Krittivasi Ramayan
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''Kṛttivāsī Rāmāyaṇ'',, .; also called ''Śrīrām Pãcālī'',, . composed by the fifteenth-century
Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
poet
Krittibas Ojha Mahakavi Krittibas Ojha (; 1381–1461) was a medieval Bengali poet. His major contribution to Bengali literature and culture was Indian epic ''Rāmāyaṇa'' in Bengali. His work, the ''Śrīrām Pā̃cālī'', is popularly known as the '' Krit ...
, from whom it takes its name, is a rendition of the ''
Rāmāyaṇa The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages ...
'' into
Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
. Written in the traditional ''Rāmāyaṇa Pā̃cālī'' form of
Middle Bengali literature {{unreferenced, date=August 2015 The Middle Bengali Literature is a period in the history of Bengali literature dated from 15th to 18th centuries. Following the Turkic Muslim conquest of Bengal in the 13th century, literature in vernacular Bengal ...
, the ''Kṛttivāsī Rāmāyaṇ'' is not just a rewording of the original
Indian epic Indian epic poetry is the epic poetry written in the Indian subcontinent, traditionally called ''Kavya'' (or ''Kāvya''; Sanskrit: काव्य, IAST: ''kāvyá''). The ''Ramayana'' and the ''Mahabharata'', which were originally composed in ...
, but also a vivid reflection of the society and culture of
Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
across the period of its circulation, from the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
into the modern period.Tapati Mukherjee, 'From Vālmikī to KRttivāsa; A Journey from Elitist to Popular Literature', in ''Critical Perspectives on the Rāmāyaṇa'', ed. by Jaydipsinh Dodiya (New Delhi: Sarup & Sons, 2001), pp. 45-51; . It was characterised by
Dinesh Chandra Sen Rai Bahadur Dinesh Chandra Sen ( bn, দীনেশ চন্দ্র সেন) (3 November 1866 – 20 November 1939)Sengupta, Subodh Chandra (ed.) (1988) ''Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan'' (in Bengali), Kolkata: Sahitya Sansad, p.208 was a ...
in 1911 as 'by far the most popular book in Bengal' and 'the Bible of the people of the Gangetic Valley'.


Manuscripts and origins

The ''Krittivas Ramayan'' appears to be a translation into Bengali from one or another recension of the Sanskrit text known as ''
Valmiki's Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages ...
''. If the popular association of the ''Krittivas Ramayan'' with Krittibas Ojha and the available biographical information about him is correct, the ''Krittibas Ramayan'' was composed in the fifteenth century CE. But it is far from clear how similar any version of the text known today is to what this figure might have composed in the fifteenth century; the text underwent various changes at the hands of various ''puthi'' scribes, who tended to add more material to the text,Ruth Vanita, ''Love's Rite: Same-Sex Marriage in India and the West'' (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). and nineteenth-century pandits were also influential in determining the content of the printed editions that predominate today. Over 1500 manuscripts of the poem are extant, but most date to the last quarter of the eighteenth century or later, and they are enormously varied (with some variations reflecting regional transmission within Bengal); even the earliest manuscript fragments are at least two centuries later than the putative author's estimated period.Philippe Benoît,
Kṛttibās ou comment populariser le Rāmāyaṇa au Bengale
, ''Synergies Inde'', 2 (2007), 167-84.
Some attempts have been made to produce scholarly editions, but, in the view of Philippe Benoît, 'sans résultat probant' ('without convincing results'); in these circumstances, he concludes 'il est impossible de se faire une idée du texte original de Krittibâs' ('it is impossible to formulate an impression of the original text of Krittibas'). Extant manuscripts are presently stored in
West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...
universities such as the
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,
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,
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,
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,
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, and the
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. There are also puntis preserved in the
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Normal School Library,
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;
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and the
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,
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; the
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and the
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in the
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; and the
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.


