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Influence of Ramayana Abroad

By

Tamarapu Sampath Kumaran

About the Author:

Mr T Sampath Kumaran is a freelance writer. He regularly contributes articles on Management, Business, Ancient Temples and Temple Architecture to many leading Dailies and Magazines. Having worked in the Indian Council for Cultural Relations at Chennai, and being one among the first batch of Tourist Guides trained by the Government of India Tourist Office, Chennai, he had good exposure of handling VIP guests from abroad as well foreign and Indian Tourist groups. He is well versed of the archaeological and Historical places of tourist interest in Southern India. He was associated in the production of two Documentary films on Nava Tirupathi Temples, and Tirukkurungudi Temple in Tirunelveli distrct of Tamilnadu. His books The Path of Ramanuja, Guide to 108 Divya Desams, Guide to 275 Siva Sthalams, , Guide to Kanchipuram, and Vision of Guru Raghavendra have been well received in the religious circles. His e-books on varied subjects are posted in scribd.com.

Acknowledgement: I wish to express my gratitude to several authors from whose works authentic information has been compiled by my wife Kamala Sampath, and Courtesy to Google for some of the photographs. Special thanks to www.scribd.com for hosting my e-books.

Ramayana is the oldest and most popular epic of Indian sub continent, believed to be written by Valmiki, the first poet. It is written in Sanskrit, one of the earliest Indo - European languages, and has around 2400 couplets in seven Kandas (sections). Historians have estimated that the epic was written around fifth century B.C. There are a number of versions to the epic which exist in different parts of South East Asian countries in various names. The meaning of Ramayana is the journey of Rama.

Sri Rama is the Hero and aayana His journey It depicts the conflict between Rama, the incarnation of God Vishnu, and Ravana who can be taken as the representative of evil forces and the final victory of the God incarnated Rama in safeguarding the dharma and liberation of the masses. The Ramayana is a tale of devotion, separation and reunion - a story that expresses the eternal battle between good and evil, ranging from short stories to epics.

The Valmiki version of the Ramayana is a long, complex text, composed of nearly fifty thousand verses. There are many separate stories embedded in it, and it exists sometimes of contradictory versions. Even though the moral weight of the individual characters may vary from version to version, in all versions of the Ramayana, the conflict between good and evil, the deceptiveness of appearance, and the wiliness of evil are principal themes. Srimad Valmiki Ramayana is composed of verses called Sloka, in Sanskrit language, which is an ancient language from India and a complex meter called Anustup. These verses are grouped into individual chapters called Sargas, wherein a specific event or intent is told. These chapters or sargas are grouped into books called Kaandas where Kaanda means the inter-node stem of the sugar cane, or also a particular phase of the story or an event in the course of story telling There are numerous other versions of the Valmiki Ramayana in India and around the world, especially in Southeast Asia. Most of the different versions around the world stick to the main theme but have unique characteristics with a regional flare. There are three hundred to as many as thousands of versions of Ramayana are known to exist. The oldest version is that of Valmiki in Sanskrit. Some other versions are called Ananndha Ramayanam , Adhyatma Ramayanam , Kambha Ramayanam , Arunachala Kavi's Rama natakam , Bhavabhuthi's Mahaveera Gadhyam This epic poem Ramayana is a smriti which is translated as "from memory". Given the antiquity of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana, there have been some interjected verses. Sometimes these verses can be contradicting. However, scholars, grammarians, historians have put lot of effort to standardize the original text, by verifying various manuscripts available from various parts of India, thus trying to stabilize and save the text from further contradictions. An example of this effort is the critical edition of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana. Then there are also numerous regional versions of Ramayana . In almost all of North India, the Tulsidas Ramayana, also known as the Ramcharitmanasa, is the most popular. Goswami Tulsidas rewrote the Valmiki version in Hindi in about 1574, changing it somewhat to emphasize Rama as an avatara (incarnation) of Vishnu. Another notable change was that Sita had a

duplicate (chhaya sita), who was kidnapped while Sita remained safe The Kamban Ramayana is popular in the state of Tamil Nadu, and is of course written in Tamil. Segments of the story were changed to better reflect Tamil ideas, including Ravana not being as cruel to Sita.

