The Epic of Ram, Vol. 1

Murty Classical Library of India #7

by Tulsidas, Philip Lutgendorf (Translator)

The Epic of Ram presents a new translation of the Rāmcaritmānas of Tulsidas (1543–1623). Written in Avadhi, a literary dialect of classical Hindi, the poem has become the most beloved retelling of the ancient Ramayana story across northern India. A devotional work revered and recited by millions of Hindus today, it is also a magisterial compendium of philosophy and lore and a literary masterpiece. This volume presents Tulsidas’s grand introduction to the Ram story, replete with philosophical and theological meditations and tales of gods, sages, and royalty. Here, the stage is set for the advent and divine mission of Ram.

This new translation into free verse conveys the passion and momentum of its inspired poet and storyteller. It is accompanied by the most widely accepted edition of the Avadhi text, presented in the Devanagari script.

Genres: Poetry, Literature, Hinduism, India

416 pages, Hardcover

First published January 5, 2016

About the author

Tulsidas was a realized soul and saint, poet, often called reformer and philosopher from Ramanandi Sampradaya, in the lineage of Jagadguru Ramanandacharya renowned for his devotion to the Lord Shri Rama.

Reviews

[Ronald Morton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wicked company is loss, good company, gain–
so Veda and worldly wisdom affirm, and everyone knows.
Dust rises to the sky in contact with wind
but turns to mud when mixed with earthly water.
Housed among good people or bad, parrots and mynahs
learn to repeat Ram’s name or countless curses.
In bad company smoke becomes soot;
in good, line ink for writing sacred tales;
and joined with water, heat, and wind,
a rain cloud giving life to the world.

(I’m getting most of the following from the introduction) The Epic of Ram (Ramcaritmanas – also translated as “Divine Lake of Ram’s Deeds”) is a retelling of the tale of Ram and Sita, which was first told in the Ramayana in the last centuries B.C.E. – it is part of a long tradition of retellings. That in itself is fascinating to me – this is (apparently) considered a Hindu religious text – I’m assuming the other telling are in there own way as well – and yet each telling is a new interpretation of the tale, which might retain some framework, but is still different. Coming out of background of biblical inerrancy this is striking to me, but I vastly prefer this literary approach to the staunchness of the Chicago Statement from the 1970’s.

I’ll point out up front that this first volume ends with the events that would lead to the “present” incarnation of Ram, so in a way this volume is a preface to the Epic itself. A bit of time is spent on Ram’s prior incarnations in the last section of the book – so Ram is heavily featured toward the end – but it’s all kind of presented as things that came before, and are leading to the actual Epic (which, again, probably starts in Volume 2). Also, if you like reading these things in their entirety, the two volumes out so far are only the first of seven. I’m not sure what the release schedule on the others looks like.

So the book starts out with a fairly standard prologue/invocation – praise to the gods, more praise to the gods, recitations on why the gods are great, passages on why the author is not worthy, a statement of the authors mission in writing this epic, summary of epics that have come before, and a synopsis of some of the events in the epic itself – the writing/translation is excellent, and the language usage is top notch.

After that the epic moves into its first proper section “The Story of Shiva and Bhavani” – this is established as a frame narrative, whenre the sage Bharadwaj asks the sage Yajnavalkya to tell him the story of Ram; this then moves into a further frame narrative where Shiva is speaking to Bhavani (who is referred to as Uma, and Sati (prior to her self-immolation), and Parvati (after her re-incarnation) – honestly, I found myself looking up a lot of these names as the author plays pretty fast and loose with them and doesn’t really point out that many of the names reference the same entity. This is likely due to a basic familiarity that is expected of the reader going in to the text, which I just don’t possess. In recounting the story of Ram, Shiva tells the story of Parvati (his wife) to Parvati (his wife) which probably added to my confusion over this part.

[I’m trying to come up with the best way of nailing this down: there is weight to the text – not only the weight of mythology and religion, but the weight of history as well, as obviously these things intermingle to produce culture – that is absent from many other epics. Most of the epics I’ve read tend to be a lot more hand-holding than this work; they introduce characters and guide you along their paths. Here, even though it’s leading to an incarnation of Rama, which is in itself a beginning, it’s not the beginning and I think that’s where the weight comes from. The cycles of incarnation and reincarnation make it where you’re basically dropped into a fully functioning narrative, and without a cultural background in it I had to do a lot of supplemental reading to catch up. That’s not a criticism of the text; it is a criticism of the base-knowledge I brought to the text.]

[I should also note that the “Causes of Ram’s Incarnation” is quite a bit more straightforward, and it appears from my reading of the first few pages of Volume 2 that the reading is much easier (at least for me) past this first section.]

The second section – “Causes of Ram’s Incarnation” – is another frame within a frame tale (same two levels, with Shiva providing the primary narration). I could be misinterpreting it, but I feel like at the beginning of this section the sage Yajnavalkya basically tells Bharadwaj: “Okay, now that you sat through that first story, you’ve proved yourself worthy of me actually telling you about Ram (again, names: Rama, also “the Rahgu lord”).” I could be reading that wrong, but it’s struck me as pretty funny. This last section in the volume, as the title indicates, is focused on the prior incarnations of Ram in prior cosmic cycles/aeons – [a digression: I found it fascinating that all of Ram’s incarnations did not necessarily follow the standard “shit gets messed up and intersession is needed” storyline; in fact, in one of Ram’s incarnations he incarnates as a reward to King Manu and his wife after their thousands of years of devotion. This is striking to me, as it does not follow the forms I’m used to].

The book basically just kind of ends – in fact, the next volume (even though it begins with a new “titled” section) basically picks up immediately where the former left off “And so, sage, in due course[…]” – looking at the table of contents this appears to be two parts of the “Balkand Stanzas”, so I suppose this makes sense.

Look, if you like epic poetry you’re going to like this – it is exceptionally well written, nuanced, layered (yes, to the point of complexity) and interesting/instructive. It fits in with almost all other eastern epic poetry extremely well. On the other hand, if that’s not your thing, this won’t be either. I am curious – and I honestly don’t have an answer – how much of an outlier this epic really is. What I’m getting at is: when I think of the composition of epics – especially those that which are considered cultural touchstones of civilizations and religions – there is a certain time period (read: a while ago) that comes to mind. This being written in the late 16th century, and already being an established part of the religious narrative, seems like a big outlier. Is it?

*As before:I'm going to be completely honest that I think putting ratings on these types of books is a bit silly. The rating above is based on the books value as historic artifact, the effort of translation, and the volume itself (not to mention the overall Murty Library mission).*

[Rahul Khanna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring and highly exaggerated story.