The long and continuous tradition of Rama-Katha existed in many folk and oral forms before Adikavi Valmiki composed it in Sanskrit in written form as the Ramayana, "a book of divine harmony . . . a bottomless and shoreless ocean of love, piety and clemency." The subsequent centuries witnessed composition of Ramayana in many Indian languages like Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali, Assamese, Hindi, Kashmiri, Gujarati and Marathi among others. These versions share many similarities and some dissimilarities among them, though their epicentral concerns remain the same. The present volume comprising more than a dozen articles by distinguished scholars discuss Ramayana in different Indian languages. The volume, it is hoped, would lead to mutual illumination of Rama-Katha in different Indian languages and facilitate greater understanding of its timeless appeal and journey through ages.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Avadhesh Kumar Singh
Avadesh Kumar Singh (1960-) is Vice Chancellor, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University since August 1, 2006. Prior to the present assignment, he was Professor and head, Dept. of English and Comparative Literary Studies, Saurashtra University, Rajkot; and Coordinator, University Grants Commission (UGC) Special Assistance Programme (SAP) /DRS) on "Indian Renaissance Literature with Special reference to English, Gujarati and Hindi". The areas of his interest include Indian and Western literacy theories, comparative literature, Indian literature and translation, Indian literature and translation studies on which he has published 10 books and more than 75 papers in various journals and anthologies of academic repute. Indian Knowledge Systems, 2 vols. (2005) and Discourse of resistance in the colonial Period (2005) are among his last publications. Also he has delivered Keynote Addresses to many national and international seminars. He is the editor of critical Practice, a journal of literary and critical studies since 1994.
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