Book Box: The Many Ramayanas - Hindustan Times
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Book Box: The Many Ramayanas

Oct 17, 2022 04:21 PM IST

Celebrate Diwali with many Ramayanas. And meet Sumedha Verma Ojha, translator of the beautiful Mewar Ramayana, who read her first Ramayana at 9.

In high school, I studied AK Ramanujan’s poem of a river in Madurai.

The Many Ramayanas.  PREMIUM
The Many Ramayanas. 

It’s four stanzas of a river in flood, describing the things the river carries away, including a quirky image I never forgot of “a couple of cows named Gopi and Brinda as usual.”

I reconnected with this poet a few years ago, with the posthumous publication of his journals. Journeys is a treat to read; you travel with Ramanujan as he writes poetry, translates, teaches at the University of Chicago and looks at life and art.

And then recently, I read Ramanujan’s mesmerizing Three Hundred Ramayanas. It cuts to the very heart of storytelling.

No text is original, yet no telling is a mere retelling,” he says.

Each Ramayana has a different focus and texture, Ramanujan explains. The Valmiki Ramayana focuses on Rama and his history. The Thai epic looks at Ravana, and the Kannada village telling is more about Sita and her trials. Whereas the Tamil Kamban Ramayana is worshipful of Rama as a God, Vimalasuri's Jaina Ramayana seeks to be more rational, he says in his essay.

In these tellings, “in the conception of every major character, there are radical differences, so different indeed that one conception is quite abhorrent to those who hold another.

The Ramayana, in its different tellings, is the original Gone Girl — which version do you relate most to?

Here’s where skill in languages comes in useful. If you can read the Sanskrit, Tamil, Kannada, Bengali or Santhal versions, you can explore entirely different vibes.

If you, like me, read primarily in English, here are three tellings — one Sanskrit translation, one Telugu translation and one original English telling — to begin your Ramayana journey with.

Ramayana Telling 1 of 3: Staying Close to the Original

Ramayana by C Rajagopalachari. 
Ramayana by C Rajagopalachari. 

At 500 pages, this version of the Valmiki Ramayana does a great job of rendering the original epic in an interesting way. It’s the perfect introduction to the plot and the cast of characters. There are cross-references to the Tulsidas and Kamban Ramayana versions as well. This version, as well as the Kamala Subramaniam Ramayana version, are also great read-aloud stories for children, to get them interested in the characters and conflicts of this great epic. For longer and more detailed versions, try the Ramesh Menon or Bibek Debroy renditions.

Ramayana Telling 2 of 3: Sita’s Story

The Liberation of Sita by Volga. 
The Liberation of Sita by Volga. 

Many tell the epic from Sita’s point of view. Not surprisingly, these are all non-Sanskrit, like the 16th century Bengali A Woman’s Ramayana by Candravati, which turns the story away from Rāma, sidelining battles, to focus on Sītā and her sufferings. Recent retellings include Sitayana by Amit Majmudar and The Forest of Enchantments by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.

My favourite Sita story is The Liberation of Sita by Telugu writer Volga. In 128 pages, this talented writer, questions the dominant ideology of an epic through entertaining short stories. Volga leads the abandoned Sita to encounters with women like Surpanakha and Ahlaya, who have been cast aside by the main narrative – we rarely hear them speak. Here we do - and they talk to Sita, and give her woman-to-woman life advice, in a thought provoking novella.

Ramayana Telling 3 of 3: Ravana’s Story

Raavan by Amish. 
Raavan by Amish. 

There’s always an allure to a counter-narrative, inverting the bias of history written by victors. Re-reading Ravana is especially interesting — as an antagonist, he can be more fascinating in his villainy, than the God-like Ram. I tried Asura by Anand Neelkanthan which tells the story from the point of view of Ravana, but found the storytelling tedious — this is a fault that is hard to forgive, when the original epic gives you, a cracker of a story. Raavan by Amish is more promising, the narrative flows easily and is vivid. You meet a young Ravana who is a seeker and a survivor, who is thoughtful and open to conversations on dharma. But for all this, it isn’t really a counter-narrative. The very title of the book, which was originally marketed as Raavan: Orphan of Aryavarta was later changed to Ravana: Enemy of Aryavarta.

These tellings and re-tellings are what make this epic especially fascinating for me to go back to AK Ramanujan who says it best, “the story has no closure, although it may be enclosed in a text.

You can talk about Ramayana stories with a multitude of people — but here is a very special person — Sumedha Verma Ojha, author, scholar and translator, who read her first Ramayana at the age of 9 and has since then read most versions! She lives in Geneva, reads Sanskrit in the original just like that, and writes a remarkable range of books, from historical fiction around a female spy in the court of Chandragupta Maurya to a translation of the Mewar Ramayana.

Edited excerpts of our conversation:

Sumedha Verma Ojha. 
Sumedha Verma Ojha. 

Tell us about your early reading.

