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Before He was God: Ramayana — Reconsidered, Recreated FOR centuries, the story of Rama, the Prince of Ayodhya, has been central to the moral lives of millions of people. It has been told and retold not only in various languages of the subcontinent but ‘reconsidered’ and ‘recreated’ to solve the complexities and challenges of the various eras. Thus, faced with the iconoclastic tempest that was sweeping across India, Tulsidas, with his unquestioning faith in Rama, ‘reconsidered’ and ‘recreated’ Valmiki’s Ramayana as Ram Charit Manas. It has gone on to instil faith and hope into millions, the rich and the poor, the scholarly and the illiterates alike, for more than four centuries. Thus, for those versed in the Devnagri script, Tulsidas’ Ramayana remains the touchstone, both in reach as well as interpretation. Ram Varma, a retired bureaucrat, pained by the garish colours that had been painted by the interpolations of the pundits over the years after Valmiki had created the Ramayana, has through Before He was God: Ramayana—Reconsidered Recreated sought to recreate Rama as he might have walked in flesh and blood. This stupendous task of rewriting the Ramayana has been accomplished in blank verse which in itself is a feat to be unreservedly lauded.
Hence, not only has the author divested the episodes in Rama’s life of the miraculous character but also sought to explain away the Vanaras, Jatayu and Jambuwan as tribes wearing the masks of monkeys, birds and bears. He has also rationalised the crossing of the sea by Hanuman and the rest of the army convincingly and given a very modern and moving explanation and denouement to the Ahalya episode. However, the author gets carried away by the need to rationalise and becomes guilty of ‘interpolations’ that neither add to the substance of the characters nor help in appreciating them better. Ironically, the author, who comes down with a heavy hand on the post-Vedic pundits for adding garish colours to the story of Rama by their interpolations, in the prologue stands guilty of doing the same to Ravana by inventing the character of Saudamini. His note about ‘satiety’ being Ravana’s problem and therefore the need to impose Saudamini with her whipping of Ravana before each sexual encounter, is inadequate. He has also gone overboard with the story of Sita, her illegitimate birth and the final reunion with her mother. These characters and interpretations might be useful in explaining a pop culture but are reduced to frivolity when imposed upon a story that has survived more than a thousand years. This raises the question
as to which class of readership does Ram Varma’s Ramayana
cater to. Since times immemorial, the Ramayana has belonged to
the people. However, a book costing close to a thousand rupees is
obviously not for the ‘people’. One also wonders why the author
chose the blank verse as a medium to communicate his ‘recreation’
and ‘reinterpretation’. Notwithstanding the fact that it has been
used by John Milton for his epics, the meter, so effective in the
hands of Shakespeare and Robert Frost for their not-too-lengthy
discourses, is a bit tedious for reading an epic. One needs to take a
look at Tulsidas’s Ram Charit Manas and appreciate the
masterly use of dohas, chaupais, sorthas, etc., not only to
break the monotony but reflect the mood of the narration.
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In
generations gone by, there was no need to discuss the historicity of
either Rama or Krishna for irrespective of the evidence or lack of it,
they were an integral part of our being. However, in an age when life
seems to be dominated by the false Gods, it is not surprising that
many of us are compelled to strip the Gods of their godliness and
judge them by the contemporary moral and ethical values. We also need
to understand the deeds and words of the characters in the modern
idiom