with the epic.

Rama (among royalty) has reinforced a certain image of political leadership and kingly power that stood for an ideology of respect, righteous leadership and a peaceful life. Hence later kings called themselves as Rama. The Guptas, Chalukyas, Gangas, Cholas and Rajputs, all considered themselves as Rama and rename their territories as one of the sites related to Ramayana.

==Dramatization of Themes==
Survival demanded imagination. The epic of Ramayana is particularly interesting in its various themes – namely – the leadership of a king, his trials and tribulations, and his success. The Ramayana evokes emotional and intellectual interests. Whether it is the Surpanakha’s episode or Bali-Sugriva duel, or for that matter, Vibhishan’s role in bringing down the downfall of his brother, the writers have not navigated the space between the right and the wrong.
The impact of the epic is due to numerous reasons. The narrative of Rama in the forest evokes sympathy, his success in the war and return to his kingdom is refreshing and joyful. The story is magical, Hanuman could fly to the magical mountain; his rescue of Sita and uproot the mountain, the devotion of Lakshmana shows his magnanimity and most importantly, Ravana the evil king of Lanka led to the rise of an ideal king of dharma. Sita is the queen of the Hindu woman -hood, and her devotion to Rama was unflinching.

It is not uncommon in mythology to create elaborate stories around historic heroic figures to elevate them to the level of gods who have time and again formed the basis for the development of religious sects. The same was true with the Greeks who created their gods. In the epic Iliad, there are mentioned more gods than what is mentioned in the Ramayana. A critical comparative examination of ancient epics and narratives within a historical context will provide a reasonable understanding and interpretation of the epic.

Ramayana created a god out of a person, and it did not matter whether he ruled a small or a big kingdom, whether Kaikeyi loved or hated Rama, whether Ravana was a real demon with ten heads, or whether Sita was born in Nepal or India, or whether Rama built the bridge to Sri Lanka. Rama’s banishment was unjust, the personality of Kaikeyi, Manthara are ugly, unnerving, Dasaratha’s guilt, his obligations, and despondency impactful.

In the forest, far from the anguish of family politics, the moral imagination of Rama and Sita has expanded. As honoured guests of the forest and its inhabitants, they begin to reconsider what it means to be human-not divine, armed and separate from the earthly habitat, but mortal, disarmed and in harmony with nature. The visual images are hypnotic. They are not merely illustrations, but condense different narrative incidents leading up to a crucial moment.

Sita is a vital moral presence whose imagination is alert to the strangeness and wonder of the forest world. She understands that here is something profound and essential for a life to be called good life from which all social, traditional, or religious presuppositions have been erased. For instance, before meeting Jatayu, Rama had promised Agastya he would kill the asuras. Overcoming her shyness, Sita tells Rama that while he is the embodiment of dharma his vow is morally wrong. The desire for power can lead to adharma, she says. In her hierarchy of evil acts, three are particularly dangerous. Telling lies is bad and adultery is shameful. It is a moment of ethical choice for Rama; of reconsidering human responsibilities and duties and she wants Rama to think and act like an ideal he aspires to be rather than a theologically bound prince. With respect and love, Sita tells Rama a story about how violence destroys an ethical man. Sita's moral stature is thus equal to that of Rama's.

Dramatic aspects of emotion, conversation, ethics, idealism, were woven around as the story of Rama was an oral tradition that was spread by word of mouth. They were enacted in folk theaters, and given detailed content in Valmiki’s Ramayana dynamically adapted to social and cultural changes.
The narrative enforce the people with meaning - religious, theological through poems, Sanskrit writings, and folk stories. Valmiki’s epic poem (ca. 750–500 BCE) was enticing for generations. Hence we encounter a number of Ramanayanas, produced – written, painted, sculpted, enacted with vividness, on a human and divine level. There is truth and beauty in them due to philosophical , spiritual, real and fictious portraits , that provides an unending theme to the artist. In it we find the power of imagination—a variety of emotions - of grief, longing ecstasy, vindictiveness. Subjects, kings, parents, children all can relate to it. It realizes the complexties of life; faithfulness, dharma, righteousness, filial piety, martial power, governance, land and leadership. The dramatization of Ram Lila dramatisation — a— fostered divinzation. The Hanuman chalisa shaped the world of the medieval.

The imaginary of ordinary folk was important .The institutional frameworks and environments in which these artistic works exist are multiple and serve as a methodological tool for understanding folk art practices from India, for they are often found in local communities, museums, private collections, or the handicraft market simultaneously.

==Arts, Sacredness and Divinization==
The epic is dramatic; it is a story to focus upon in drama, theater, dance, music, painting, sculpture, metal work and textiles. Emotional and intellectual content was appealing to all arts. Deification of Rama was achieved through various means, narrative, enactments, ethics, belief, drama and folk lore and particularly via artistic media - in visual and performing arts all considered on an equal plane.

In Indian folklore, songs, oral traditions and practices, the popular worship of Ram and Sita as one entity has existed from time immemorial. Mela of Ramayana promotes the original Awadhi composed by Tulsidas between 16th and 17th centuries CE. Other rishis such as Rishi Valmiki, Acharya Vasishtha, Rishi Vishwamitra, Agastya Muni, Nishad, Jatayu and Mata Sabri were minor deities. Bhajans and Kirtans, the Ramcharit Manas Path, and Sunderkand, Ram Stuti are recited and followed by Shuddh Nritya (pure dance) including todas, paran, tukada, tihai and jugalbandi are enacted.

On the walls of temples, in the Pappanatha in Pattadakal, are embodiments of the story, in the paintings in Mewar, on textiles are the combat of Rama and Ravana, prints of Raja Ravi Verma, and on photographs of devotion. Mewar, Kishangarh, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Chamba, Kangra or Guler assumed that the paintings had merit because they were illustrations of either religious motifs, legendary heroes, courtly life or decorative styles. This gave miniature art a social, moral and sacred purpose. It succeeded in making miniature paintings part of our social, moral world.

The artist created his sublime visions. Sita is a simple lady, compassionate, and listens to Jatayu’s tales. The forest is sacred, with birds, deer, trees. Nature is seen through beauty. Arts capture the peaceful, the tranquil, and the elementary. Models of goodness that avert tragedy were portrayed. Ravana with his multiple heads and arms, his golden palace as a dramatic battle can be seen on stage, poetry and paintings. The waking of Kumbhakarna and his going to the battle is hillarious. Hanuman’s journey to obtain the herb and taking back the entire mountain on his back as he soars through the air is captivating.
The story telling devices in paintings - of perceptual, conceptual view and continuous narration is common in Indian arts. The artist's facility in organizing the space is remarkable. A sense of balance Himalaya in search of the special herb that will save between the figures, landscape is depicted with a sense of time and space.

Many times when patronized by kings had a political function of propaganda as it was with the Rajputs. In the temple complex of Prambanan Indonesia is the iconographical programme with innumerable narrative scenes from the epic patronized by kings. The temple houses an outstanding iconographic programme in its architecture, comprising scenes from the epic. Ramayana has disseminated across many parts of Southeast Asia in different ways, irrespective of the religious beliefs of these societies. Lanka is associated with Ravana and Sita’s vana. The plant sanjivani - a herbal medicine that Lord Hanuman brought by lifting the mountain on which it was planted to cure Lord Ram's brother Lakshman) from Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was central to the Hindu epic the Ramayana, being the scene of the battle between the Indian king Rama and the Sri Lankan Ravana. The epic had an important place in the unlikeliest places in Southern Sri Lanka, the Muslim Malay community.In Java, as in the rest of South East Asia and became a part of the local folk culture from the 9th C. CE onwards.
Given that it spans more than one kind of society, the epic was immensely popular both as a linear narrative of the heroic as well as in the embroidered intricacies of the stories, all of which led to Rama being a God, avatar of Vishnu that changed the character of the epic.

==Conclusion==

The Ramanayan is an integral part of Indian culture. It is an epic of unending themes that arose within an historical and cultural context. The dramatic narrative weaved royalty, leadership, narrative, family life and values simultaneously. The interaction between ideology, narrative, and artistic traditions substantiated relevant values of cultural life. Ultimately Rama deified as a god that was equally relevant during the early medieval period. It was a dynamic method that reverberated and sustained kings, kingdoms and the populace in ancient and medieval times.

