The Great Epics of India: Representations and Interpretations
SYLLABUS
Professor Indira V. Peterson
Mount Holyoke College
Asian Studies 254
Spring 2001
Tuesday -Thursday 11 -12.15
Notes on the texts
Our textual readings will be from the Sanskrit and Hindi Ramayana and the Sanskrit
Mahabharata :
A. The Sanskrit Ramayana of Valmiki , circa 550 B.C.
We will read this in the condensed translation of Swami Venkatesananda (abbr. VCR, for
"Valmiki / Venkatesananda, Concise Ramayana"). For detailed translations from
Books 1-5 of the Valmiki Ramayana, see The Ramayana of Valmiki, Princeton
University Press, (referred to by the names of the translators of each volume: volumes 15, translated by R.Goldman and Sutherland (vol. 1 and 5), Sheldon Pollock (volumes 2
and 3) and Rosalind Lefeber (vol. 4).
B. We will read very short excerpts from the Hindi (Avadhi) Ramcaritmanas
"The Sacred Lake of the Acts of Rama" of Tulsidas, 16th century. We will refer to the
Tamil Iramavataram (, The Descent /Incarnation) of Rama) of Kampan , 12th c.
C. We will read the Sanskrit Mahabharata of Vyasa (compiled circa 400 B.C. 400 A.D, in the condensed translation of C.V.Narasimhan (abbreviated Narasimhan).
For a detailed translation of the first 5 books of the MB, see J.A. B.van Buitenen's
translation of The Mahabharata, University of Chicago Press, on reserve. We will read
excerpts from van Buitenen's translation of the Dicing episode in the Mahabharata, book
2 (Sabha, the book of the Assembly Hall).
Notes on selected contents of the volumes of the Indian Television serial videos
"Ramayan" and "Mahabharat" on reserve.
The library now owns complete videotape sets (with English subtitles) of the two
Hindi serial versions from the 1980's. The following selected volumes of the TV
videotapes will be put on reserve:
Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan
Volume 1: Beginnings. Vol. 5: The banishment of Rama, Vol.6: Rama leaves Ayodhya
and meeets the tribal chieftain Guha, the boatman, Vol. 7: Guha, continuation., Vol. 8:
Brother Bharata meets Rama, Vol. 9: Adventures in the forest, Vol. 10: The mutilation of
Surpanakha, Vol. 11: The golden deer, the abduction of Sita, Vol.13: Rama and the
monkeys Vali and Sugriva in Kiskindha, vol. 15 and 16: Hanuman leaps over the ocean to
Lanka, he finds Sita in Lanka, he sets Lanka on fire, Vol. 26. Sita's fire ordeal. Return to
Ayodhya. Rama's coronation.
Mahabharat (B.R.Chopra)
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One volume of the Mahabharata TV serial (a long play tape covering 4 episodes, 45-48)
is on reserve. The dice game and the dishonoring of Draupadi are covered in episodes 46
and 47 in this volume.
Mahabharata, Peter Brook: (English, multinational cast),
All 3 volumes, plus guide to the film (Jean-Claude Carriere). Volume 1 ends with the
exiling of the Pandavas.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------You may want to attend lectures in the series of five Wednesday lectures (Feb. - April)on
world epics by distinguished scholars, in connection with Hampshire college's The Epic
Voice seminar. The epics treated are: Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, David, the Tain, and the
Ramayana. Please attend the Ramayana lecture by Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade
Distinguished Professor, University of Chicago, Wed. April 4. All the lectures are
scheduled for 4 p.m. , Franklin Patterson Hall, Hampshire College. See brochure for
dates of other lectures.
-------------------Please view Peter Brook's three-part "Mahabharata" videotapes by April 12.
Please view the film / video "Fire" by director Deepa Mehta by May 3.
------SYLLABUS
1. Tue January 30. Epics and heroic traditions.
The Ramayana , the Mahabharata, the Greek epics and other epics: Motifs,
structure, commonalities and differences.
R.M. Dorson, "Introduction", in Oinas, Heroic Myth and Saga; Indira Peterson,
Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, Expanded Sixth Edition, 1995, Vol.I,
Headnotes "India's Heroic Age", "Ramayana", and "Mahabharata"; B. Knox,
"Homer" headnote, Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, vol. I. Richman,
Many Ramayanas, Introduction, p. 3-8. Tharoor, "Vyasa in the 1990s" .
