Ayodhya Across the Eastern Sea

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Ayodhya Across the Eastern Sea

A book on the Indonesian Ramayana embodies curious lessons in

loving, finds

Renuka Narayanan

http://www.indianexpress.com/archive_full_story.php?content_id=42255

Imagine a man and a woman from India's educated, progressive slice

of society. Malini Saran, with a post-grad degree in art history,

spends more than a decade in Southeast Asia, of which five are in

Indonesia. Vinod C. Khanna, educated in Mumbai and Oxford, is an IFS

officer. He puts in three years in the '80s as India's ambassador to

Indonesia and writes a book, between whiles, on the future of Sino-

Indian relations.

 

They discover a shared fascination with the Indonesian Ramayana

tradition and decide to work together on a book. Their spouses and

families pitch in gladly. A simpatico publisher from their circle of

Delhi contemporaries is found. More than ten years pass. The authors

are rarely in the same country. They have to locate source material

at long distance on how this Hindu tradition works in the world's

largest Muslim population. Delhi scholars are generous with help and

resources: Professor Lokesh Chandra, Romila Thapar, Krishna Deva,

Devangana Desai, Himanshu Prabha Ray, Kapila Vatsyayan, Professor

Azhar (the authority on Persian Ramayanas), K.V. Soundara Rajan, C.D.

Paliwal. Australian and Dutch scholars, Indonesian and Malaysian

experts, Tamil expats in Kuala Lumpur: a host of people find the time

and inclination to share learning. Saran's husband, Ajit, who took

many of the pictures, passes away. Finally, after four drafts revised

by Ravi Dayal, the book appears in print, with nine chapters, three

appendices and the necessary glossary, index and biblio.

 

In their preface, the authors say: ``To get a true idea of what the

Ramayana has meant to the people of Indonesia over the last thousand

years or so, we feel it necessary to take an integrated look at all

that the cultural spheres which the Ramayana has touched —

literature, the plastic and performing arts, political and moral

philosophy. When we could not find any single study with such a

comprehensive view of the subject, we decided to attempt it

ourselves.''

 

Accordingly, the first two chapters lay out the historical journey of

the Ramayana to Indonesia, starting with its multiple forms in its

land of birth and the creative processes through which the

Mahabharata and the Ramayana travelled across the eastern seas nearly

two millennia ago. Chapter Three zeros in on the earliest known

depiction of the Ramayana in the islands of Indonesia and its

transformation into stone in the beautiful friezes of Shiva and

Brahma temples of the great Lara Jonggrang palace in Peramban in

Central Java, circa the ninth century (this is one of the meatiest

chapters and fascinating to read). Around the same time that the

Ramayana is being etched in stone, a literary form of it takes shape

right there in Central Java, in Old Javanese: the Ramayana kakawin

(kathayan). It is a masterpiece in its own right and the authors

examine the views on its relationship to its source, the Sanskrit

poem ``Bhattikavyam''.

 

Chapter Five shows how the Ramayana grows and adjusts in Javanese

flavour as political power shifts from Central to East Java in the

tenth century. In the 15th century as the Majapahit (Hindu-Budhhist

empire) declines and Islam sweeps the archipelago, interesting new

chapters are written in the Javanese Ramayana — the focus of Chapter

Six.

 

 

In the '90s epic symbols were used during the overthrow of Suharto.

He in turn sponsored allegorical plays in which Ram rescues Sita

 

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The social beliefs underpinning the epics as performing arts in Java

and Bali are examined in Chapter Seven (respect for the mother is a

big cultural pillar). Epic symbols are cleverly used in contemporary

politics, during the overthrow of President Suharto. The pop

song ``Anoman Obong'' becomes a hit in 1996. It tells of how Anoman

(Hanuman) during his visit to ``Alengka'' in search of ``Sinta'' is

captured by ``Rawana's'' forces and his tail set alight, by which he

sets Alengka ablaze. In turn, Suharto sponsors plays in 1998

like ``Rama Tambak'' in which Rama builds a bridge to rescue Sita.

This is allegory for Suharto (Ram) saving Indonesia (Sia) from the

Asian economic crisis.

 

The last chapter sums up the enduring importance of the epic in the

inner lives of Indonesians and how Islam, in this case, has not

killed off older local culture. Indeed, the ``Hikayat Seri Rama'' has

a happy ending for Valmiki's doomed couple.

 

The authors tell their tale in a gentle, factual way, devoid of

Indian chest-thumping. Throughout, it is impossible not to feel

deeply moved by the many felicitous links between people and

cultures, then and now: vasudaiva kutumbakam.