The narrative unfolds chronologically keeping in mind the human aspect of Rama as well as his ideology. The collective psychology of the people that needed the story of Rama and its spread and spatial occurrence is not a new phenomenon in the ancient world. History was made intelligible through folk lore, locale, drama and visual arts and geographical locale that was an outgrowth of earlier cultural process.
There is a range of texts, beliefs, and practices regarding the ritual and divine status of the image. A single sculpture possesses a range of possible meanings and significations depending upon its cultural context. It is essential to recognize the importance of the arts as influential factors for the sacredness of the epic. Historians need to recognize this fact and value its importance for a multitude of purposes. Narratives and arts acted together, and are interwoven in the religious, social, political, artistic, philosophical realms. The history of this interaction between Hindu imagery and practitioners, priests, curators, reformers, leaders can be still found today.

Rama and Sita should be viewed together by historians as it was and is in public consciousness. From ancient times, Rama and Sita preserved in public and historical memory suggests a discourse based on an ordered society. – on ideas of duty, compassion, and service. They are are cultural icons. Rama as an ideal leader and king. Sita is often seen as the uniting force, the ideal and keeper of dharma and human love. In Indian folklore, songs, oral traditions and practices, arts and the popular worship of Ram and Sita as one entity has existed from long.

A comparative understanding of the particular circumstances that led to the rise of the Rama will provide an accurate understanding of the hero. Ramayana is not a purana. The nature and function of an epic is tremendous, its spread, retention in collective memory, territorial relation, imaginative literature, substantiation in artistic modes is tremendous. Literary masterpieces are a product of historical circumstances and more research can be directed to the historical period.

Rāmāyaṇa where ideology and arts meet narrative and historical context

2024-01-20T03:38:34Z

Deval Sancheti: /* Introduction */

By Nalini Rao, Assoc. Prof. of World Arts, SUA, CA 

The epic, Rāmāyaṇa, is a living topic of contemporary relevance. It constitutes a substantial part of Indian historical collective memory that influenced the socio-cultural, religious, and political landscape of India to a large extent. Hence, creative minds through ages and across different cross-sections of Indian society have re-interpreted and re-created the epic narrative in varied forms through diverse media. This article examines the interaction between ideology, narrative and historical context with artistic traditions that substantiated relevant values of cultural life. History was made intelligible through religious and social values, visual arts, and geographical locale. Thus, there was a transformation of the protagonist, Rama, into a divinity that resulted in his icons in Hindu temples. Numerous stories about Rama were an outgrowth of an earlier cultural process that ultimately became a dynamic method that sustained kings, kingdoms and the populace.

==Introduction==
The Sanskrit epic Rāmāyaṇa is divided into seven cantos with 24,000 verses. It is the story of Rama, prince of Ayodhya. He is about to be crowned king when Kaikeyi, one of the wives of his father, Dasaratha, demands that her son Bharata be crowned instead. Rama is forced into exile with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana. In the forest, Ravana the king of Lanka, who has coveted Sita, abducts her. Rama assembles an army of monkeys and they invade Lanka, killing Ravana and rescuing Sita. She proves her chastity through a trial by fire. After fourteen years, Rama finally rules Ayodhya, leading to a golden age.

The epic itself, like many Indic texts, is highly revered as religious text. It is one of the earliest and most influential Vaiṣṇava texts, and literary work that is not only a great poem but indeed the very first poem and the forerunner of all subsequent poetry. The story has variations in Indian and S.E.Asian history. Texts on Rāmāyaṇa range from 7th century BCE to 4th century BCE. The most authoritative one was written by Valmiki in Sanskrit in 2nd, century BCE. In the 16th century ACE, it was rewritten by Tulsidas in the 16th century Awadhi dialect under the title Rāmacharitamānas.

There are innumerable versions of the tale; to name a few, they include the 12th-century Tamil language Rāmāvataram, 12th-century Kannada Rāmachandra Charitapurāṇa or Pampa Rāmāyaṇa by Nagachandra, 13th-century Telugu language Sri Ranganatha Rāmāyaṇam, 16th-century Rāmcharitmānas, and the 17th-century Adhyathmarāmāyaṇam Kilippattu. There have been many commentaries in Sanskrit on the epics from the 11th C to the 17th century ACE examining their meaning and intention. For example, a substantial tradition of writing narratives based on the life of lord Rama, which can be traced in Kashmiri literature as early as the 19th century. Around seven Rāmāyaṇas are available namely:
# Ramavataracharita (1847)
# Shankar-Ramayana (1870)
# Vishnupratap-Ramayana (1904-14)
# Ananda Ramavataracharita (1888)
# Rammayan-i-Sharma (1919-26)
# Tarachand Ramayana (1926-27)
# Amar-Ramayana (1950)

Ramavataracharit, which is available in published form, is the most well-known and significant of these. Among the available and unavailable Ramayanas of Kashmiri mentioned above, 'Ramavataracharit ' has a special place in Kashmiri literature and stands out for its popularity. In S.E Asia are the Khmer Reamker, the Old Javanese Kakawin Ramayana, and the Thai Ramakien, the Lao Phra Lak Phra Lam, and the Burmese Yama Zatdaw.

==Historicity==
There are many reasons to consider the epic or a part of it as historical truth. Rama, is portrayed as a living personality; he suffers all of the mental, emotional, and physical pain to which ordinary mortals are prey but he is also as an ideal king. Secondly historicity as we understand it today, was not of much concern to the authors and to the audience of past times; it was an oral tradition which was considered as a historical document. The journey of the triad and territorial identity should be included by the historian noting that past documents could have been lost. The Valmiki Ramayana in its original form was an oral narrative which became a sacred book and a text on dharma. There is reason to believe that some part of it happened in the past. That it was refashioned time and again to convert it into a religious text or for other purposes. Rama who is worshipped as the supreme form and main manifestation of Vishnu did not rise into prominence before the 11th and 12th Centuries CE.

==Oral Tradition to Narrative==
There are several versions of the Ramayana that vary according to historical period, regional literary tradition, religious affiliation, and political and social context. The original text, an epic composed by bards, was recited at sacrificial rituals, during feasts and the courts of the kings (rajas). The hero, Rama, rules from the city of Ayodhya over the kingdom of Kosala situated in the middle Ganges plain, claims descent from the solar dynasty. Rama is the chief of the righteous fighting against Ravana, a demon who fills the world with terror. Rama is the personification of an ideal king and his reign is symbolic in social memory, being a period of prosperity that has the term in Rama-rajya.

==History or Myth==
Tales of the king’s adventures through the journey can be read as we see the architecture and arts in Ayodhya, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Hampi and Anegundi. From Rishyamuk Parbat to King Bali’s cave, local folklore connects many spots to the stories in the Ramayana. That he was deified as a god was equally relevant during the early medieval period as found in artistic traditions of sculpture and architecture.
Naturally a question mark has been put about the reality of incidences that has been narrated in the text. The debate whether the king Rama, is a mythical character or a real-life ruler can run on for hours. The spreading of the epic throughout the human society from years after years was accompanied orally by many disciples from generation to generation. As it had been carried through oral recitation there was a lot of possibilities of addition and alteration at different stages of such progress.

But an inevitable question always arises whether the personality of Rama mentioned in the epic are fact or fictitious? So, always there is a question mark whether the epic contains any historical fact, or it is a simple epic novel? It is quite evident that there are several portions found in the story which seems to be exaggerated. The composed verse was being spread from generation to generation through preceptors. During the passage of long journey quote from memory addition and alteration were incorporated. However, aggrandizement and magnification was very common issue in the ancient period and can be compared to what was in ancient Greece. Thus it is difficult to dismiss it as mythology. There are many archaeological sources that have been lost, given the heavy building layered activity in areas associated with the Ramayana. While positive evidence have been found regarding the Mahabharata (particularly in Dvaraka by the archaeologist, Dr. S.R. Rao) it is possible that some evidence will be found about Ramayana in the future.

==Historical Context==
The question that should be asked is what was the historical circumstances that led to the rise of the hero and might have happened in the context of ancient Indian historical evidence. The Reason that there are diff versions is that it was an oral tradition (as the Iliad in Greece) and hence the poets’ imagination of an ideal king reigns supreme. However, it might have been true that Rama was a more compassionate leader than earlier ones. Secondly there was a reason why people had collective memory and built upon the ideology of Rama, his personality, and the narrative stories that were told and retold. They struck a chord to every class and group of people. A glance at the ancient historical period of various cultures gives us an idea why epics and narratives were exaggerated or held in historical memory. It was the historical context in which Rama ruled that made him an ideal king, perhaps the many wars or confusion, jealousies, intrigues, tribals, forest areas, that occur in the epic.