2. Thurs. Feb. 1 Oral traditions: Bards, Sages, Beginnings and Retellings
VCR (Venkatesananda), Bala, 1-4 (through p.11). van Nooten, Mahabharata,
Introduction and chapter 3 (structure)
3. Tue. Feb. 6. Genealogy, Time (Yuga) and social history in the epics
van Buitenen, vol.1, Vol.I (Adi parvan), Chicago, 1971, Introduction, p. xiii -xix
and 1-12.
Romila Thapar, Excerpt from "Society and Historical Consciousness", in
Interpreting Early India, 1992, pp. 142 -151; and Romila Thapar, "The Historian
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and the Epic". Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, vo. LX, 199 213.
*Response 1: The epic and history
4. Thurs. Feb. 8 Tracing enmities through the MB narrative: Amba, Karna, Drona
Narasimhan, MB, III - XII, XLIV, XLVI -XLVII; LV -LVIII, LXVI, LXVII LXIX
5. Tue. Feb. 13. The Dice Game in the Mahabharata, Sabha Parvan
Narasimhan, MB, Sabhaparvan, XX- XIV. Begin van Buitenen, The
Mahabharata, Vol. II, from book 2, Sabha, the book of the Assembly Hall, "The
dicing". read pp. 113-19 and 135 -55.
*Response 2: The central event of the MB.
6. Thurs Feb. 15. Draupadi disrobed: Vyasa, Hindi TV, and Brook.
Complete van Buitenen, The Dicing. Viewing of Indian TV (Chopra) and
English video (Brook)versions in class.
7. Tue. February 20. Rama exiled.
(Read through VCR Balakanda, for background) VCR, The Book of Ayodhya,
entire -- For class discussion.
8. Thurs Feb. 22. Brothers and Kingship in the Ramayana Bharata, Rama, Laksmana
VCR, Ayodhya, continued. Pollock, Ramayana of Valmiki (Princeton, vol. 2),
Ayodhya, excerpts. Sagar TV video viewing and discussion in class, vols. 5
(Rama's exile) and 8 (Bharata).
*Response 3: Brothers and Kingship in the RM
9. Tue. Feb. 27 Guha the Boatman; The forest wanderings of Rama, Sita and Laksmana;
Surpanakha disfigured
Compare Valmiki,Tulsidas, and Sagar's (TV) treatment of the episode of Guha the
boatman, Sagar, vol. 6.
Indira Peterson, "Tulsidas", headnote in the Norton Anthology of World
Masterpieces, 1995, vol. 1, 2317 - 19, and the Guha episode in F.S. Growse, The
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Ramayana of Tulasidasa, p. 277 -87. Guha episode in Pollock, Ramayana of
Valmiki, Book 2, Ayodhya.
Read as much as possible in VCR, Aranyakanda (The forest book) and analysis
in Pollock, Ramayana of Valmiki, Princeton, vol. 3, intro. to Arnayakanada, on
Rakshasas (demons).
K.Erndl, "The Mutilation of Surpanakha", in Many Ramayanas. View the
Surpanakha episode, Sagar Ramayan, vol. 10.
10. Thurs. March 1. Demons, The Golden deer, Ravana abducts Sita
Complete discussion of the Forest book, and begin Kiskindha, in VCR.
R. Lefeber, The Ramayana of Valmiki, Princeton, vol. 4, "Kiskindha", 1994,
synopsis
Discuss the abduction of Sita,the disguises and traits of demons, and the bird
Jatayu.
11. Tue. March 6. Kiskindha: Rama's alliance with the monkeys. Vali, Sugriva, Hanuman
VCR, Kiskindhakanda, entire.
*No later than March 6, please submit via e-mail a paper topic and outline
for your first paper, with a list of sources you will use.
*Response 4: The forest, demons (raksasas) and monkeys.
12. Thurs. March 8. Hanuman finds Sita. The Burning of Lanka, Confrontation with
Ravana, King of Lanka
Sundara, "The Beautiful Book". R.Goldman and S. Sutherland, Intro to The
Beautiful book (Sundara), in the Ramayana of Valmiki, Princeton, vol. 5.
VCR, Sundarakanda entire. Sagar TV Ramayan, vol. 6 (view in class).
13. Tue. March 13 Rama slays Ravana, Sita's ordeal, the later days.
VCR, Yuddhakanda, and Uttara, the Last Book (reading focus selections from
these two books TBA) .
