Valmiki Ramayana: Voices and Visions

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Valmiki Ramayana, the first kavya (poetic composition) and the first mahakavya (epic) of the world, is an inexhaustible fountain of culture and knowledge. It has impacted infinite minds and souls in India and abroad, and continues to inspire and engage creative and critical minds, and will remain so for the ages to come.

Ramayana, along with standardizing Ramakatha, transcends history, geography and binaries of mode of thinking. Its appeal may be discerned from the fact that it exists in different versions in various regions and forms. Notwithstanding these versions, Valmiki Ramayana rules human heart and mind for its subject matter and manner of articulation.

The multilayered worlds of Ramayana make it a seedbed of ideas existing at various levels. Traversing generations, and getting interpreted anew in consonance with cultural needs and existential questions, it has earned serious critical consideration of scholars from different perspectives – literary, aesthetic, ethical, comparative, interdisciplinary, religious, philosophical, moral, social, archaeological, and intermedial among many. Hence, it demands its reinterpretation by every generation. The present book is a testimony to it and a response in this direction.

Consisting of scholarly papers by eminent intellectuals and with a perspicuous introduction, this book reconsiders Valmiki Ramayana from different perspectives, presented in a seminar on Ramayana that was organized with the blessings of Pujya Morari Bapu.

Contents: Preface. Introduction: Ramayana as the Inexhaustible Site of Knowledge and Wisdom/Avadhesh Kumar Singh. 1. Valmiki’s Ramakatha: Origin and Development/Abhiraj Rajendra Mishra. 2. Ramayana: Between Archaeology and Text/Hemant Dave. 3. The Heritage of Valmiki Ramayana/Ramjee Singh. 4. Reinterpreting Ramakatha/Narendra Kohli. 5. Ramayana: The Voice of India/Indra Nath Choudhuri. 6. Appreciation of Ramayana in Literary Tradition/Radhavallabh Tripathi. 7. Ramayana as Literature/Rajendra Nanavati. 8. Ramayana: A Meta-poetics Text/Rajnish Mishra. 9. Tragic Elements in Ramayana/Nisha Rai. 10. Political Sermon and Diplomatic Policies in the Ramayava with Reference to Ayodhyakanda and Kishkindhakanda/Neelima Saikia. 11. Gandharvam in the Ramayanam/Rajlakshmi Srinivasan. 12. Moral Values in Valmiki Ramayana/Satya Vrata Shastri. 13. Spiritual Values in Valmiki Ramayana/Mithilaprasad Tripathi. 14. Divine and Human in the Valmiki Ramayana/Vijay Pandya. 15. Etiquettes and Propriety in the Ramayana/Brajakishore Swain. 16. Hanuman in Ramayana/S. Revathy. 17. Significance of Paduka in Ramayana/Jayanti Ravi. 18. Womanhood in the Ramayana/Gauri Mahulikar. 19. The Family Relations in Valmiki Ramayana/Nagindas Sanghavi. Index.

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.