The historical circumstances during the post Indus Valley (and pre-Buddhist) period, the post second urbanization era, rise of kingdoms, strife at various levels probably contributed to his rise. Historically during a troubled period of confusion, a leader wi†˙ values made sense. The epic was created with an adventure - a variety of personal, public, and popular themes and ideals .e

The intervention by Rama for a degnerating society; his enlightened way of living was the ideal. Historical circumstances probably provoked it as it had done during the ancient Greek period, when Homer wrote the Iliad. Authors exaggerated the accomplishments of the king, his ideals, his humanistic values of a king who stood for some sort of an ideal of dharma and justices . Society was perhaps, illogical, and unjust; elders were not respected; there was discord between man and nature, self and society. There was a quest for the infinite that provided a basis for understanding behavior and relationships. Social relations, norms, practices Interests conflicts, differnces of opinion had come up, and Rama achieved order achieved through respect, love, and sacrifice. The epic built a social system that discouraged selfishness, anger, hate, greed, lust particularly among family members and turned towards stability through individual and social values of patience, tolerance, and duty. Rama’s heroism was not merely ion the battlefield but on his sacrifices and ideals that were magnified in the epic. It was going to be a golden Age where hope comes back; a peaceful era, with wealth and harvest and renewal. Rama stood for renovation, continuity and preservation of ancient values. There was hope for man. It is not surprising that they associated him to be an avatar of Vishnu, the god of Preservation.
A cultural context normally gives rise to unknown events, unique leaders as it was in Greece. Perhaps , there was famine or environmental disturbances during the period; there might have been problems with village economies, and hunger, and the hero promised release from these. History has been what is relevant, and useful in collective memory not what was necessarily written in India, which is differenct from western viewpoint. History (like art) constructs what is educative, useful, dramatic and enlightening.

Indian culture recognized the insecurity in man, environment, and injustices. It strove to elaborate a condition and an atmosphere that portrayed stability, to reflect upon what is right and wrong. The Ramayana provided the theoretical and peaceful structure for Indian culture.
To the unlettered, purely as a narrative of India, it provided roots to tap into. Many of the places were named by kings with sites associated with the epic,that lent a sacredness to the local territory. In UP and Bihar, stories were appropriated as their own story, providing a sense of history. Lanka, Nepal, Karnataka and several other places were associated with the epic.

Rama (among royalty) has reinforced a certain image of political leadership and kingly power that stood for an ideology of respect, righteous leadership and a peaceful life. Hence later kings called themselves as Rama. The Guptas, Chalukyas, Gangas, Cholas and Rajputs, all considered themselves as Rama and rename their territories as one of the sites related to Ramayana.

==Dramatization of Themes==
Survival demanded imagination. The epic of Ramayana is particularly interesting in its various themes – namely – the leadership of a king, his trials and tribulations, and his success. The Ramayana evokes emotional and intellectual interests. Whether it is the Surpanakha’s episode or Bali-Sugriva duel, or for that matter, Vibhishan’s role in bringing down the downfall of his brother, the writers have not navigated the space between the right and the wrong.
The impact of the epic is due to numerous reasons. The narrative of Rama in the forest evokes sympathy, his success in the war and return to his kingdom is refreshing and joyful. The story is magical, Hanuman could fly to the magical mountain; his rescue of Sita and uproot the mountain, the devotion of Lakshmana shows his magnanimity and most importantly, Ravana the evil king of Lanka led to the rise of an ideal king of dharma. Sita is the queen of the Hindu woman -hood, and her devotion to Rama was unflinching.

It is not uncommon in mythology to create elaborate stories around historic heroic figures to elevate them to the level of gods who have time and again formed the basis for the development of religious sects. The same was true with the Greeks who created their gods. In the epic Iliad, there are mentioned more gods than what is mentioned in the Ramayana. A critical comparative examination of ancient epics and narratives within a historical context will provide a reasonable understanding and interpretation of the epic.

Ramayana created a god out of a person, and it did not matter whether he ruled a small or a big kingdom, whether Kaikeyi loved or hated Rama, whether Ravana was a real demon with ten heads, or whether Sita was born in Nepal or India, or whether Rama built the bridge to Sri Lanka. Rama’s banishment was unjust, the personality of Kaikeyi, Manthara are ugly, unnerving, Dasaratha’s guilt, his obligations, and despondency impactful.

In the forest, far from the anguish of family politics, the moral imagination of Rama and Sita has expanded. As honoured guests of the forest and its inhabitants, they begin to reconsider what it means to be human-not divine, armed and separate from the earthly habitat, but mortal, disarmed and in harmony with nature. The visual images are hypnotic. They are not merely illustrations, but condense different narrative incidents leading up to a crucial moment.

Sita is a vital moral presence whose imagination is alert to the strangeness and wonder of the forest world. She understands that here is something profound and essential for a life to be called good life from which all social, traditional, or religious presuppositions have been erased. For instance, before meeting Jatayu, Rama had promised Agastya he would kill the asuras. Overcoming her shyness, Sita tells Rama that while he is the embodiment of dharma his vow is morally wrong. The desire for power can lead to adharma, she says. In her hierarchy of evil acts, three are particularly dangerous. Telling lies is bad and adultery is shameful. It is a moment of ethical choice for Rama; of reconsidering human responsibilities and duties and she wants Rama to think and act like an ideal he aspires to be rather than a theologically bound prince. With respect and love, Sita tells Rama a story about how violence destroys an ethical man. Sita's moral stature is thus equal to that of Rama's.

Dramatic aspects of emotion, conversation, ethics, idealism, were woven around as the story of Rama was an oral tradition that was spread by word of mouth. They were enacted in folk theaters, and given detailed content in Valmiki’s Ramayana dynamically adapted to social and cultural changes.
The narrative enforce the people with meaning - religious, theological through poems, Sanskrit writings, and folk stories. Valmiki’s epic poem (ca. 750–500 BCE) was enticing for generations. Hence we encounter a number of Ramanayanas, produced – written, painted, sculpted, enacted with vividness, on a human and divine level. There is truth and beauty in them due to philosophical , spiritual, real and fictious portraits , that provides an unending theme to the artist. In it we find the power of imagination—a variety of emotions - of grief, longing ecstasy, vindictiveness. Subjects, kings, parents, children all can relate to it. It realizes the complexties of life; faithfulness, dharma, righteousness, filial piety, martial power, governance, land and leadership. The dramatization of Ram Lila dramatisation — a— fostered divinzation. The Hanuman chalisa shaped the world of the medieval.

The imaginary of ordinary folk was important .The institutional frameworks and environments in which these artistic works exist are multiple and serve as a methodological tool for understanding folk art practices from India, for they are often found in local communities, museums, private collections, or the handicraft market simultaneously.

==Arts, Sacredness and Divinization==
The epic is dramatic; it is a story to focus upon in drama, theater, dance, music, painting, sculpture, metal work and textiles. Emotional and intellectual content was appealing to all arts. Deification of Rama was achieved through various means, narrative, enactments, ethics, belief, drama and folk lore and particularly via artistic media - in visual and performing arts all considered on an equal plane.

In Indian folklore, songs, oral traditions and practices, the popular worship of Ram and Sita as one entity has existed from time immemorial. Mela of Ramayana promotes the original Awadhi composed by Tulsidas between 16th and 17th centuries CE. Other rishis such as Rishi Valmiki, Acharya Vasishtha, Rishi Vishwamitra, Agastya Muni, Nishad, Jatayu and Mata Sabri were minor deities. Bhajans and Kirtans, the Ramcharit Manas Path, and Sunderkand, Ram Stuti are recited and followed by Shuddh Nritya (pure dance) including todas, paran, tukada, tihai and jugalbandi are enacted.

On the walls of temples, in the Pappanatha in Pattadakal, are embodiments of the story, in the paintings in Mewar, on textiles are the combat of Rama and Ravana, prints of Raja Ravi Verma, and on photographs of devotion. Mewar, Kishangarh, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Chamba, Kangra or Guler assumed that the paintings had merit because they were illustrations of either religious motifs, legendary heroes, courtly life or decorative styles. This gave miniature art a social, moral and sacred purpose. It succeeded in making miniature paintings part of our social, moral world.