14. Thurs. March 15. Sita and others in the Ramayana
Discussion, based on Thapar, "Traditions and Misconceptions, Manushi 42-43,
1987, pp.1-12.
*Response 5: Sita in the Ramayana
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Spring Break, Saturday, March 17 -Sunday, March 25
Please view Peter Brook, Mahabharata (entire) by April 12.
View "Fire" by May 3.
15. Tue. March 27. The Ramayana performed in the Kathakali dance-theater of Kerala.
Film In class: "The God with the Green Face"
Madhur Jaffrey, "Kathakali: A Total Theater", Smithsonian, March 1979, 68 -75,
and Clifford R. Jones., Kathakali: Epic Dance Drama of India. Asia Society.
16. Thurs. March 29 The Play of Rama: The Ramlila in Benares
Richard Schechner, "Striding through the Cosmos: Movement, belief, politics, and
place in the Ramlila of Ramnagar", from The Future of Ritual. London, 1993, 131
-83.
***First term paper due by 5 p.m. at 129 Ciruti Center.
17. Tue. April 3. The Ayodhya /Ram Janma Bhoomi /Babri Masjid controversy
N.Bhattacharya, "Myth, History.." from Gopal, Anatomy of a Confrontation.
Linda Hess, "I swear to Rid the Earth of Demons". Paper presented at the
American Academy of Religion's annual meeting, 1991.
*Response 6: Ramlila and Kathakali: Traditional performance of the epics.
********
Special lecture: Wednesday April 4, 4 p.m. : Lecture on the Ramayana by Wendy
Doniger, Eliade Professor of the History of Religions, University of Chicago,
Hampshire College, Franklin Patterson Hall, 4 p.m.
18. Thurs. April 5..Sagar's TV "Ramayan" -- A national epic?
R. Thapar, "The Ramayana Syndrome",Dalmia-Luederitz"Television and
Tradition". Begin Lutgendorf, "All in the Raghu family".
19. Tue. April 10. Sagar's TV epic, continued: Kaikeyi forgiven?
Complete P. Lutgendorf, "All in the Raghu Family"
*Response 7, The aesthetics and politics of the Sagar TV Ramayan
By this week you should have viewed the Peter Brook Mahabharata video.
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20. Thurs. April 12. Peter Brook's Mahabharata"Universal epic"?
David Williams, ed. Peter Brook and the Mahabharata: Critical Perspectives.
"Epic storytelling", Brook, "The Presence of India", "The language of stories".
"Actor's perspectives"
21. Tue. April 17. Brook and multicultural theater: Critical perspectives
Complete essays from Williams, P.Brook: Shevtsova, Bharucha.
discussion of Brook, comparison with Indian versions.
*Response 8, The aesthetics and politics of Brook's Mahabharata
22. Thurs. April 19. Brook, 19th century Ramayanas.
Dicussion of Brook and other versions, continued A.K. Ramanujan "Three
Hundred Ramayanas". In Many Ramayanas. Begin C.Seely,"The Raja's New
clothes" (Ravana in Michael Madhusudan Dutt's Bengali Meghanadavadha).
23. Tue. April 24. Counter-Ramayanas: Ravana as hero
Complete discussion of C.Seely, "The Raja's New clothes" and discuss P.
Richman, "EV.Ramaswamy's Reading of the Ramayana". In Many Ramayanas.
24. Thurs. April 26. Alternative and folk Ramayanas
Narayana Rao, "A Ramayana of their own: Telugu women's folksongs". In Many
Ramayanas.
25. Tue. May 1.
Modern versions and parodies of the epics
"Mahasweta Devi". Headnote by Indira Peterson, Norton Anthology of World
Masterpieces, vol. 2, 1995, pp. 2403- 2405. and M.Devi, Draupadi, translated by
Gayatri Spivak, from In Other Worlds: essays in cultural politics, New York:
Methuen, 1987, pp. 179 -83 .
Shashi Tharoor's Great Indian Novel, Cho's Tamil comic strip.
26. Thurs. May 3 Deepa Mehta's Fire and How Many Ramayanas?
Discussion: the Ramayana in Mehta's film "Fire"
discussion: How many Ramayanas? Interpretations of the great epics in Indian
culture.
27. Tue. May 8 Concluding discussion; course evaluations
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Second paper due at 12 noon onThursday, May 17 (end of exam period). Seniors:
Earlier deadline per registrar.