Retelling the Ramayana: Voices from Kerala

More than any other sacred text, the Ramayana has been interpreted as a blueprint for right human action. Of the innumerable Ramayanas composed, the most prestigious is Valmiki’s text. Across several cultures though, refashioning and retelling Valmiki’s influential and patriarchal epic has become a way of literary dissent in the grand tradition of Indian self-questioning. Two such voices from Kerala, included here, showcase the sophisticated cultural diversity of the region. C.N. Sreekantan Nair’s play. Kanchana Sita (1961), is about the tragedy of power, and the sacrifices that adherence to dharma demands, including abandoning a chaste wife. Sarah Joseph’s Ramayana Stories (1990s) are feminist critiques of traditional narratives of women humiliated and torn apart-both psychologically and physically-by ambitious men. Joseph’s style is layered and poetic, deep and intense. Both Nair and joseph bring out the political aspects of these stories through the dialectics between victor and vanquished, man and woman, tribal and city dweller, Aryan and Dravidian. This volume looks at the exemplary ethnical deity, Rama, from a woman’s point of view. Imensely readable, it will be of interest to students and general readers of South Asian literature, literature in translation, and gender studies.