The artist created his sublime visions. Sita is a simple lady, compassionate, and listens to Jatayu’s tales. The forest is sacred, with birds, deer, trees. Nature is seen through beauty. Arts capture the peaceful, the tranquil, and the elementary. Models of goodness that avert tragedy were portrayed. Ravana with his multiple heads and arms, his golden palace as a dramatic battle can be seen on stage, poetry and paintings. The waking of Kumbhakarna and his going to the battle is hillarious. Hanuman’s journey to obtain the herb and taking back the entire mountain on his back as he soars through the air is captivating.
The story telling devices in paintings - of perceptual, conceptual view and continuous narration is common in Indian arts. The artist's facility in organizing the space is remarkable. A sense of balance Himalaya in search of the special herb that will save between the figures, landscape is depicted with a sense of time and space.

Many times when patronized by kings had a political function of propaganda as it was with the Rajputs. In the temple complex of Prambanan Indonesia is the iconographical programme with innumerable narrative scenes from the epic patronized by kings. The temple houses an outstanding iconographic programme in its architecture, comprising scenes from the epic. Ramayana has disseminated across many parts of Southeast Asia in different ways, irrespective of the religious beliefs of these societies. Lanka is associated with Ravana and Sita’s vana. The plant sanjivani - a herbal medicine that Lord Hanuman brought by lifting the mountain on which it was planted to cure Lord Ram's brother Lakshman) from Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was central to the Hindu epic the Ramayana, being the scene of the battle between the Indian king Rama and the Sri Lankan Ravana. The epic had an important place in the unlikeliest places in Southern Sri Lanka, the Muslim Malay community.In Java, as in the rest of South East Asia and became a part of the local folk culture from the 9th C. CE onwards.
Given that it spans more than one kind of society, the epic was immensely popular both as a linear narrative of the heroic as well as in the embroidered intricacies of the stories, all of which led to Rama being a God, avatar of Vishnu that changed the character of the epic.

==Conclusion==

The Ramanayan is an integral part of Indian culture. It is an epic of unending themes that arose within an historical and cultural context. The dramatic narrative weaved royalty, leadership, narrative, family life and values simultaneously. The interaction between ideology, narrative, and artistic traditions substantiated relevant values of cultural life. Ultimately Rama deified as a god that was equally relevant during the early medieval period. It was a dynamic method that reverberated and sustained kings, kingdoms and the populace in ancient and medieval times.

The narrative unfolds chronologically keeping in mind the human aspect of Rama as well as his ideology. The collective psychology of the people that needed the story of Rama and its spread and spatial occurrence is not a new phenomenon in the ancient world. History was made intelligible through folk lore, locale, drama and visual arts and geographical locale that was an outgrowth of earlier cultural process.
There is a range of texts, beliefs, and practices regarding the ritual and divine status of the image. A single sculpture possesses a range of possible meanings and significations depending upon its cultural context. It is essential to recognize the importance of the arts as influential factors for the sacredness of the epic. Historians need to recognize this fact and value its importance for a multitude of purposes. Narratives and arts acted together, and are interwoven in the religious, social, political, artistic, philosophical realms. The history of this interaction between Hindu imagery and practitioners, priests, curators, reformers, leaders can be still found today.

Rama and Sita should be viewed together by historians as it was and is in public consciousness. From ancient times, Rama and Sita preserved in public and historical memory suggests a discourse based on an ordered society. – on ideas of duty, compassion, and service. They are are cultural icons. Rama as an ideal leader and king. Sita is often seen as the uniting force, the ideal and keeper of dharma and human love. In Indian folklore, songs, oral traditions and practices, arts and the popular worship of Ram and Sita as one entity has existed from long.

A comparative understanding of the particular circumstances that led to the rise of the Rama will provide an accurate understanding of the hero. Ramayana is not a purana. The nature and function of an epic is tremendous, its spread, retention in collective memory, territorial relation, imaginative literature, substantiation in artistic modes is tremendous. Literary masterpieces are a product of historical circumstances and more research can be directed to the historical period.

Rāmāyaṇa where ideology and arts meet narrative and historical context

2024-01-20T03:33:04Z

Deval Sancheti:

By Nalini Rao, Assoc. Prof. of World Arts, SUA, CA 

The epic, Rāmāyaṇa, is a living topic of contemporary relevance. It constitutes a substantial part of Indian historical collective memory that influenced the socio-cultural, religious, and political landscape of India to a large extent. Hence, creative minds through ages and across different cross-sections of Indian society have re-interpreted and re-created the epic narrative in varied forms through diverse media. This article examines the interaction between ideology, narrative and historical context with artistic traditions that substantiated relevant values of cultural life. History was made intelligible through religious and social values, visual arts, and geographical locale. Thus, there was a transformation of the protagonist, Rama, into a divinity that resulted in his icons in Hindu temples. Numerous stories about Rama were an outgrowth of an earlier cultural process that ultimately became a dynamic method that sustained kings, kingdoms and the populace.

==Introduction==
The Sanskrit epic Rāmāyaṇa is divided into seven cantos with 24,000 verses. It is the story of Rama, prince of Ayodhya. He is about to be crowned king when Kaikeyi, one of the wives of his father, Dasaratha, demands that her son Bharata be crowned instead. Rama is forced into exile with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana. In the forest, Ravana the king of Lanka, who has coveted Sita, abducts her. Rama assembles an army of monkeys and they invade Lanka, killing Ravana and rescuing Sita. She proves her chastity through a trial by fire. After fourteen years, Rama finally rules Ayodhya, leading to a golden age.

The epic itself, like many Indic texts, is highly revered both as a religious text. It is one of the earliest and most influential Vaiṣṇava texts, and as a literary work that is not only a great poem but indeed the very first poem and the forerunner of all subsequent poetry. The story has variations in Indian and S.E.Asian history. Texts on Ramayana range from 7th century BCE to 4th century BCE. The most authoritative one was written by Valmiki in Sanskrit in 2nd, century BCE. In the 16th century ACE it was rewritten by Tulsidas in the 16th century Awadhi dialect under the title Ramacharitamanas. There are innumerable versions of the tale; to name a few, they include the 12th-century Tamil language Ramavataram, 12th-century Kannada Ramachandra Charitapurana or Pampa Ramayana by Nagachandra, 13th-century Telugu language Sri Ranganatha Ramayanam, 16th-century Ramcharitmanas, and the 17th-century Adhyathmaramayanam Kilippattu. There have been many commentaries in Sanskrit on the epics from the 11th C to the 17th century ACE examining their meaning and intention. For example, a substantial tradition of writing narratives based on the life of lord Rama, can be traced in Kashmiri literature as early as the 19th century. Around seven Ramayanas are available: namely Ramavataracharita (1847), Shankar-Ramayana (1870), Vishnupratap-Ramayana (1904-14), Ananda Ramavataracharita (1888), Rammayan-i-Sharma (1919-26), Tarachand Ramayana (1926-27), and Amar-Ramayana (1950). Ramavataracharit, which is available in published form, is the most well-known and significant of these. Among the available and unavailable Ramayanas of Kashmiri mentioned above, 'Ramavataracharit ' has a special place in Kashmiri literature and stands out for its popularity. In S.E Asia are the Khmer Reamker, the Old Javanese Kakawin Ramayana, and the Thai Ramakien, the Lao Phra Lak Phra Lam, and the Burmese Yama Zatdaw.

==Historicity==
There are many reasons to consider the epic or a part of it as historical truth. Rama, is portrayed as a living personality; he suffers all of the mental, emotional, and physical pain to which ordinary mortals are prey but he is also as an ideal king. Secondly historicity as we understand it today, was not of much concern to the authors and to the audience of past times; it was an oral tradition which was considered as a historical document. The journey of the triad and territorial identity should be included by the historian noting that past documents could have been lost. The Valmiki Ramayana in its original form was an oral narrative which became a sacred book and a text on dharma. There is reason to believe that some part of it happened in the past. That it was refashioned time and again to convert it into a religious text or for other purposes. Rama who is worshipped as the supreme form and main manifestation of Vishnu did not rise into prominence before the 11th and 12th Centuries CE.