I grew up in Ranchi, in a family of readers, including my mother, and my grandmother who studied in Shantiniketan with Gurudev Rabindranath Thakur. We had hundreds of books in our house, in Hindi, English and Bengali with translations of books from dozens of Indian and non-Indian languages.

We lived in a succession of colonial bungalows with deep verandahs around the house and my enduring memory is of the rain pattering outside, me on my favourite armchair with a book in hand.

My favourite books were Enid Blyton, Billy Bunter, Biggles etc. Comics like Commando, Phantom, Mandrake, Bahadur and Bela. Later I read Jane Austen, Bronte sisters, Georgette Heyer, Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Perry Mason variety; both the Durrell brothers, too. I remember how I had to gather together the princely sum of 50 paisa to buy a second-hand version of Prospero’s Cell!

To balance these was Vedic, Pauranic and Itihaas literature from my mother’s library. Chatursen Shastri, KM Munshi, Shivani, Satyajit Ray, Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay and so many other Indian language authors were also there. We read the Kalyan magazine regularly as well as Dharmayug. I also started reading a translation of the Rig Veda when I was in school.

At school, I was once locked in my school library in the evening, because I was snuggled behind a cupboard and did not realise that the day had ended and the school was closed! I was discovered a few frantic hours later blissfully unconscious of time passing, lost in the world of Elinor M Brent Dyer. I was banned from the library!

Has your reading changed over time?

There has certainly been a change over the years. I started with Anglocentric English books, later, at Delhi University, I moved to Russian literature. I was mesmerised by the Sartre -Beauvoir duo, their personal and intellectual partnership and spent hours reading every scrap about them in the Rata Tata Library of the Delhi School of Economics.

I would win Cadbury’s Chocolates by winning bets such as a challenge to read James Clavell’s Shogun in 1 day!

However, in my 30s I turned to a serious study of Hindu philosophy and focused on learning Sanskrit. I read ancient literature in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Assamese, in translation.

You read your first Ramayana at the age of 9?

We had a copy of Tulsi Ramacharitamanasa in the puja sthal in my home, and I used to sneak out after my bedtime to read it. I was attracted by the beautiful picture of Shri Rama and Seeta ji on it. The copy had Hindi translations which I could understand ( did not understand Avadhi, then) It was a very exciting story and I guess I just skipped over what I could not understand.

Have you read different versions of the Ramayana?

The Ramayana story is a palimpsest on which people have told their own stories with their own cultural specifics and values.

But it is special to India and the Hindus as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata are the two pillars of Indian civilisation. I have read almost all versions of the Ramayana extant, from across India and the world, at least cursorily, if not in detail. It is an area of research for me, the Adi Kavya of Valmiki and the dissemination of the Ramayana Story across the world.

You translated the Mewar Ramayana – what was the experience l?

On one visit to the office of Roli Books. Pramod Kapoor ji called and asked if I would like to do the translation of the Mewar Ramayana since they were going to recreate it with selected paintings in collaboration with the British Library and JP Losty. I jumped at the invitation, of course!

So began the mammoth task of reading, translating and summarising. Curating, selecting and setting the text and paintings in coordination was complicated. The toughest part, of course, was the choice, we agonised over the paintings which have not been included and the discussions were deep and long.

How has your reading of classics like The Ramayana influenced your writing?

The structure, events, symbols and meta language of all my writing are fundamentally and deeply influenced by my reading of Vedic, Upanishadic, Itihaas and Purana literature. This literature provides the structure to my thought. You will see this in my writing of the Urnabhih series, the story of a female spy set in Mauryan India. Examples and references to the Ramayana story, especially, abound.

And lastly, what books are you reading currently?

I read Sanskrit works, research for my current book, detective stories and regency romances for light relief.

So in the first category it is Sayan Bhashya Rig Veda, and also the plays of Bhasa. Since my next book is called The Modern Women of Ancient India, ‘work’ reading is ancient Indian history.

I am also reading The Floating Admiral which is a detective story written in collaboration with 14 legendary authors such as Dorothy L Sayers, Agatha Christie, Anthony Berkeley and others. They were all members of the famous Detection Club formed in 1930 and this book was written in 1931 to pay the costs of the club; each member wrote a chapter. It is a study in structure, ingenuity and coordination. I wish I could do the same with a few other authors! I am also listening to audio versions of the Lord Peter Wimsey books.

A Lady’s Guide to Fortune Hunting by Sophie Irwin, which I just read, was not to my taste; it was plotted well, but lacked authenticity. I am not reading any more of her books.

With that, it’s a wrap for now. Next week, in spirit of the festival of lights and gifts, I bring you stories around gifting the best presents of all — books!

Until then, happy reading!

Sonya Dutta Choudhury is a Mumbai-based journalist and the founder of Sonya’s Book Box, a bespoke book service. Each week, she brings you specially curated books to give you an immersive understanding of people and places. If you have any reading recommendations or suggestions, write to her at sonyasbookbox@gmail.com

The views expressed are personal

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