An Urdu version is called the "Pothi Ramayana" was written in the 17 century by Chakbast.
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Besides the literary works and rework of Ramayana, there are many folk versions too. These folk versions don't have any written or documented versions. They are preserved from generations to generation and add a very interesting flavour to the story of Ramayana. The Ramayana, as it is called The Grand Epic of Asia, which imparts instruction in every aspect of life in upright behaviour in the world by its code of conduct, in cultural refinement by its literary beauties, in spiritual endeavour by its undercurrent of Upanishadic affluence. It is strongly believed that the study of Ramayana cleanses the mind and heart of its impurities and sins and makes the earthly existence pleasant and peaceful and at the same time overcomes the obstacles that bar the progress towards attaining the Supreme Lord. Valmikis attempt to focus on the eternal war against Adharma and his lesson urging everyone to behave as Rama and not as Ravana have a universal appeal

which endeared the epic to votaries of various faiths not only in India but in many other countries, where the Ramayana remains even today as an integral part of the cultural fabric of the people. Primarily of Hindu origin, the Ramayana also exists in other versions within some Buddhist and other Asian religious traditions

One the most interesting folk version is the popular Mappila Ramayana, part of Mappillapttu, a genre of popular folk singing amongst the Muslims of Kerala and Lakshadweep. Being of Muslim origin, the hero of this story is a sultan. There are no major changes in the names of characters except for that of Rama's which is changed to 'Laman'. The language and the imagery projected in the Mappilapattu are in accordance with the social fabric of the earlier Muslim community.

There are many tribal versions of Ramayana found in India. Each of them adding further more twist and flavours to the story of Ramayana. The tribal versions, in particular are least known to the modern world and are on the verge of being destroyed under influence of rapidly expanding modernization. The boundaries of the impact of Ramayana have been ever expanding in the world, as in India, in many other countries of the Southeast Asia,

The epic Ramayan traveled to South East Asia more than one thousand years before. The Khmer of Cambodia had Reamker and the Thais of Thailand had the Ramakien. Indonesians, Malays, Vietnamese, Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Mongols, Siberians, Tibetans, Burmese, Sri Lankans, Nepalese, Pakistanis, the ancient Turks, Arabs and the Persians too had their own versions of Ramayan, which is a collection of written and oral, verse and prose narratives on the life, values, conflicts, and adventures of the Lord Rama; indigenous to India and Asia. Tibetan translation of the Ramayana was made in the 8th or 9th century and this is one of the earliest translations of the Ramayana made in the ancient Tibetan script of Tubo. In Nepal, it is the Nepali Sundarananda Ramayana and Adarsha Raghava. In Sri Lanka, it is the Janakiharan.

Chinese Buddhist sutras also contain fragments of the Ramayana. The popular Thai version of the epic is known as Ramakien dates back to the 13th century.

Despite Islams ban on theater and dance, the performing arts based on Ramayan and Mahabharat survived in Malaysia and Indonesia. In

Indonesia, the worlds largest Islamic nation, Ramayana and Mahabharata are compulsory subjects in most of the universities. Indonesians take pride in saying Islam is our Religion but Ramayan is our Culture In Indonesia, the Ramayana epic was written in the Old Javanese language around the 8th or 9th century and entitled Ramayana Kakawin. In Laos, the two popular versions of Ramayana are Phra Lak Phra Lam and Gvay Dvorahbi. In Cambodia, the story of Lord Ram is called Reamkher In Persia, it is the Dastan-e-Ram O Sita and Razmnama. Where the people are either Muslims or Buddhists, the role of Ramayana excels that of their own literature. In those countries it has given rise to poetry and other fine arts and animated a whole civilisation holding before the people the personalities of Rama and Sita. W. F. Stutterheim, a great scholar, speaking on The Indonesian Ramayana says, There is hardly a child in Bali today who does not know the general story of Ramas life. But for every Balinese child there comes a time when the deeper meaning of the great Rama epic occupies his mind. And while he may regard the fine character of the hero as too noble and unattainable, far beyond his reach, there will be among the many other heroes one whose character he may adopt as his own ideal in life. In fact most people of the South Asian countries consider that many events in Ramayana have actually taken place in their countries. The various versions of Ramayana are found in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Japan, China, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Nepal, Philippines and many other countries with varied episodes, events and names. Though the episodes and events differ from the Aadikavya (the original script of Valmiki) the hero of the epic Rama, of course remains the shining character in the epic. Some of the stories that are found in these Ramayanas are of great interest. It was through the efforts of Chinese indologist Ji Xianlin that many Chinese learnt the language of Sanskrit and the epic Ramayana. Ji, who founded the Department of Eastern Languages at Peking University, translated Ramayana from the original Sanskrit to Chinese in poetry form