==Oral Tradition to Narrative==
There are several versions of the Ramayana that vary according to historical period, regional literary tradition, religious affiliation, and political and social context. The original text, an epic composed by bards, was recited at sacrificial rituals, during feasts and the courts of the kings (rajas). The hero, Rama, rules from the city of Ayodhya over the kingdom of Kosala situated in the middle Ganges plain, claims descent from the solar dynasty. Rama is the chief of the righteous fighting against Ravana, a demon who fills the world with terror. Rama is the personification of an ideal king and his reign is symbolic in social memory, being a period of prosperity that has the term in Rama-rajya.

==History or Myth==
Tales of the king’s adventures through the journey can be read as we see the architecture and arts in Ayodhya, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Hampi and Anegundi. From Rishyamuk Parbat to King Bali’s cave, local folklore connects many spots to the stories in the Ramayana. That he was deified as a god was equally relevant during the early medieval period as found in artistic traditions of sculpture and architecture.
Naturally a question mark has been put about the reality of incidences that has been narrated in the text. The debate whether the king Rama, is a mythical character or a real-life ruler can run on for hours. The spreading of the epic throughout the human society from years after years was accompanied orally by many disciples from generation to generation. As it had been carried through oral recitation there was a lot of possibilities of addition and alteration at different stages of such progress.

But an inevitable question always arises whether the personality of Rama mentioned in the epic are fact or fictitious? So, always there is a question mark whether the epic contains any historical fact, or it is a simple epic novel? It is quite evident that there are several portions found in the story which seems to be exaggerated. The composed verse was being spread from generation to generation through preceptors. During the passage of long journey quote from memory addition and alteration were incorporated. However, aggrandizement and magnification was very common issue in the ancient period and can be compared to what was in ancient Greece. Thus it is difficult to dismiss it as mythology. There are many archaeological sources that have been lost, given the heavy building layered activity in areas associated with the Ramayana. While positive evidence have been found regarding the Mahabharata (particularly in Dvaraka by the archaeologist, Dr. S.R. Rao) it is possible that some evidence will be found about Ramayana in the future.

==Historical Context==
The question that should be asked is what was the historical circumstances that led to the rise of the hero and might have happened in the context of ancient Indian historical evidence. The Reason that there are diff versions is that it was an oral tradition (as the Iliad in Greece) and hence the poets’ imagination of an ideal king reigns supreme. However, it might have been true that Rama was a more compassionate leader than earlier ones. Secondly there was a reason why people had collective memory and built upon the ideology of Rama, his personality, and the narrative stories that were told and retold. They struck a chord to every class and group of people. A glance at the ancient historical period of various cultures gives us an idea why epics and narratives were exaggerated or held in historical memory. It was the historical context in which Rama ruled that made him an ideal king, perhaps the many wars or confusion, jealousies, intrigues, tribals, forest areas, that occur in the epic.

The historical circumstances during the post Indus Valley (and pre-Buddhist) period, the post second urbanization era, rise of kingdoms, strife at various levels probably contributed to his rise. Historically during a troubled period of confusion, a leader wi†˙ values made sense. The epic was created with an adventure - a variety of personal, public, and popular themes and ideals .e

The intervention by Rama for a degnerating society; his enlightened way of living was the ideal. Historical circumstances probably provoked it as it had done during the ancient Greek period, when Homer wrote the Iliad. Authors exaggerated the accomplishments of the king, his ideals, his humanistic values of a king who stood for some sort of an ideal of dharma and justices . Society was perhaps, illogical, and unjust; elders were not respected; there was discord between man and nature, self and society. There was a quest for the infinite that provided a basis for understanding behavior and relationships. Social relations, norms, practices Interests conflicts, differnces of opinion had come up, and Rama achieved order achieved through respect, love, and sacrifice. The epic built a social system that discouraged selfishness, anger, hate, greed, lust particularly among family members and turned towards stability through individual and social values of patience, tolerance, and duty. Rama’s heroism was not merely ion the battlefield but on his sacrifices and ideals that were magnified in the epic. It was going to be a golden Age where hope comes back; a peaceful era, with wealth and harvest and renewal. Rama stood for renovation, continuity and preservation of ancient values. There was hope for man. It is not surprising that they associated him to be an avatar of Vishnu, the god of Preservation.
A cultural context normally gives rise to unknown events, unique leaders as it was in Greece. Perhaps , there was famine or environmental disturbances during the period; there might have been problems with village economies, and hunger, and the hero promised release from these. History has been what is relevant, and useful in collective memory not what was necessarily written in India, which is differenct from western viewpoint. History (like art) constructs what is educative, useful, dramatic and enlightening.

Indian culture recognized the insecurity in man, environment, and injustices. It strove to elaborate a condition and an atmosphere that portrayed stability, to reflect upon what is right and wrong. The Ramayana provided the theoretical and peaceful structure for Indian culture.
To the unlettered, purely as a narrative of India, it provided roots to tap into. Many of the places were named by kings with sites associated with the epic,that lent a sacredness to the local territory. In UP and Bihar, stories were appropriated as their own story, providing a sense of history. Lanka, Nepal, Karnataka and several other places were associated with the epic.

Rama (among royalty) has reinforced a certain image of political leadership and kingly power that stood for an ideology of respect, righteous leadership and a peaceful life. Hence later kings called themselves as Rama. The Guptas, Chalukyas, Gangas, Cholas and Rajputs, all considered themselves as Rama and rename their territories as one of the sites related to Ramayana.

==Dramatization of Themes==
Survival demanded imagination. The epic of Ramayana is particularly interesting in its various themes – namely – the leadership of a king, his trials and tribulations, and his success. The Ramayana evokes emotional and intellectual interests. Whether it is the Surpanakha’s episode or Bali-Sugriva duel, or for that matter, Vibhishan’s role in bringing down the downfall of his brother, the writers have not navigated the space between the right and the wrong.
The impact of the epic is due to numerous reasons. The narrative of Rama in the forest evokes sympathy, his success in the war and return to his kingdom is refreshing and joyful. The story is magical, Hanuman could fly to the magical mountain; his rescue of Sita and uproot the mountain, the devotion of Lakshmana shows his magnanimity and most importantly, Ravana the evil king of Lanka led to the rise of an ideal king of dharma. Sita is the queen of the Hindu woman -hood, and her devotion to Rama was unflinching.

It is not uncommon in mythology to create elaborate stories around historic heroic figures to elevate them to the level of gods who have time and again formed the basis for the development of religious sects. The same was true with the Greeks who created their gods. In the epic Iliad, there are mentioned more gods than what is mentioned in the Ramayana. A critical comparative examination of ancient epics and narratives within a historical context will provide a reasonable understanding and interpretation of the epic.

Ramayana created a god out of a person, and it did not matter whether he ruled a small or a big kingdom, whether Kaikeyi loved or hated Rama, whether Ravana was a real demon with ten heads, or whether Sita was born in Nepal or India, or whether Rama built the bridge to Sri Lanka. Rama’s banishment was unjust, the personality of Kaikeyi, Manthara are ugly, unnerving, Dasaratha’s guilt, his obligations, and despondency impactful.

In the forest, far from the anguish of family politics, the moral imagination of Rama and Sita has expanded. As honoured guests of the forest and its inhabitants, they begin to reconsider what it means to be human-not divine, armed and separate from the earthly habitat, but mortal, disarmed and in harmony with nature. The visual images are hypnotic. They are not merely illustrations, but condense different narrative incidents leading up to a crucial moment.

Sita is a vital moral presence whose imagination is alert to the strangeness and wonder of the forest world. She understands that here is something profound and essential for a life to be called good life from which all social, traditional, or religious presuppositions have been erased. For instance, before meeting Jatayu, Rama had promised Agastya he would kill the asuras. Overcoming her shyness, Sita tells Rama that while he is the embodiment of dharma his vow is morally wrong. The desire for power can lead to adharma, she says. In her hierarchy of evil acts, three are particularly dangerous. Telling lies is bad and adultery is shameful. It is a moment of ethical choice for Rama; of reconsidering human responsibilities and duties and she wants Rama to think and act like an ideal he aspires to be rather than a theologically bound prince. With respect and love, Sita tells Rama a story about how violence destroys an ethical man. Sita's moral stature is thus equal to that of Rama's.

