Linda Egenes - The Ramayana

T HE GREAT EPIC known as the Rmyana may be one of the most generative pieces of literature ever written. The sixteenth-century saint and reteller of the Rmyana, Tulsds, effused:

Rm incarnates in countless ways.

And there are tens of millions of Rmyanas.

The Rmyana has an extraordinary tradition of re-creating itself, and through this process it has appeared in many different forms and media. Whether chanted in Sanskrit or expressed in the literary traditions of the vast range of South Asian languages; whether appearing in the dim light of Indonesian shadow puppet plays or celebrated ritually in an all-night Kachuk dance; or whether decorating the royal palace in Thailand in miles of bas-relief or moving audiences in the many dance dramas in both classical and folk traditions, the sheer number of Rmyana tellings over the last several thousand years has been nothing short of astonishing.

Continuing this tradition, there is always room for one more retelling of the Rmyana, especially when it captures the essence of the original, as reflected in this new retelling by Linda Egenes and Kumuda Reddy. Their abridged adaptation, with its direct and simple style, using rhythmic prose rather than poetic meter, has captured the essence of the original with a purity and simplicity that is true to Vlmkis original intent, yet is moving and touching to the heart in a very modern sense.

For those not familiar with the Rmyana, it has been described as the original epic questcomparable to the Bible, Star Wars, and Romeo and Juliet all rolled into one. Revered today by over one billion people worldwide as the most sacred of stories, the Rmyana not only has its roots as the national treasure of India and Southeast Asia, but has emerged as one of the great classics of world literature. The Rmyana is the ayana (journey) of one of the most illustrious of epic heroesRma.

Cognized by the illustrious sage Vlmki, the Rmyana was originally chanted in Sanskrit, the language of the Vedic civilization of ancient India. The date of the composition of the Rmyana cannot be fixed, since in the tradition of Vedic knowledge, the literature was handed down orally for thousands of years, singer to singer, generation after generation. Whenever he actually wrote down his cognition, Vlmkiconsidered the first poetcaptured the Rmyana in poetry of unsurpassed dramatic power and richness in over 24,000 couplet verses, or shlokas, making it one of the longest epic poems ever written. Of the many branches of the Sanskrit literature, the Rmyana belongs to the Itihsa branch, which also contains its longer companion epic, the Mahbhrata.

The Rmyana is the epic adventure of the enlightened hero Rma and his quest to purify the world of ignorance and negativity. Along the way, Rma is united with his wife St; encounters separation from his beloved; and finally overcomes these challenges by destroying the forces of darkness and transforming the world. Throughout this journey, the themes of love and Dharma intertwine in an exquisite archetypal play that deepens the story at every turn.

There is a saying, That which lasts longest is closest to the truth. By this measure, the Rmyana holds a unique position in the field of world literature. Both in terms of its lasting impact over time, as well as its influence across many cultures, the Rmyana has maintained a universal appeal that has reverberated across millennia. In addition to its revered status throughout the East, the Rmyana has also had a seminal impact on Western mythic traditions and popular cultures. Many of the themes recurrent in Western myths and fairy tales, such as the exile to the forest or the evil stepmother, originated in the Rmyana. George Lucas was himself strongly influenced by the Rmyana as he created the original Star Wars. Unlike many of the archaic epics lost in obscurity, the Rmyana has remained a vital living tradition, propagating throughout the world in its myriad forms.

How has the Rmyana maintained this universal appeal? The secret of the Rmyana lies in its depth, within which is embedded a comprehensive, multileveled mythic structurelayer upon layer of understanding and meaning. These layers move from the most outward, surface level to the deepest and most refined levelsinexorably propelling the beholder to dive in toward the source.

Before we proceed, I would like to clarify the use of the term myth. Some individuals and scholars still treat the word myth as signifying a fanciful tale from the distant past. Many people in the field now use the word myth as the multicultural expression popularized by Joseph Campbell, who defines myth as the underlying archetypal blueprint of a culturethe wellspring of unseen values and deeply held world pictures that shape the behavior of the individual and the entire society. I propose to take the concept of myth to an even deeper level: that the Rmyana transcends the scholarly and popular use of myth and is the fundamental structure of life itself. It is the concrete expression of abstract principles of knowledge (Veda), much like human physiology is the expression of its underlying DNA. The Rmyana is the living expression of the Veda.