The story of Ramayana, particularly, travelled beyond our shores, and became highly indigenous with various elements of the tale changing suitably to match the local cultural ethos. A year-long exhibition in Singapore on the mythological text, Ramayana Revisited A tale of love & adventure', at the Peranakan Museum, ignited the exploration of the role the story plays as a cultural unifier for the Asian region. When following its trail, the first stop is pre-modern Japan. With the spread of Buddhism it came to be known as Ramaenna or Ramaensho, in which the character of Hanuman was ignored In China, the earliest known telling of Ramayana is found in the Buddhist text, Liudu ji jing. Significantly, and unlike in Japan, the impact of Ramayana on Chinese society arguably was responsible for the creation of a popular fictional monkey king's character, Sun Wukong (Hanuman), in a sixteenth century novel Xiyou ji. We also find characters with the names of Dasharatha, Rama and Lakshmana in a fifth century Chinese text, Shishewang yuan. The Dai ethnic groups of south-western Yunnan province also know the story as Lanka Xihe (Ten heads of Lanka). The epic also spread to Tibet and Mongolia through Buddhism, with a notable variant being that it is Bharata, and not Lakshmana, who accompanies Rama in exile. The epic finds mention in Malay Peninsula in the form of Hikayat Maharaja Wana and Hikayat Seri Rama, composed in late 16th century. In the Thai's Ramakein, composed in 1798, Thotsakan's (Ravana's) abduction of Nang Sida (Sita) is presented sympathetically as an act of love and his fall is depicted with sadness. Meanwhile, we find the depiction of various episodes of the Cambodian Reamker on the carved reliefs at world-famous temples of Angkor Wat, Banteay Srei and Baphuon, built around the 10th century. In Laos too, the epic is prevalent as Myongsing Ramayana, Phra Lak Phra Lam and Guay Duorahbi. In Myanmar, the two variants, Rama Thagyin and Maha Rama, composed in the 18th and 19th centuries respectively, are very popular. The Filipinos know Ramayana as Maharadia Lawana and Vietnam's famous dance-drama lakhon bassac depicts their variant of the epic. In Indonesia, the epic was written in 10th century as Kakawin Ramayana with its influence also permeating to Wayang Kulit one of the oldest and most revered forms of shadow puppet theatre in that region. Interestingly, some variants here include the story of Arjuna Pramada, which elaborates the meeting of Krishna and

Arjuna, with Rama and Lakshmana. It says that during the construction of Situbanda (causeway) between South India and Sri Lanka, Arjuna, on the request of Rama, fires an arrow towards Alengka (Lanka) creating the bridge instantly. Cultural fusion through Ramayana had emerged and became integral to the prevailing cultures, in these regions, even though the practicing religions at that time were Islam, Christianity and Buddhism, observes Gauri Krishnan, Director of the Indian Heritage Centre in Singapore. LEGENDS OF RAMAYANA IN VARIOUS PARTS OF GLOBE RAMAYANA IN RUSSIA AND MANGOLIA:

It is stated that a story relating to Ramayana was published in Elista, capital city of Kalmyk, in Russia, and various legends of Ramayana were popular among people of Kalmyk. Many versions of Ramayana are already stored in the libraries of Kalmyk. Domodin Suren, a Russian writer, has mentioned various legends that were popular among Mongolian and Kalmyk people. Prof C F Glostunky`s manuscript called Academy of Sciences, is located at Siberian Branch of Erstwhile, U.S.S.R. This book deals with various legends popular along the Coast of Volga River, and its manuscript is in the Kalmyk language. In Leningrad, a great number of books dealing with stories of Ramayana are still available and preserved even today in Russian and Mongolian languages. RAMAYANA IN CHINA:In China, a large collection of Jataka stories related to various events of Ramayana, dating back to 251 A.D, were compiled by Kang Seng Hua. Another book of

