Many Ramayanas Many Lessons

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With countless retellings across Asia, spanning centuries, cultures and languages, the Ramayana has captured the imagination of generations. From oral traditions to ancient manuscripts and modern texts, these renderings offer countless perspectives on its characters, their situations and the lessons they impart. Did you know that in many folktales derived from the epic, Ravana's sister Surpanakha is portrayed as a victim of a spurned love rather than an aggressor? Or that in the Thai and Tibetan versions, Sita is identified as Ravana's daughter, while in Central Asia's Khotani Ramayana, she marries both Rama and Lakshmana?

In Many Ramayanas, Many Lessons, myth-master Anand Neelakantan weaves together riveting stories and insightful commentary to explore what Valmiki may have intended in his original narrative and how the epic has mutated and evolved over thousands of years, sometimes in unimaginable ways. He invites us to dive into its depths, reflect on its nuances and discover the versions that resonate most with us. After all, the Ramayana isn't just one story, reflecting a single truth it is an enduring symbol of plurality and essential wisdom, and the merging of many truths.

Anand Neelakantan is an author, screenwriter, columnist and television personality. He is famous for his counter- telling and unique interpretations of the Indian Puranas. Anand was born in a quaint little village called Thripoonithura in Kerala, on India's tropical southwestern coast. Situated across the beautiful Vembanad Lake, it was noted as the Cochin royal family's seat, as also for its many temples and the classical musicians that the local music school produced. However, with the passage of time and the advent of Gulf wealth, it too, like many other villages, has morphed into yet another of the unremarkable suburban townships that dot the once verdant landscape. Growing up in a village of temples, Anand was introduced very early to the world of myth and legend, Asuras and Devas, heroes and villains, the sacred and the divine.

As the years passed, Anand completed his education, graduated as an engineer, joined the Indian Oil Corporation and moved to a big city-Bengaluru. There, he met and married his life partner, Aparna. They have two children, Ananya and Abhinav.

But the storyteller in Anand would not allow him to remain in his placid groove. The unheard voices of Indian epics and the anti- heroes of legends kept whispering their stories in his ear, urging him to tell their tales. Working late into the night after work, Anand wrote his first novel over seven years-Asura (2012). It burst upon the Indian publishing scene like a tornado, sweeping aside preconceived notions of divinity and villainy, right and wrong. It has remained on the national bestseller list ever since and continues to be translated into numerous languages.

Anand was soon swept up by the whirlwind he had created. Writing and storytelling took over his life. Leaving behind his old existence, he relocated to Mumbai and became a widely acclaimed full-time writer for print and screen, and now audio. The chorus of silent characters had finally found their voice.

While Asura portrayed Ravana's Ramayana, Ajaya related Duryodhana's Mahabharata. Vanara told the story of Bali and Sugriva. Siya Ke Ram and Mahabali Hanuman, both written for television, portrayed Sita and Hanuman's perspectives respectively. Anand is also the author of the Bahubali trilogy, prequel to the blockbuster Bahubali movies. His other works include short stories, historical fiction and children's books.

The Many Ramayanas

In medieval India, the caste system, originally a construct based on occupation, was hereditary. Each person was born into an unalterable social status that grew to be so rigid that most of the population lost their right to education and literacy. The Ramayana, however, remained a text accessible to all through the dramatic, oral, and the guru-shishya (i.e. teacher-student) traditions. The story was endlessly enacted and retold, and its lessons taught to be imbibed. To this day, particularly in rural India, the Ramayana continues to be considered a 'dharma shastra', a delineator of ideals, kingship and morals a holy book for spiritual practice, a guide for value education, as well as an ever-popular source of entertainment. The Ramayana is all of this rolled into one.

This book is a humble attempt to share the little tidbits I picked up first from my father and then from the numerous storytellers of rural India, whom I have had the abundant pleasure of reading or listening to. The intention here is to open a window into the beautiful world of the many Ramayanas. Consider this book as a primer, a small but passionate attempt by one who was fortunate to grow up partaking of the waters of the vast oceans of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, while also revelling in the wealth of folk tales of this magnificent civilization. As far as possible, I have tried to acknowledge all the written texts and scholarly works that I came across while writing this book. As I draw my inspiration more from oral tales, this book claims no scholarly authenticity and it should not be approached in an academic way. The Rama Story: Origins and Growth by Camille Bulcke,¹ The Ramayana: Its Origin and Growth, a Statistical Study by M.R. Yardi, Puranic Encyclopaedia by Vettam Mani, Ramayana: A Comparative Study of Ramakathas by A.A. Manavalan and the critical essay Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation by A.K. Ramanujan have served as my go-to materials. This is not a research book, but a mere collection of thoughts, tales and lores of a humble writer. For serious researchers on Ramayana, I have provided a list of books in the afterword that may guide them properly.

If this work helps you in some way to improve your life, do place your gratitude at the feet of the unknown masters from all corners of India and beyond, who have kept the tradition alive over thousands of years. If not, lay the blame at the door of a writer who failed to capture the enduring messages embedded in this epic. Whichever end of the spectrum you find yourself, I sincerely hope this book will prompt you to explore more of India's storytelling traditions. Once you are done with the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, try the five great Tamil epics-Silapddikaram, Manimekhalai, Jivaka Chintamani, Valayapathi and Kundalakesi-then the Northern Ballads of Kerala, and so on.

As mentioned above, there are multiple versions of the Ramayana. The epic differs from culture to culture, age to age, place to place. The Ramayanas of East Asia are markedly different from the versions that we are familiar with in India; also, folk versions contain significant variations from the traditional devotional versions. The Jaina, Buddhist and Muslim Ramayanas differ widely from Valmiki's narrative. Each era has produced its own retelling. The dynamism and adaptability of the text to different times and cultures makes it fascinating.

The Ramayana is still evolving today. There have been many versions written in recent years. Among many other authors, I too, wrote the Ramayana from the villain's perspective in my novel Asura,5 from the perspective of the Vanaras in Vanara and from the perspective of its female characters in Valmiki's Women." My short stories are often written from the perspective of the women protagonists. For the television series Siya Ke Ram (2015-16), I approached the Ramayana from the point of view of Sita, and in Sankatmochan Mahabali Hanuman (2015-17) from the point of view of Hanuman. I wrote the story and screenplay of Shrimad Ramayan (2024) from the point of view of Rama.

This book thus attempts to bring the life lessons that oral storytellers of the Ramayana impart to rural audiences. Each bard has brought his own interpretation to various incidents in the epic. The version I present here is the one I grew up with in Kerala. My father, the late L. Neelakantan, was a storyteller par excellence, and he introduced me to the Ramayana.

As Kerala has historically rarely been subjected to invasions, the narration has a more critical and confident tone than the Ramayanas of the Indian heartland (north India and the Gangetic plains). There, retellings in local languages and dialects evolved in reaction to Muslim subjugation and the increasing caste rigidity within Hindu culture.