Dramatic aspects of emotion, conversation, ethics, idealism, were woven around as the story of Rama was an oral tradition that was spread by word of mouth. They were enacted in folk theaters, and given detailed content in Valmiki’s Ramayana dynamically adapted to social and cultural changes.
The narrative enforce the people with meaning - religious, theological through poems, Sanskrit writings, and folk stories. Valmiki’s epic poem (ca. 750–500 BCE) was enticing for generations. Hence we encounter a number of Ramanayanas, produced – written, painted, sculpted, enacted with vividness, on a human and divine level. There is truth and beauty in them due to philosophical , spiritual, real and fictious portraits , that provides an unending theme to the artist. In it we find the power of imagination—a variety of emotions - of grief, longing ecstasy, vindictiveness. Subjects, kings, parents, children all can relate to it. It realizes the complexties of life; faithfulness, dharma, righteousness, filial piety, martial power, governance, land and leadership. The dramatization of Ram Lila dramatisation — a— fostered divinzation. The Hanuman chalisa shaped the world of the medieval.

The imaginary of ordinary folk was important .The institutional frameworks and environments in which these artistic works exist are multiple and serve as a methodological tool for understanding folk art practices from India, for they are often found in local communities, museums, private collections, or the handicraft market simultaneously.

==Arts, Sacredness and Divinization==
The epic is dramatic; it is a story to focus upon in drama, theater, dance, music, painting, sculpture, metal work and textiles. Emotional and intellectual content was appealing to all arts. Deification of Rama was achieved through various means, narrative, enactments, ethics, belief, drama and folk lore and particularly via artistic media - in visual and performing arts all considered on an equal plane.

In Indian folklore, songs, oral traditions and practices, the popular worship of Ram and Sita as one entity has existed from time immemorial. Mela of Ramayana promotes the original Awadhi composed by Tulsidas between 16th and 17th centuries CE. Other rishis such as Rishi Valmiki, Acharya Vasishtha, Rishi Vishwamitra, Agastya Muni, Nishad, Jatayu and Mata Sabri were minor deities. Bhajans and Kirtans, the Ramcharit Manas Path, and Sunderkand, Ram Stuti are recited and followed by Shuddh Nritya (pure dance) including todas, paran, tukada, tihai and jugalbandi are enacted.

On the walls of temples, in the Pappanatha in Pattadakal, are embodiments of the story, in the paintings in Mewar, on textiles are the combat of Rama and Ravana, prints of Raja Ravi Verma, and on photographs of devotion. Mewar, Kishangarh, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Chamba, Kangra or Guler assumed that the paintings had merit because they were illustrations of either religious motifs, legendary heroes, courtly life or decorative styles. This gave miniature art a social, moral and sacred purpose. It succeeded in making miniature paintings part of our social, moral world.

The artist created his sublime visions. Sita is a simple lady, compassionate, and listens to Jatayu’s tales. The forest is sacred, with birds, deer, trees. Nature is seen through beauty. Arts capture the peaceful, the tranquil, and the elementary. Models of goodness that avert tragedy were portrayed. Ravana with his multiple heads and arms, his golden palace as a dramatic battle can be seen on stage, poetry and paintings. The waking of Kumbhakarna and his going to the battle is hillarious. Hanuman’s journey to obtain the herb and taking back the entire mountain on his back as he soars through the air is captivating.
The story telling devices in paintings - of perceptual, conceptual view and continuous narration is common in Indian arts. The artist's facility in organizing the space is remarkable. A sense of balance Himalaya in search of the special herb that will save between the figures, landscape is depicted with a sense of time and space.

Many times when patronized by kings had a political function of propaganda as it was with the Rajputs. In the temple complex of Prambanan Indonesia is the iconographical programme with innumerable narrative scenes from the epic patronized by kings. The temple houses an outstanding iconographic programme in its architecture, comprising scenes from the epic. Ramayana has disseminated across many parts of Southeast Asia in different ways, irrespective of the religious beliefs of these societies. Lanka is associated with Ravana and Sita’s vana. The plant sanjivani - a herbal medicine that Lord Hanuman brought by lifting the mountain on which it was planted to cure Lord Ram's brother Lakshman) from Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was central to the Hindu epic the Ramayana, being the scene of the battle between the Indian king Rama and the Sri Lankan Ravana. The epic had an important place in the unlikeliest places in Southern Sri Lanka, the Muslim Malay community.In Java, as in the rest of South East Asia and became a part of the local folk culture from the 9th C. CE onwards.
Given that it spans more than one kind of society, the epic was immensely popular both as a linear narrative of the heroic as well as in the embroidered intricacies of the stories, all of which led to Rama being a God, avatar of Vishnu that changed the character of the epic.

==Conclusion==

The Ramanayan is an integral part of Indian culture. It is an epic of unending themes that arose within an historical and cultural context. The dramatic narrative weaved royalty, leadership, narrative, family life and values simultaneously. The interaction between ideology, narrative, and artistic traditions substantiated relevant values of cultural life. Ultimately Rama deified as a god that was equally relevant during the early medieval period. It was a dynamic method that reverberated and sustained kings, kingdoms and the populace in ancient and medieval times.

The narrative unfolds chronologically keeping in mind the human aspect of Rama as well as his ideology. The collective psychology of the people that needed the story of Rama and its spread and spatial occurrence is not a new phenomenon in the ancient world. History was made intelligible through folk lore, locale, drama and visual arts and geographical locale that was an outgrowth of earlier cultural process.
There is a range of texts, beliefs, and practices regarding the ritual and divine status of the image. A single sculpture possesses a range of possible meanings and significations depending upon its cultural context. It is essential to recognize the importance of the arts as influential factors for the sacredness of the epic. Historians need to recognize this fact and value its importance for a multitude of purposes. Narratives and arts acted together, and are interwoven in the religious, social, political, artistic, philosophical realms. The history of this interaction between Hindu imagery and practitioners, priests, curators, reformers, leaders can be still found today.

Rama and Sita should be viewed together by historians as it was and is in public consciousness. From ancient times, Rama and Sita preserved in public and historical memory suggests a discourse based on an ordered society. – on ideas of duty, compassion, and service. They are are cultural icons. Rama as an ideal leader and king. Sita is often seen as the uniting force, the ideal and keeper of dharma and human love. In Indian folklore, songs, oral traditions and practices, arts and the popular worship of Ram and Sita as one entity has existed from long.

A comparative understanding of the particular circumstances that led to the rise of the Rama will provide an accurate understanding of the hero. Ramayana is not a purana. The nature and function of an epic is tremendous, its spread, retention in collective memory, territorial relation, imaginative literature, substantiation in artistic modes is tremendous. Literary masterpieces are a product of historical circumstances and more research can be directed to the historical period.

Talk:Rāmāyaṇa tradition in northeast Bharat

2024-01-20T03:29:33Z

Deval Sancheti: Deval Sancheti moved page Talk:Rāmāyaṇa tradition in northeast Bharat to Talk:Rāmāyaṇa tradition in northeast Bhārat

#REDIRECT [[Talk:Rāmāyaṇa tradition in northeast Bhārat]]

Rāmāyaṇa tradition in northeast Bhārat

2024-01-20T03:29:32Z

Deval Sancheti: Deval Sancheti moved page Talk:Rāmāyaṇa tradition in northeast Bharat to Talk:Rāmāyaṇa tradition in northeast Bhārat

By Virag Pachpore

Sri Rāma is worshipped and adored as national hero of Bhārat, an epitome of ‘Purushāthartha’ and his stories find diverse manifestation all over the country and even abroad. The story of the Prince of Ayodhya finds its way in the folk art, folklore and folk dances of the region. During his entire life, there is seldom any reference to Sri Rāma traveling to northeast Bharat as compared to Sri Krishna. His entire sojourn was from Ayodhya to Sri Lanka through the thick Dandaka forest covering the present states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. One finds ample evidence of his presence in these states. But that is not the case here in the northeastern states of Bhārat. There is ample scope to believe that the Rāmāyaṇa tradition must have travelled to the hills and dales of the enchanting northeast Bhārat through the South East Asian region. This was later adapted by the people making some changes to suit their cultural surroundings and religious beliefs. Assam has a very rich Rāmāyaṇa tradition preserved in oral and written form and also as a performing art. The famous Rāmāyaṇa written by the great Assamese poet Madhav Kandali is still relevant to the people of Assam and held in great reverence to that of Valmiki’s work.

