Opinion | Many Ramayanas, Many Ramas: Faith, Text And The Question Of Interpolation

This is true of religious traditions everywhere, and it would be misguided to demand a different standard for Hindu traditions alone

In a recent article, mythologist and author Devdutt Pattanaik argued that certain episodes in the Ramayana, such as Rama abandoning Sita in the forest or the beheading of the Shudra ascetic Shambuka for performing tapas, may be morally unsettling.

However, he contended that the common explanation that these episodes are not part of the original text but later additions is not an honest position. Pattanaik notes that many other stories, from Hanuman’s childhood to Ravana’s austerities, also appear in the Uttarakanda of the Ramayana, which is regarded as a later interpolation. Yet those stories are readily accepted by the believers.

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When it comes to episodes that raise difficult moral questions, however, many are quick to dismiss them as later additions. According to Pattanaik, this is because “we are protecting our preferred image of Rama, of dharma, and of ourselves as inheritors of a tradition we wish to see as untainted" through such explanations.

There are problems with Pattanaik’s claim that believers need “a mature engagement with the Ramayana" and should not dismiss or downplay morally inconvenient passages on the grounds that they are later additions.

First, there is nothing dishonest or escapist about identifying such passages as later interpolations. Those portions were indeed added later, and there is broad scholarly consensus on that. In fact, the dishonest position would be to claim that these episodes formed part of the original text.

Anyone who believes in Lord Rama will have a mental image of the deity shaped by faith, devotion,........

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