Living Ramayanas

Title: Living Ramayanas – Exploring the Plurality of the Epic in Wayanad and the World
Author: Azeez Tharuvana
Translator: Obed Ebenezer S
Publisher: Eka, 2021 (First published in Malayalam: 2014)
ISBN: 9789390679737
Pages: 252

Ramayana is one of the original sources that make up the soul of India. Irrespective of the caste, creed, ethnicity or language of the people, this epic is known to every Indian worth the name. What is astonishing is its wide circulation even among societies which stay aloof from the mainstream such as Adivasis. Quite naturally, when an idea seeps down to every nook and cranny of the country, especially when the means and quality of communication were sparse and unreliable, a lot of subtle changes occur in the narrative as it changes hands across speakers spanning generations. Before the advent of writing or with illiterate people, the transfer of ideas happens only through the storage medium of human memory which is fallible. Besides, story tellers with a flair for the job embellish it to rivet the attention of the listeners. As a consequence, numerous variations of the Ramayana core tale occurred over the millennia. Ramayana continually adapted itself to the nature of the times, the people and the culture in which it has been produced. This work is translated from the Malayalam text ‘Wayanadan Ramayanam’. It examines the different versions circulating among tribal communities of Wayanad, in other states of India and also among overseas countries. This work is a partial record of the author’s research conducted under the guidance of Dr. A. Nujum. Azeez Tharuvana is a native of Wayanad and served as assistant director of the Institute for Tribal Studies and Research. He is currently professor and head of the department of Malayalam at Farook College, Kozhikode.

Among the tribal communities of Wayanad, there exist unique beliefs relating to the Ramayana story. Even within the same tribe, there are many different versions of the same legend. The tribal people use these versions of the Ramayana to justify their ritual beliefs, to trace their ancestry and to glorify their lineage. The book introduces three variations in common use in Wayanad and condenses the stories. There are similarities between them. The Adiya Ramayana, popular among the Adiya community, places the characters in Wayanad and the story unfolds there. Lanka is also in Wayanad. Ordinary human emotions and actions are attributed to the divine characters. In one of these, a dispute breaks out between Ram and Sita when the former discovers stones and sand in the gruel prepared by the latter! The native narratives link various locations like Sitakulam, Ashramkolly, Sasimala, Ponkuzhy, Thirunelli etc. in Wayanad to particular episodes in their version of the epic. Sitayanam and Wayanad Chetty Ramayana are also examined, where the latter is not much different from the standard version. In various regions of Wayanad, Lava and Kusa (Ram’s children) are called by different names such as Lavakuchan, Muriken, Atharvalar and so on. Many legends exist that link geological features such as streams, waterfalls, natural springs and rocks with the characters of Ramayana. There is a tributary of Kabani named Kannuneerpuzha (stream of tears) which is believed to have been formed by Sita’s tears at her abandonment by Ram.

Even though the author constantly endeavours to portray Dalits and Adivasis as separate from the Hindu fold, the nature of their beliefs and rituals scatter his arguments to the winds. Eventually, he helplessly concedes that savarna gods were incorporated by the Adivasis into their songs, but still raises a feeble caveat that these were modern. On the ground, the influence of Ramayana is genuine and rock-solid. The folk interpretation of mythological tales in Wayanad are inseparably linked to its landscape. This is similar to the relationship Indian epics have with Mount Kailash and the Himalayas and with the forest and forest-dwellers. Each tribal community appears to be a part of the Hindu caste hierarchy and aspires to rise higher by using legends, exactly like other castes do. Each community believes themselves to be noble. The genesis myth of Kurichyas claims that the Brahmins and Kurichyas are the noblest of Brahma’s creations. They are the only two pure castes on earth (p.61). Kurichyas believe themselves to be Ram’s soldiers. The Adivasis further believe that the traditional healing methods they use were taught to them by Shiva himself. And, Azeez treats them as non-Hindus! The book notes that Kerala was a stronghold of Buddhism in the ancient times and Wayanad was especially raised under the umbrella of Jainism. If these assumptions were true, we should have seen the Ramayana stories in Wayanad interspersed with Jain themes or at least influenced by them as seen in other parts of India. However, Azeez fails to mention any specific sway in the Wayanad folk tales that can be attributed to Buddhism or Jainism.

