A great Bengali author Michael Madusudan Dutt, a born Hindu, was attracted by Christianity. he converted. Yet his love for the Hindu mythology dawned a new era in the Bengali literature. His masterpiece, Meghnad Badh Kabya (the slaying of Meghnada) reflects the complexity of contact between Indian and British culture. Being a Bengali myself, I…

The Jaina texts express the feeling that the Hindus have maligned Ravana and made him into a villain. Here is a set of questions that a Jaina text begins by asking- “How can monkeys vanquish the powerful raksasa warriors like Ravana? How can noble men and Jaina worthies like Ravana eat flesh and drink blood?…

Rama’s story has been told in many religions. Although the Rama story is not, as such, a Hindu story, the Hindu versions are very ancient. In this article, I’d like to stress upon one thing- The characters and happenings of Ramayana can be looked from a variety of religious traditions including, and not limited to,…

In my previous post, I had mentioned that there exist many versions of Ramayana, and confronting one over the other will only narrow down our perspective and eventually lead to great cultural loss.

January 25, 1987, to July 31, 1988- the period when Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayana was aired on Doordarshan. This show rose to hold the world record of being the world’s most viewed mythological serial. It was primarily based on Valmiki’s Ramayana and Tulsidas’ Ramcharitmanas. It is also partly derived from portions of Kamban’s Kambaramayanam. The televised…