Content

Like its model, Valmiki's ''Ramayana'', the work is divided into seven books, in this case ''Adikando'', ''Ajodhyakando'', ''Aranya Kando'', ''Kishkindha Kando'', ''Sundor Kando'', ''Lankhakando'', and ''Uttorkando''. It does not greatly alter the structure or overall plot of its source, though it does make localised alterations. However, in the assessment of Philippe Benoît,
It is especially through a vigorous reorientation of style of the narrative that Krittibâs distinguishes himself from the Valmikian model. Very elaborate in the details and descriptions, his narrative is animated by much faster and breath taking rhythm, by a systematic familiarization to the detriment of hieratic epic, all elements which transform the solemn Sanskrit epic into a narrative that is sung, lively and familiar. The changes of values and motivations that it shows are in particular harmony with the Valmikian narration and its themes. By over-dramatizing a lot, sometimes simplifying, by using a composite language, sometimes literary, sometimes popular, looking to satisfy the expectations of the public, to instruct through a relaxed and often amusing tone, Krittibâs has achieved an equilibrium: while avoiding vulgarity, he entertains and instructs, moves and amuses, in a manner that is accessible to the average Bengali. His Ramayana is not the sum total of strictly Brahminical culture, written for a literate public; it is no doubt still a medium of Brahminical culture, but Brahminism devoid of its solemnity, meant to inform with affability the perception of this culture by a public of simple people.


Sample

Ruth Vanita Ruth Vanita is an Indian academic, activist and author who specialises in British and Indian literary history with a focus on gender and sexuality studies. She also teaches and writes on Hindu philosophy. Early life and education Vanita earne ...
has called attention to the account in multiple versions of ''Krittivasi Ramayan'' of the birth of
Bhagiratha Bhagiratha (Sanskrit: भगीरथ, ''Bhagīratha'') is a legendary king of the Ikshvaku dynasty in Hindu literature. He is best known for his legend of bringing the sacred river Ganges, personified as the Hindu river goddess Ganga, from heav ...
to two women (widows of King
Dilīpa Dilīpa, also known as Khaṭvāṅga, is a legendary king of the Ikshvaku dynasty featured in Hinduism. Dilipa is the son of Mulaka and Ilibila, the husband of Sudakshina, and the father of Raghu. Dilipa is also the name of a serpent born int ...
, who dies before he can himself beget the heir which has been divinely ordained to his line): a rare ancient portrayal of human lesbian reproduction. Notwithstanding the extensive variation in the different manuscripts and printed editions of the text, this representation of Bhagiratha's birth seems to be present in most of the ''Krittivasi Ramayan'' textual tradition. The story appears in the ''Adi Kanda'', the first section of the poem, which recounts the ancestry of Rāmā:
Dilipa ruled like Indra, the king of the gods, but was sad as he did not have a son. Leaving behind his two wives in the city of Ayodhya, Dilipa went in search of the Ganga. He performed a severe penance for countless years, living on water and fasting, but he neither found the Ganga nor became free of his sorrow. King Dilipa died and went to Brahma's world. On his death the city of Ayodhya was kingless. In heaven, Brahma and Indra were worried: "We have heard that Vishnu will be born in the family of the sun. How will this be possible if the line comes to an end?" All the gods consulted together and decided to send the three-eyed god, Shiva, to Ayodhya. Riding his bull, Shiva went to Dilipa's two queens and said to them: "By my blessings, one of you will have a son." Hearing Shiva's words, the two women said: "We are widows, how can we have a child?" Shankara replied: "You two have intercourse with one another. By my blessings one of you will have a lovely child." Having bestowed this boon, the god who destroys the three worlds went his way. The two wives of Dilipa took a bath. They lived together in extreme love. After some days, one of them menstruated. Both of them knew one another's intentions and enjoyed love play, and one of them conceived. Ten months passed, it was time for the birth. The child emerged as a lump of flesh. Both of them cried with the son in their lap: "Why did the three-eyed one bless us with such a son? He has no bones, he is a lump of flesh, he cannot move about. Seeing him, the whole world will laugh at us." Weeping, they put him in a basket and went to the bank of the river Sarayu to throw him into the water. The sage Vashistha saw them and understood everything through his powers of meditation. He said: "Leave the child on the road. Someone will have compassion on him, seeing him helpless." The two of them left their son on the road and went home. Just then the sage Ashtavakra came along for his bath. Bent at eight places, the sage walked with great difficulty. Seeing the child from a distance, Ashtavakra thought: "If you are mimicking me in order to make fun of me, may your body be destroyed by my curse. If, however, your body is naturally as it appears, may you, by my blessing, become like Madanmohan, the god of erotic love." Ashtavakra was as powerful as Vishnu, so neither his curses nor his blessings failed to bear fruit. He was a sage endowed with great and miraculous powers. The prince stood up. Through his powers of meditation, the sage came to know that this son of Dilipa was an auspicious one, a great man. The sage called the two queens, who took their son and returned home, delighted. The sage came too and performed all the sacred rituals. Because he was born of two vulvas (''bhagas'') he was named Bhagiratha. The great poet Krittivasa is a recognized scholar. In this Adi Kanda he sings of the birth of Bhagiratha.