Nevertheless, there is evidence to prove the presence of Rāmāyaṇa tradition among the various janajāti people and communities in the northeast Bharat. Most surprising is the presence of folklore among the Mizo people<ref>90 percent of the Mizo community have been converted to Christianity.</ref> expressing their belief that Rama and Lakshmaṇa<ref>They called Lakshmaṇa as ‘Khena’</ref> taught them the art of cultivation of rice! However, they have a treasure trove of evidence and that too live ones, to prove their strong links – emotional, ethnic, political and cultural and linguistic etc. with the rest of Bhārat. The references to places, people and plants of the Mahābhārata period are amply found in these north-eastern states. And now, this seminar has brought to fore its connection to the Rāmāyaṇa tradition which is older to Mahābhārata in its historicity.

Many Muslims today accept Sri Rāma as Imam-e-Hind. Even the famous Muslim poet Mohammad Iqbal, who composed ‘Sāre Jahan se Achcha Hindosta Hamārā’, described Sri Rāma as ‘Imām-e-Hind’. Iqbal wrote:<blockquote>“Hain Rāma ke Vajud Pe Hindosta ko Naaz, Ahle Nazar samajhte hain usko Imam-e-Hind''.</blockquote>

During the late 80s, a seminar on Rāmakathā Traditions in the Northeast Bharat was organized under the auspices of Guwahati University wherein scholars from various states of the region participated and it was then this presence of Rāmāyaṇa became known to the people. Rest of Bhārat is yet to connect itself emotionally with the people of northeast, though the latter consider them as ‘True Bhāratiya’, and they have proved their loyalty to Bhārat during the 1962 Chinese invasion and on many other occasions. But it is most unfortunate that we still consider them as different from us, mostly due to their facial features and languages. Examples of such discrimination galore in the national capital and other metro cities.

However, what is more interesting is the presence of Rāmkathā among the various janjatis of the region. The Karbis, inhabiting the Karbi Anglong district of Assam, have a great tradition of Ramayana which is basically oral. The story of Rāma is known as ‘Sabin Alun’ and it is set in the milieu of Karbi customs and culture, traditions and beliefs and of course, their way of life. I was first introduced to the ‘Karbi Rāmāyaṇa’ by Swami Bangovind Parampanthi of Assam Vishwa Hindu Parishad. The great savant Lakhiman Guru who worked among the Karbi people, had revived this tradition. The Karbis believe that they are descendants of Sugriva, the King of ‘Kishkindha’ who helped Rama in finding Sita and eliminating Rāvaṇa, the King of Sri Lanka with his army of ‘Vānara’.The name ‘Karbi’ is also supposed to be a corrupt form of ‘Kaveri’, a river in south Bhārat considered as pious as the Ganga from where these people are believed to have migrated to their present habitat.

The people who can recite Rama’s song are held in very high esteem in the Karbi society. According to Karbi tradition, Rama goes to his would-be Father-in-Law’s house and works there in fields etc. to prove his competence as a ‘good’ groom who can take care of his daughter. Tiwa people in Assam also have oral tradition and preserve Rāmakathā as ‘Rāmāyaṇa Kharang’. The Rabha people have a folk song that says “let’s go and see the horse of Sri Rāma’.

Khamtis of Lohit district in Arunachal Pradesh also have their own version of Rāmāyaṇa which seems to bear the influence of Jataka Tales and Buddhist philosophy. The Khamtis are Buddhists. Their Rāmakathā is known as ‘Lik Chaw Lamang’. The Mismis, another janjati in Lohit district has a folk tale that has closeness to Rāmakathā. The Aka people in Arunachal’s Kameng district also relate them to Jambavana, a lieutenant in Rama’s Army.

In Meghalaya, a Christian-dominated state, the story of Rāma is equally popular. Especially, during the first telecast of Ramanand Sagar’s Rāmāyaṇa, a Serial on Doordarshan in 1987, most people in Meghalaya watched it with utmost devotion and concentration. The Khasis, Jaintias and Garo people have their own versions of Rāmāyaṇa. In 1900, the founder of the Seng Khasi movement Jeebon Roy, brought the story of Rāma in Khasi language first.

Similarly, Rāmāyaṇa was translated into Garo language by Redin Momin and was published years after his death in 1992. Among the Jaintia people there is tradition: If twin boys are born in any house they are named as ‘Rama and Lakhon’. But more interesting is the belief of people in the Ri-War area. This is an orange producing area and the oranges are sweet because they believe that Sri Rāma had brought them from Sri Lanka and dropped them in this area!

Most interesting folklore is available in Mizoram, a tiny state that has now adopted Christianity. Here Rāmāyaṇa is a story of ‘Khena (Laxman) and Rama’. There are various characters in this story such as Khena, Hawlaman, Luppirabon, Lucarina that can be identified with Lakshamana, Hanuman, Mahiravana and Ravana. The Mizo folk tradition accepts Ram and Khena as ‘Gods’ and believe that they taught them how to cultivate paddy. Rice is used in various religious ceremonies and in invocation to rice these two characters are invariably mentioned. The invocation to rice goes like this:

<blockquote>While the earthworm took earth for shaping world,
While Mother Nature modelled the world,
You were created by Khena and Rama</blockquote>

In Tripura also we find a rich Rāmakathā tradition. ‘Rajratnākara’ a historical chronicle composed in the 15th century mentions Puru Sena, a King who was contemporary to King Dasharatha of Ayodhya. He had attended a sacrifice ceremony performed by Dasharatha at Ayodhya. King Ramganga Manikya of Tripura was an ardent devotee of Sri Rama. Manipur, which has a dominance of Vaishnava sect, has rich Ramayana tradition preserved through kathak, folk dances, kirtan, and songs. The ‘Jatra’ tradition in Manipur also preserves this story as ‘Lairik-Thiba-Maiba’.

However, due to the advent of Christianity these historical records were either destroyed or made untraceable. It is however heartening to note that of late various universities in the northeast Bharat have started unearthing these ancient hidden treasures. In the advent of Sri Ram Mandir at Ayodhya such discoveries would prove to be the best adhesive to bridge the emotional gap between the people of northeast and the rest of Bharat.

==References==
{{reflist}}
(https://www.newsbharati.com//Encyc/2020/3/31/Ramayana-north-east.html)

Talk:Ramayana tradition in northeast Bharat

2024-01-20T03:29:12Z

Deval Sancheti: Deval Sancheti moved page Talk:Ramayana tradition in northeast Bharat to Talk:Rāmāyaṇa tradition in northeast Bharat

#REDIRECT [[Talk:Rāmāyaṇa tradition in northeast Bharat]]

Rāmāyaṇa tradition in northeast Bhārat

2024-01-20T03:29:12Z

Deval Sancheti: Deval Sancheti moved page Talk:Ramayana tradition in northeast Bharat to Talk:Rāmāyaṇa tradition in northeast Bharat

2023-05-26T06:41:36Z

Deval Sancheti:

{{Author|Jammalamadaka Srinivas}}

The word saṃskāra generally means 'act of purification'. Śabara, commentator of Jaimini Sutras, explains:
<blockquote>Samskāro nāma sa bhavati yasimn jāte padārtho bhavati yogyaḥ kasyachidarthasya<ref>Jaimini Sutra 3-1-3, p.no. 660</ref></blockquote>

Saṃskāra is a means through which one person/object is considered to be fit for certain purpose. Fitness is classified into two sections as below:
<blockquote>Yogyatā ca sarvatra dviprakārā doṣāpanayanena guṇāntaropajanane ca bhavati<ref>Tantravārtika, Jaimini Sutra - 3-8-9, p.no.1115</ref></blockquote>
# Fitness attained by the removal of taints<ref>It refers to the sins.</ref>.
# Fitness attained by generation of new qualities.

For example, saṃskāras such as upanayana makes a person eligible for Vedic studies. Saṃskāras such as Jātakarma removes the taint that may have been generated by the seed<ref>It refers to Ovum here.</ref> and uterus.

The word 'saṃskāra' is formed from the verbal root 'kṛ', with the prefix 'saṃ' and suffix 'ghay'. In the present context, it means 'a sacred or sanctifying ceremony',
i.e. The rituals which are meant for refining the body and soul. Angira, a sage, define saṃskāras to be the colors in a painting. Coloring a painting makes the painting gradually more beautiful and complete. In the same way, saṃskāras refine a person peripherally and internally i.e. all the seen and unseen aspects of a human being.