742 AD, which relates the story of plight of Dasratha after Ramas departure to the forest is still present in China. Similarly, in 1600 AD, His-Yii-Chii wrote a novel called Kapi (monkey) which elaborated on the stories of Ramayana, predominantly that of Hanuman. RAMAYANA IN SRILANKA:Naresh Kumar Dhatusena also known as Kumardasa, who ruled Sri Lanka in 617 AD wrote a book called, Janakiharan. This is the oldest Sanskrit literature available in Sri Lanka. In Modern Times, C. Don Bostean and John D`Silva have written stories based on Ramayana. Till now, majority of the population adore and highly respect the duo of Rama and Sita. RAMAYANA IN KAMPUCHIA(COMBODIA):

Many inscriptions on rocks belonging to Khmer empire of 700 AD can be found in Cambodia. These rock inscriptions depict the events of Ramayana on the walls of many temples built during the period of Khmer kingdom. One surprising point to note in this temple is that pictures of Hanuman and other Vanaras are shown without their tails. Cambodian still believes that vanaras had their face like monkey and didn't have tails RAMAYANA IN INDONESIA: According to De Casperis, there was a temple named Chandi Loro Jongrong, which had some scenes of Ramayana engraved on its walls. This temple was from the 9th century AD. In Indonesia, another version of a story from Ramayana named Kakavin is very popular. There were various versions of Ramayana related stories, which were present in the early centuries after Christ, and proves that Ramayana was very popular among Indonesian people before advent of Islam. In Indonesia, the Ramayana is performed as a puppet show with elaborate stylized characters.

It is also an astonishing fact that the first international convention on Ramayana was organized in Indonesia, a few years back. RAMAYANA IN LAOS:

Laos actually sounds like the name of Ramas son 'Luv', when pronounced in the dialect of the local language. Walls of Vat-Pa-Kev and Vat- She-Fum temple depict events of Ramayana. The temples of Vat-Sisket and Vat-Pra-Kev have the books containing epic of Ramayana. French traveler Lafont translated local story 'Palaka-Palama' in his book called Pommachak.stories of popular among the masses of loas also described in this book. RAMAYANA IN THAILAND: The stories of Ramayana are still very popular among the masses. In the early centuries after Christ, many kings who ruled this country had Rama as the prefix or suffix in their name.

Many dramatic versions of Ramayana are organised in Thailand, just like in India, till this day. Similarly, many dramatic versions of Ramayana are still being organized in various South East Asian countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, and Cambodia.

RAMAYANA IN MALAYSIA:-

(Yearly international Ramayana show in Malaysia) Even today, many dramatic plays Hikayat Seri based on Ramayana is organised and revered. Every year, Dalang society conducts around 200-300 plays on Ramayana. Before the play starts, people praise and perform prayers to RAMA and SITA.

RAMAYANA IN (BURMA) MYANMAR:-

King Kayanjhitha (1084 -1112 AD) declared himself as descendant of Rama clan. Many books on events of Ramayana, written as early as 1500 AD are still revered in Burma. Some of the books like Kavyadarsh Subhasit and Ratanidhi are quite popular. Author Taranath wrote a commentary on Ramayana called locally as Zhang-Zhungpa. Similar to other countries, many dramatic plays based on Ramayana are conducted in different parts of Burma. RAMAYANA IN NEPAL:Nepal has one of the oldest versions of Ramayana (1075 AD) which is still read by modern priests. RAMAYANA IN PHILIPINES:-

Effect of stories of Ramayana can easily be felt in the customs, traditions and legends of majority of masses. Prof Juon R Francisco found that in Marineo Muslims, legend based on Ramayana is popular, in which Rama has been depicted as Incarnation of God. Similarly among Magindanao or Sulu folk Muslims various legends based on the stories of Ramayana are popular.

