“Many Ramayanas”- Questioning the homogenous interpretations of the text

A.K. Ramanujan wrote his “Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation” to foreground different versions of the story of Rama. As I did not read the particular text, I cannot clearly say the nature of the work to invite much criticism from the Hindutva ideologues. As far as traditional knowledge is concerned, there are three sources for studying Ramayana: Valmiki Ramayana, Jaina Ramayana and Buddha Ramayana.

Valmiki Ramayana
Valmiki Ramayana is the composition by Sage Valmiki. It is believed that Valmiki conceived Rama as a good human being only, not as god. Besides, the story of Valmiki being a barbarous thief in his “Poorvasrama” as envisaged in Adhyatma Ramayana cannot be seen in the version of Valmiki. This version is propagated in Adhyatma Ramayana, an ancient Sanskrit text written by Ramananda. It has been discussed in the ancient wisdom that there were “many books of Ramayana” by Lord Brahma itself, which were equal to the four Vedas. However, human beings find it difficult to learn all these as there are a lot of books. Therefore, Lord Brahma asked Sage Valmiki to compose a simple version of it for the common man to get familiarized with. As Valmiki got enlightened by reciting the Rama mantra, Lord Brahma thought Valmiki would be the appropriate person to do so. Sage Valmiki got the help of Sage Narada in the composition work.

The story behind composing Ramayana is that Valmiki saw two love birds being shot by a hunter when they were exchanging their love. The sage composed the Ramayana from the “soka (sorrow)” of seeing this. “Manishada pratishtatum samagah sashvatisamah yat krouncha mithunadekam sokam avadhim kama mohitam.” This is the first utterance of the sage. Later, there were many other adaptations to this book based on the work of Sage Valmiki in which Adhyatma Ramayana is the most famous.

Buddha Ramayana or Dasaradha
It comes in the series of Jataka Tales, we can see one version of Ramayana. In the Buddha Ramayana, Rama and Sita are siblings who left their land to protect themselves from the evil doings of the step-mother. Most of the characters in the Valmiki Ramayana is not get their place in this version. Not much literary value is given to this version by critics.

Jain Ramayana
As per Jain Ramayana, Rama is not the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, but a follower of Jainism. Besides, in some versions, Sita is the daughter of Ravana. In Sanghadasa's Jaina version of Ramayana of the 5th century BCE, Sita, entitledVasudevahindi, is born as daughter of Ravana. According to this version, astrologers predict that first child of Vidyadhara Maya (Ravana's wife) will destroy his lineage. That's why Ravana abandons her and orders the infant to be buried in a distant land where she is later discovered and adopted by Janka.( Wiki).