RAMA ON THE RISE
Hindu epic in the global spotlight
It seems to be the season for exploration of all things Rama, the Hindu god and hero of the Ramayana ( Ramakien in Thai), who vanquished the demon king Ravana to free his wife Sita from captivity. Two international Ramayana conferences and a Ramayana conclave will be held in the last quarter of this year. They will feature gatherings of scholars from around the world including Thailand to discuss the great epic, which India sees as having potential to enhance its soft power as it strengthens bonds with other countries in the region.
Two meetings will be held in India in December and third is scheduled for October in Suva, the capital of Fiji, where more than 40% of the population is of Indian origin.
The Indian government is planning a World Ramayana Conclave in Ayodhya, the birthplace of Rama, in December with at least a dozen countries represented. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself is expected to be there. Dates and other details are pending, and the government may also use the occasion to finalise the details of a Ramayana Museum to be set up in Ayodhya.
Meanwhile, the Brahmrishi Mission Samiti (VMS), a social group in Jabalpur in central India, will hold a World Ramayana Conference from Dec 22-23, featuring scholarly discussions and research papers on different aspects of the epic. Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj will deliver the closing address.
Akhilesh Gumashta, organising secretary of the conference, told Asia Focus that he was expecting 250 delegates, 2,000 observers and 20 Ramayana scholars from the United States, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, the Netherlands, Mauritius and Thailand. Participants will include Dr Chirapat Prapandvidya and Nongluck Sansathapsawasdi, eminent scholars based in Bangkok.
Dr Gumashta, an orthopaedic surgeon who has compiled 900 verses of the Ramayana in the form of a book called Ramayana, the Hymns of Himalaya, said the event would feature two panel discussions, one on tourism development and another topic yet to be decided.
Dr Gumashta said the main objective of the conference was to use the Ramayana as a form of soft power to connect with the world. It will propose to the United Nations to declare a World Ramayana Day. The event will also include a Kathakali performance of swayamvara (an ancient practice in which a girl chooses her husband from a group of suitors).
Dr Gumashta has proposed that the government stage the conclave in Ayodhya just before the Jabalpur conference so that delegates can attend both events, each of which will be different in character.
“Ours is an academic [exercise]. The conclave will have more cultural programmes,” he said.
The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) is collaborating on the conference with the BMS. Organisers are also hoping to involve the Madhya Pradesh government’s first Ministry of Happiness.
World Ramayana Conferences have been organised in the past in Bangalore, Mauritius and the US state of Illinois, but they were mostly private affairs. The Jabalpur conference will be the first World Ramayana Conference in central India, while the conclave in Ayodhya has the full backing of the government.
The Fiji Sewashram Sangha, a branch of Bharat Sewashram Sangha, a non-profit organisation, will hold the third event in Suva from Oct 14-16. Supported by the Indian and Fijian governments, it will be called the International Ramayana Conference. Academic sessions will be held at the Civic Centre in Suva, which can accommodate 700 people, and organisers have asked India to propose scholars from different countries including Thailand.
In the evening, the Ramlila (a dramatic enactment of the Rama story) will be performed by a 20-member troupe invited from Ayodhya. Tableaus depicting scenes from the Ramayana will also be paraded through the streets of Suva during the event.
Indian government officials say the Ramayana assemblies are an attempt to explore the global presence of the epic. YP Singh, director of the Ayodhya Research Centre (ARC), who will be attending the Suva conference with four other scholars, describes the exercise as “cultural mapping”.
The Ramayana influence, he said, could be found in Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Nepal and many other countries with sizable numbers of people of Indian origin. “Ram Katha (story) originated in Avestan,” he told Asia Focus, referring to the ancient Persian language.
Manoj Srivastava, principal secretary for Culture with the Madhya Pradesh state government, has written more than a dozen books on Sunder Kand, a popular chapter in the Ramayana. He notes that a rock painting depicting a story similar to the Ramayana has been found in an Etruscan cave in Italy.
“Even Ireland has settlements called Balipuram and Balinagaram (supposedly named after Bali, a character in the Ramayana). It also has a hill named Tara (wife of Bali and queen of Kishkindha),” Mr Srivastava said.
The Modi government believes the Ramayana can be tapped to build stronger ties with Southeast Asia where seven countries — Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Cambodia and Laos — reflect a marked influence of Hindu culture.
For instance, the capital of Thailand was named Ayutthaya in 1350 AD by King Ramathibodi. The kings of the Chakri Dynasty have been known as Rama. Many in India believe that Lop Buri in Thailand was named after Rama’s first son Lava or Luv, known in Thai as Phra Lop. Thailand also has a Phali cave that is described as the cave of the demon Dundubi in the Ramakien. It is widely believed that Sita’s marriage was consummated at Singgora, a sultanate in the area where Songkhla now stands.
Similar beliefs prevail in Laos, where Phra Lak Phra Ram (Dear Lakshman and Dear Ram) is the national epic. Rama’s story is depicted on the 20-metre wall of a Buddhist vihara, and inscriptions were found in 1803 on a hillock portraying the deaths of Ravana, Bali and Dashratha, Bharat’s return to Ayodhya and other stories.
The Ramlila is also performed in Indonesia while Cambodia’s Angkor temples depict scenes from the Ramayana (Sita Swayamwara, the battle between Sugrvia and Bali, Rama chasing the golden deer, and the story of Rama’s childhood).
In Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country, ministers take an oath of office in the name of Rama’s wooden slippers “Urusan Seri Paduka”, while the monarch swears by “Urusan Seri Paduka Dhuli Beginda” (orders of the dust of Rama’s slippers). Even the SEA Games in Jakarta in 1997 featured Hanuman as the mascot.
In Singhapura, the ancient name for the region near Danang in Vietnam, a stele erected by the eighth king of Champa (the old name of Vietnam) to the memory of Valmiki, the writer of first Indian version of the Ramayana, still survives. Rama’s story also has a place in folk songs in Myanmar.
The Ramayana influence can be found throughout Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Nepal and many other countries, even as far afield as Italy where cave paintings depict a similar story