RAMAYANA IN IRAN: Marco Polo wrote about a surprising belief among Muslims living in whole gulf region, of Afghanistan, Algeria and Morocco. These Muslims had the belief that members living in imperial house (Trebizond) were gifted short tails while medieval continentals had whitish skins like Englishmen, thereby establishing that before the advent of Christianity and Islam, the existence of Mahabharata and Ramayana in Arabic and European countries. Many historical and archaeological significant buildings were destroyed by dogmatic and barbaric rulers of the Middle West. In the Salarjung museum in Hyderabad a painting from Iran depicts a monkey holding a very large stone in his hand which is commonly percieved as Hanuman holding Dronagiri RAMAYANA IN EUROPE: In Italy, when excavation was carried out in the remains of Astrocon civilization, then various houses were found having peculiar type of paintings on their wall. These paintaings, on closure investigation, seems to be based on the stories of Ramayana. Some of the paintings show peculiar persons having tails along with two men bearing bows and arrow on their shoulders, while a lady is standing beside them. These paintings are of 7 century BC.

Sir Henry Yule in his translation of works of Marcopolo has referred to the belief prevalent among Medival Europeans that their ancestors were having small tails.

RAMAYANA IN AFRICAN CONTINENT: People of Ethiopia call themselves as descendents of Cushites. This word Cush is basically phonetic misnomer of Kush, son of Rama. This fact is verily established by Satpath Brahamans, commentary on Vedas. These Brahamans while explaining various mantras of Vedas use many histrorical events to elucidate the topic. Astonishingly in Satpath Brahaman we find reference regarding the rule of King Bharata (predecessor of Kaurav and Pandavs) in Rhodesia. Besides many inconsistent legends inspired by epic of Ramayana are prevalent in African Communities and they basically refers to various activities of vanars. Egypt basically derives its name from Ajpati which is one of the names of the forefather of Rama. RAMAYANA IN THE AMERICAN CONTINENT: Migration of Indians brought the epic popular and many cultural shows are being organised. International conferences are being conducted in various parts of the continent.

French publisher Diane De Selliers has accomplished the creation of a beautiful version of Valmiki's Ramayana in French, illustrated with 660 exquisite reproductions of miniature paintings (16th-19th centuries) sourced from around the world. Diane de Selliers comments, that having read the epic four times in full, not only does she feel transformed as a person but feels an immense sense of achievement at having made the work accessible to a European audience. Ramayana is now available in Polish language, courtesy Janusz Krzyzowski, an Indologist in Poland who has translated the monumental work. Though a few episodes of Ramayana were translated into Polish in 1816, these were translations by western writers. In the 20th century, some attempts were made to translate a few more chapters. Krzyzowski has now presented a comprehensive translation, based on the original penned by Maharishi Valmiki in Sanskrit.

Cultural Center (JNCC) at Moscow organized a function to honor those who are associated with translating and staging the Ramayana as a play in Russia. While eminent Indologist Alexander Baranikov first translated the Ramayana into Russian in 1948, Natalia Guseva, another prominent scholar on India, had written the script for a play based on the Indian epic that was staged in Moscow Children's Theatre in the Soviet Union for the first time in 1957. The Ramayana, popularly perceived as a tale of triumph of good over evil, is used extensively for inculcating noble values in Russian children, and has been staged in scores of cities many times over during the past five decades. The work was first translated into a European language (English) by William Carey and Joshua Marshman between 1806 and 1810 and then into Latin by August Wilhelm von Schlegel between 1829 and 1838. Russia is perhaps the only European country where the Valmiki Ramayana, has sold tens of thousands of copies in Russian. . The Jawaharlal Nehru Cultural Center (JNCC) at Moscow organized a function to honor those who are associated with translating and staging the Ramayana as a play in Russia, where more than a

thousand people offered prayers and tributes to the Hindu God Ram in the first ever Ramnavami celebrations, at which Russian artists and writers who took Ram's story to the people were felicitated..

An Arabic version of the Ramayana translated by noted Lebanese poet Wadi-al-Bustani was recently released at the Jaipur Literature Festival. The book, titled Ramayana, will promote cross-cultural understanding and appreciation of each others spiritual heritage, Syed Shahid Mahdi, vice president of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), said at its unveiling.