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Ramayana Stories in Modern South India An Anthology I N DI ANA U N I V ERSI T Y PRESS Bloomington and Indianapolis Tamil folk narrativeĬ OM P I L E D A N D E D I T E D BY PAU L A R I C H M A N R amayana Stor i es in Modern South India University Press Bloomington & Indianapolis Courtesy of Bose Pacia Gallery, N.Y., and artists. Cover illustration: “Yogini” (after 16th-century Deccani painting) from the photo-performance project “Native Women of South India: Manners and Customs,” by Pushpamala N and Clare Arni. She is editor of Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia and Questioning Ramayanas, a South Asian Tradition. Danforth Professor of South Asian Religions at Oberlin College. Most of the translations are published here for the first time, and many were commissioned for this volume. This engaging anthology includes translations of 20 primary texts along with interpretive essays that provide background and frameworks for understanding the stories. Editor Paula Richman demonstrates that twentieth-century authors have used retellings of the Ramayana to question caste and gender inequality in provocative ways. The selections focus on characters generally seen as stigmatized or marginalized, and on themes largely overlooked in previous scholarship.

This collection brings together, for the first time, modern retellings translated from the four major South Indian languages (Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, and Malayalam) and from genres as diverse as drama, short stories, poetry, and folksong. Some of the narrative’s most probing and innovative retellings have appeared in print in the last one hundred years in the region of South India.

“learly organized around provocative themes that are not the usual focus of Ramayana studies, illuminating not only the ‘text’ of the Ramayana, but aspects of South Indian history and culture as well.” -Elaine Craddock, Southwestern University While some religious texts remain static over time, the Ramayana epic has been retold in a variety of ways over the centuries and across South Asia.

R amayana Stor i es in Modern South I n d i a an extremely important contribution to scholarship.” -Kathleen Erndl, Florida State University “emonstrates that the Ramayana is a living, evolving tradition with continuing impact on Indian literature, culture, politics, and religion. Fresh perspectives on the classic Indian epic