The book is very informative and provides many original snippets of knowledge regarding how Ramayana is so closely woven into the social fabric of Wayanad tribals. In spite of this, a wicked agenda is clearly discernible in the narrative. The author treats Dalits and Adivasis separate from Hindus and lets out comments like ‘the Hindus and Adivasis here both believe that this is the place where Sita devi disappeared into the earth’ (p.45). There are several references like this inserted casually into the text which try to drive a wedge right through the heart of Hindu society. In another instance, the book observes that several insertions have been added to the text of the Valmiki Ramayana to buttress and reinforce the concept of caste or Brahmin supremacy. Even though couched differently, the objective is the same. This is no wonder if you look back to the pre-partition days in India when the Muslim League was using the same technique using the same words. According to the author, the Adivasis seem to be oppressed and exploited only by the upper caste Hindus whereas all religious communities, including the Muslims and Christians in Wayanad do so. The foreword provided by K N Panikkar praises the author for ‘conducting the study by closely interacting with the tribal-Dalit-religious communities’. See the Left-Islamist cabal of historians harping on the same disruptive tune again and again? The author’s project guide for the research was Dr. A Nujum of the Aligarh Muslim University. He concludes that ‘when a dominant society gains the tendency to swallow up other smaller civilizations and sub-cultures, they resist by producing a thousand oral traditions’. The author is employed as a teaching faculty of the Farook College which is managed by the Islamic Rouzathul Uloom Association. Being so, Azeez should have shown a bit of decency and courtesy in denigrating the religious sensibilities of Hindus with statements like ‘Ramayana is not a historical text. It is a myth’.

The book introduces multiple versions of the Ramayana in vogue in other countries such as China, Japan, Southeast Asia and Central Asia. Whichever land had any interactions with India, possess a piece of Ramayana story as a relic of the relationship. It is interesting to learn that Muslim communities in these nations also have internalized this story. In Malaysia and Indonesia, Allah, Adam, Gabriel and others from Islamic lore and faith figures are seen in the Ramayana versions. They assume the positions of Brahma, Vishnu and other deities of the Hindu faith (p.157). The chapter titled ‘Muslims and the Ramayana’ tries to reconcile Islamic tenets with Hindu ones to suggest a syncretic product. In a veiled reference to the famous Gita couplet sambhavami yuge yuge, the author claims Muslims believe that ‘whenever righteousness is threatened and society suffers moral and spiritual decay, prophets make their appearance in different parts of the world’ (p.149). This appears to be a deliberate falsehood to gain acceptance among other communities. Finality of the prophecy of Muhammad is a fundamental and irrepudiable concept of Islam. This means that there will be no prophets after Muhammad even if righteousness or morality is compromised.

Azeez provides a good simile to the spread of Ramayana far and wide. As water flowing through different lands mingles with the colour of soils along the way, our legends and myths too, as they travel across lands and communities, mingle with their environs and sensibilities. True to the title, the book surveys Ramayanas in the major Indian languages as well as Persian and Urdu. Ramayanas composed by Muslim poets in Kerala’s mappilappattu style and Arabic are also introduced. A determined effort was made in the Mughal times under Akbar to translate Hindu holy texts to Persian. He employed Badauni to translate Ramayana who modified some parts of it with the result that it came to be called ‘Akbar Ramayana’. Azeez describes the project as a happy labour of love but hides the real purpose of Badauni who undertook the work and his personal motive behind it. Without going into the details, let me say that it is not at all music to the ears and reflects exactly what we would expect from a bigot even today. To know more about Badauni’s attitude, see my earlier review of Audrey Truschke’s book, ‘Culture of Encounters – Sanskrit at the Mughal Court’.

The included creation legends of various tribes indicate the presence of Muslims in their midst and appear to be quite modern (p.58). Anyhow, the trait of inclusivity which it witnesses is compatible with the Pan-Indian spirit of tolerance. Even then the author uses his argument to find holes and widen the fault lines in Indian society. The focus of the book centres on the unfinished agenda of the Left-Islamist nexus to project the Ramayana not as a religious text with an authentic version, but instead as numerous versions of secular folk literature that reflect the life of the communities in which these tellings are created. Azeez tries to harp on the differences and variations in the narrative and claims the reason to be the exploitation of these communities by upper castes. He fails to see – or more probably, pretends not to see – that these slightly different versions unite them all together with the main text since these modifications are the earnest effort of these communities to partake a share of the epic poem that binds the nation together on the cultural sphere. This is also an attestation that whether hill or dale, tribal or city-dweller, every part and person in India is tied one way or the other to the national psyche through the Ramayana legend. It’s somewhat amusing that the author still believes in the Aryan invasion theory which speculates that the Aryans invaded India and destroyed the Dravidian-built Indus Valley Culture. This notion is long discarded by eminent academics, particularly in the wake of genetic analyses. Moreover, he treats Dravidian as a human race, rather than a language group – another capital mistake on the part of a serious scholar. The book includes a big glossary. Apart from the chapters on Wayanad and its tribal groups, the other parts feel like a handbook where the information is simply copied from other texts without any value addition.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 2 Star