Influence

The ''Krittivasi Ramayan'' is thought to have been the single most popular single book in the whole of pre-modern Bengal, and remains in widespread circulation in the twenty-first century. The eighteenth-century Bengali raja
Krishnachandra Roy Raja Krishnachandra (born Krishnachandra Ray, (1710–1783) was a raja and zamindar of , Nadia, from 1728 to 1782. He belonged to the Nadia Raj family and Shakta Hindu tradition. He is credited not only with his resistance to the Mughal rule ...
attempted to ban people from reading it in an attempt to promote the Sanskritisation of Bengali religion. The epic of Krittivas has had a profound impact on the literature of Bengal and the North India,Bihar,Jharkhand And Odisha regions.
Tulsidas Tulsidas (; born Rambola Dubey; also known as Goswami Tulsidas; c.1511pp. 23–34.–1623) was a Ramanandi Vaishnava Hindu saint and poet, renowned for his devotion to the deity Rama. He wrote several popular works in Sanskrit and Awadhi, but ...
—the sixteenth-century
Awadhi Awadhi (; ), also known as Audhi (), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in northern India and Nepal. It is primarily spoken in the Awadh region of present-day Uttar Pradesh, India. The name ''Awadh'' is connected to Ayodhya, the ancient city, w ...
''Ramayana'' also called Ramacharitmanas deeply inspired from Krittivasi Ramayan . The story of
Rama Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular '' avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Bein ...
as depicted by Krittivas Ojha inspired many later-day poets, including
Michael Madhusudan Dutt Michael Madhusudan Dutt ((Bengali: মাইকেল মধুসূদন দত্ত); (25 January 1824 – 29 June 1873) was a Bengali poet and playwright. He is considered one of the pioneers of Bengali literature. Early life Dutt ...
and
Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...
. The text is noted for its exploration of the concept of
Bhakti ''Bhakti'' ( sa, भक्ति) literally means "attachment, participation, fondness for, homage, faith, love, devotion, worship, purity".See Monier-Williams, ''Sanskrit Dictionary'', 1899. It was originally used in Hinduism, referring to d ...
, which would later contribute to the emergence of
Vaishnavism Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the ...
in Gangetic Bengal and the surrounding regions.


