This story permeates all aspects of Indian culture. Various groups cling to different characters, interpretations, and renditions which affect their worldviews and expectations for gender, class, and politics. Retellings lift up certain characters that are often left out of specific interpretations, for example women who are objectified and mistreated in Valmiki’s telling, are praised in women’s songs and Sita is even the hero in some retellings. The existence of such an array of thoughts and feelings towards the narrative really goes to show that you cannot look at the story in a reductive manner. You do a disservice to yourself and the rich cultural and religious history by not engaging with the Ramayana Tradition beyond something simple, such as the crash course history video.
These pieces have shown me the importance of zooming out to view traditions more broadly. Sometimes, we employ specific kinds of narrative interpretations and present them as a definitive end to the research. The existence of the vast Ramayana Tradition is one example of how harmful that can be when you box yourself into a reductive understanding of a text or tradition. Also, these pieces have further emphasized the lengths humans will go to in an attempt to manipulate a text for their own devices. How religious, cultural texts are used to achieve political ends is both fascinating and terrifying. The use of the Ramayana for Indian nationalism indicates the power inherent in the beliefs attributed to these texts. They are important and powerful and encourage me to not discredit the connections between belief and power.