<blockquote> “Chitrakarma yathānekai raṃgairunmīlyate śanaiḥ| Brāmhhaṇyamapi tadvatsyāt saṃskārairvidhipūrvakaiḥ||”<ref>Angīra smṛti, smṛti muktāphalaṃ, p.no. 72</ref></blockquote>

===Purpose of Saṃskāras===
The purpose of saṃskāras according to Manu, in the case of dvijatis i.e. brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya and vaiśya, is to get rid of the taints acquired due to seed and uterus derived from the parents. In order to achieve this, homas<ref>It means burnt oblations.</ref> are performed during pregnancy and by ceremonies such as jātakarma etc. Similar purpose is stated even by the sage Yākjnavalkya. In Vīramitrodaya, Mitramiśra divides the saṃskāras into two categories based on their purposes as follows:
# People who acquire the fitness to study vedas by performing ceremonies such as Upanayana.
# People who serve the purpose of getting rid of the taint of seed and uterus, such as Jātakarma<ref>Sa ca dvividhaḥ| Ekastāvat karmāntarādhikāre anukūlaḥ yathā upanayanajanyaḥ vedādhyayanadyadhikārāpādakaḥ| Aparaḥ utpannaduritamātranāśakaḥ yathā bījagarbhasamudbhavainonibarhaṇo jātakarmādi| Vīramitrodaya-Vol 2-p.no.132</ref>.

Hārīta as qouted in Samskāratattva says that 'when a person has intercourse according to the procedure of garbhādhāna, he establishes a fetus in the wife that becomes fit for reception of Veda. By performing the rite puṃsavana he ensures that the child is male. By performing Sīmantonnayana he removes the taints derived by the fetus from the parents. These taints are five in number and are said to be accumulated from seed, blood and womb. These five taints are removed by jātakarma, nāmakaraṇa, annaprāśana, chūḍākaraṇa and samāvartana respectively. By these eight procedures<ref>Garbhādhāna, Puṃsavana, Sīmantonnayana, Jātakarma, Nāmakaraṇa, Annaprāśana, Chūḍākaraṇa and Samāvartana</ref>, one attains purity<ref>Saṃskartattva,p.no. 857</ref>.

===Limitations of Saṃskāras===
The Mitākṣarī, commentary on Yājnavalkya smṛti states -

<blockquote>bījagarbha śukraśoṇitasambaddham gātravyādhisankrantinimittam va na tu patitotpannatvādi<ref>Mitākṣarī on Yājnavalkya smṛti-1-13</ref></blockquote>

Thus it is clarified that the saṃskāras are confined to the purpose of removal of bodily defects transmitted through seed, sperm, blood and diseases etc. and are not intended to remove the taint of being born to 'patita'<ref>sinful</ref> parents.

===Classification of Saṃskāras===
<blockquote>Dvividhaḥ saṃskāro bhavati brāhmo daivaśca.......salokatāṃ sāyujyaṃ gacchati</blockquote>

Hārīta divided Saṃskāras into two sections:
# Brāhma
# Daiva

The saṃskāras of garbhādhāna are described only in the smṛtis. They are called Brāhma. 7 Pākayajnas, 7 Haviryajnas and 7 somasaṃsthas are called daiva. People who are purified by brāhma saṃskaras attain equality with sages and stay in the same world and eventually become one among them. People who perform 21 yajnas attain equality with devas and stay in the same world eventually becoming one among them.<ref>Samskāraprakāśa, p.135</ref>

===Number of Saṃskāras===
According to Gautama there are 48 saṃskāras<ref>Gautama dharma sutra 8|14-24, smṛti muktāphalaṃ,p.no. 73</ref>. They are:
# Garbhādānaṃ
# Puṃsavanaṃ
# Sīmantōnnayanaṃ
# Jātakarma
# Nāmakaraṇam
# Annaprāśanaṃ
# Chaulaṃ
# Upanayanaṃ
# 4 Vedavratas
# Snātakaṃ
# Vivāhaḥ
# Deva
# Pitṛ
# Manuṣya
# Bhūta
# Brāmhaṇa yajnas
# 20-26 7(seven) Pākayajnas - Aṣṭaka, Pārvaṇa, Śrāddha, Śrāvaṇī, Āgrahāyaṇī, Chaitrī, Āśviyujinī
# 27-33 7(seven) Haviryajna saṃsthas - Agnyādheyaṃ, Agnihotraṃ, Darśapūrṇamāsau, Āgrayaṇaṃ, Chāturmāsyas, Nirūḍhapaśubandha, Sautrāmaṇī
# 34-40 7(seven) sōma saṃsthas - Agniṣṭoma, Atyagniṣṭoma, Ukthya, Ṣoḍaṣī, Vajapeya, Atirātra, Aptoryāma
# 41-48 'Dayā, kṣāntiḥ, anasūyā, śauchaṃ, anāyāsaḥ, mangalaṃ, akārpaṇyaṃ, aspṛhā' 8 (eight) Ātma guṇās

But popularly the first fourteen of the above saṃskāras are performed in the present times. Deva-pitṛ-manuṣya-bhūta-brāmhaṇa yajnas, 7 Pākayajnas, 7 Haviryajna saṃsthas, 7 sōma saṃsthas are rarely performed that too by selective people. 8 Ātma guṇas are normally imparted by the moral stories in sanātana culture. Antyēṣṭi is also another ritual considered to be saṃskāra. Antyēṣṭi is the saṃskāra which is performed after one's death to dispose the body which the soul left. The primary purpose of these 48 saṃskāras is Mokṣa<ref>It is the final emancipation, the deliverance of the soul from recurring births or transmigration.</ref> But Gautama says it in a different manner:

<blockquote>Yasyaitē chatvārimśat saṃskārā na cāṣṭāvātmaguṇā na sa brahmaṇaḥ sāyujyaṃ sālōkuaṃ ca gacchati|''<ref>Gautama dharma sutra 8|25, smṛti muktāphalaṃ,p.no. 73</ref></blockquote>

One who does not get refined himself with these 48 saṃskāras, is not permitted to the sāyujyaṃ and sālōkuaṃ of the bramhan. This means that he does not attain Mokṣa.

===Saṃskāras to Śūdras===
According to Baijavāpa gṛhyasutras<ref>as quoted in Vīramitrodaya, p.no.133 (Baijavāpa gṛhyasutras are not available. But citations are available in works such as Vīramitrodaya</ref> seven saṃskāras viz. niṣeka, puṃsavana, sīmantonnayana, jātakarma, nāmakaraṇa, annaprāśana, chaulaṃ are prescribed to śudrās. These saṃskāras are said to be performed without the usage of mantras.

<blockquote>baijāvāpa gṛhyepi| śūdrasyāpi niṣeka-puṃsavana-sīmantonnayana-jātakarma-nāmakaraṇa-annaprāśana-chaulānyamantrakāṇi yathākulamupadiṣṭānīti|<ref>vīramitrodaya, p.no.133</ref></blockquote>

According to Aparārka, commentator of Yājnavalkya smṛti, eight saṃskāras from Garbhādhāna to chaula (Garbhādhāna, puṃsavana, sīmantonnayana, jātakarma, niṣeka, nāmakaraṇa, annaprāśana, Chaula) are to be performed by śūdras also -

<blockquote>etacca cāturvarṇyabhiprāyaṃ na dvijātimātraṃ|<ref>Aparārka on Yājnavalkya smṛti - 1-11-12</ref></blockquote>

The Śūdrakṛtyatattva quotes a verse from varāhapurāṇa regarding the process of performing saṃskārās to śūdras -

<blockquote>ayameva vidhiḥ proktaḥ śūdrāṇam mantravarjitaḥ| amantrastu śūdrasya mantro vipreṇa gṛhyate||<ref>śūdrakṛtyatattva, p.no.634</ref></blockquote>

The very procedure performed by traivarṇikas is to followed by śūdras minus the mantras. In present context 'amantra' means veda mantras are not to be used while performing saṃskāras. Purāṇa mantras are to be used to perform saṃskāras.

===Present Situation of Saṃskāras===
It is to be noted that in modern times most of the Saṃskāras except upanayana, vivāha and garbhādhāna have fallen into oblivion and are rarely performed by few people who are well versed in sanatana subjects. Owing to the rapid rise of in the marriageable age of girls, even saṃskāra of garbhādhāna is not performed properly. Nāmakaraṇa, annaprāśana are performed in a popular way but without vedic mantras or without calling a priest to officiate. In most cases chaula is performed on the day of upanayana and samāvartana few day after upanayana or before vivāha.
==References==
{{reflist}}