Editions and translations

The ''
editio princeps In classical scholarship, the ''editio princeps'' (plural: ''editiones principes'') of a work is the first printed edition of the work, that previously had existed only in manuscripts, which could be circulated only after being copied by hand. For ...
'' of the poem is Valmiki, he Ramayana in Bengali trans. by Krttibas, 5 vols (Serampore: Printed at the Mission Press, 1803). The version of the epic generally in circulation today was revised by Jaygopal Tarkalankar and was published in 1834. Later in the twentieth century, various editions were published based on the Jaygopal Tarkalankar version. *Chandrodaya Vidyavinod Bhattacharyya (ed.), ''Sachitra Krittivasi Saptakanda Ramayana'' (Calcutta: Manoranjan Bandopadhyaya at Hitavadi Pustakalaya, 1914). A passage is translated by Kumkum Roy, Krittivasa Ramayana'': The Birth of Bhagiratha (Bengali)', in ''Same-Sex Love in India: Readings from Literature and History'', ed. by Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai (New York: St. Martin’s, 2000) epr. New Delhi: Macmillan, 2002 pp. 100-2; . * Dinesh Chandra Sen,
The Bengali Ramayanas
' (Kolkata: University of Calcutta, 1920), pp. 171-83 (translates excerpts). *
Krittibasi Ramayan. Sachitra-Samagra-Saptakando-Jiban Sambalita
' (Calcutta: Basumati Sahitya Mandir, 1926). *
Nalinikanta Bhattasali Nalini Kanta Bhattasali (24 January 1888 – 6 February 1947) was an Indian Bengali historian, archaeologist, numismatist, epigraphist and antiquarian. Career Bhattasali completed his master's degree in 1912. He then joined the Comilla Victoria ...
(ed.), ''Ramayana-Adikanda'' (Dacca: P.C. Lahiri, Secretary, Oriental Texts Publication Committee, University of Dacca, 1936), the first of seven parts of a version of the ''Krittivasi Ramayan'' that differs from the most widely read version, based on a unique manuscript. A passage is translated by Anannya Dasgupta in Ruth Vanita, ''Love's Rite: Same-Sex Marriage in India and the West'' (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), pp. 147-49 and in Ruth Vanita, 'Born of Two Vaginas: Love and Reproduction between Co-Wives in Some Medieval Indian Texts', ''GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies'', 11 (2005), 547–77 (pp. 553-55), . *Shudha Mazumdar (trans.), ''Ramayana'', foreword by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1958 epr. 1974, a 'loose translation'.Pika Ghosh,
The Story of a Storyteller's Scroll
, ''Anthropology and Aesthetics'', 37 (Spring, 2000), 166-85 (p. 171 fn. 8).
*Benimadhab Sil (ed.),
Sacitra Krittibasi saptakanda Ramayana
' (Calcutta: Akshaya Library, 1361 engali Calendar1954). Illustrated Bengali version of ''Krittivasi Ramayan''. *Nandkumar Avasthi (ed. and trans.), ''Krittivasa Ramayana'' (Lucknow: Bhuvan Vani, 1966), with Hindi translation. *Bhattacharya, Asutosh (ed.), ''Krittibasi Ramayana'' (Calcutta: Akhil Bharat Janashiksha Prachar Samiti, 1970) (Bengali-language edition). *''Rāmāyana of Krittibās'' (Calcutta: Akshay Library, 1987). *Krittivasa Ojha, 'Ramayana', trans. by Ujjwal Majumdar, in
Medieval Indian Literature: Surveys and Selections. Volume 1
', ed. by K. Ayyappa Paniker (New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1997), pp. 720–27 (translates seven short passages).


Notes


References


Further reading

* Phillipe Benoît, 'Rewriting Valmiki: Krittibasa Ramayana as a Hypertext', in ''Narrative Strategies: Essays on South Asian Literature and Film'', ed. by V. Dalmia and T. Damsteegt (Leiden: Research School CNWS, 1998), pp. 3–18. *Tanimā Cakrabarttī, ''Kr̥ttibāsī Rāmāẏaṇa o Bāṃlāra lokaaitihya'' (Kalakātā: Ajita Kumāra, 2000; Cakrabarttī: Paribeśaka, Pustaka Bipaṇi, 2000): a study of the folk elements found in the Bengali Ramayana written by Kr̥ttibāsa. *Tony K. Stewart and Edward C. Dimock, 'Krttibasa's Apophatic Critique of Rama's Kingship', in ''Questioning Ramayanas: A South Asian Tradition'', ed. Paula Richman (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001), pp. 243–64.


External links



* {{Authority control Works based on the Ramayana Bengali-language literature