AH 275 Art in Context - Free Samples to Students

Ramayana is known in the west as an Indian epic, and while India has a good claim to be the source of the story, like all great tales, it began orally. It was probably not written down until the Hindu sage Valmiki authored a version between 2,000 and 3,000 years ago, written in 50,000 lines of strict meter. Homer’s Odyssey and Valmiki’s Ramayana are both ancient epics and are the products of oral tradition.

The Ramayana and the Odyssey were both headed by tales of war, whereas they themselves focus on the journey of their main character; Odysseus of The Odyssey and Rama in The Ramayana. Both the Odyssey and the Ramayana feature a hero who suffers a series of misfortunes. Both heroes also undertake a journey. These books have a remarkable resemblance both in content and context.

They also contrast sharply in some areas. For example, both of these poems contain the existence of supernatural powers and are based on famous and brave characters, both heroes are separated from their wives by inevitable circumstances, and have ideal wives depicted through the story.
In an initial comparison of both epics, it’s interesting to see that their titles hold some sort of similarity.

The Ramayana literally means, The Journey of Rama, while The Odyssey, according to Merriam Webster, has come to refer to a long adventurous voyage. Rama himself is God, who was incarnated as the son of Dasharath to destroy the evil Ravana. Ramas journey starts as his wife Sita is taken away by Ravana. Rama was Prince of Ayodhya while Odysseus was the ruler of island kingdom, Ithaca, thus the reader has specific expectations of both characters given their social upbringing. Odysseus, on the other hand was not of a divine origin, but he was aided by the Gods of Ancient Greece.

When comparing both heroes, we can tell their personalities vary a lot, for example : Rama was a very modest person and lived his life by following dharma and Odysseus would gloat that he had great treasures. Another difference in their journeys is that Odysseus had a much harder time getting home, he would keep getting shipped wrecked and held captive on islands.

This is notable that the surviving art of the ancient periods of South Asia was dominated by the religious pictures and metaphors. It is evident that the artists designed the stones of the significant temples and crafted religious sculptures to help the people to worship and perform the rituals accordingly. The South Asian artists have used visual to narrate the religious stories to communicate religion to the common people.

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The original Ramayana was written in Sanskrit manuscript by the eminent writer Valmiki around 500 BCE to 100 BCE. It is evident that only the upper class people was privileged to learn and read Sanskrit. Therefore, this can be assumed that the common people had neither have knowledge nor the right to read this particular epic. However, it was important to communicate this particular story to the common people for the religion practice. Ram, the protagonist of Ramayana was being depicted as a noble king who could do everything to benefit his vassals. It was significant and important to let common people understand that the monarchs are synonymous to God as it was the period of monarchy. Therefore, the number of significant artists start utilizing pictures in order to communicate the story easily to the common people. The multiple translations into different languages take place later on. The pictorial representation can attract people, especially the children to read this epic. This is evident that the visuals can hit the brain significantly rather than the words.

Image: Visual illustration of Hanuman’s Lanka Kand, a scene from Ramayana exhibited in Herbert F. Johnson Museum

Ramayana, developed in the context of South Asia is being considered to be one the significant epics. It is usually considered to be a religion story. However, there are number of critics who stated Ramayana as a socio political document. It clearly offers the readers an image of the Aryan dynasty and the circumstances of it. Ramayana highlights how patriarchal society it was and what were the situation and the position of women in that particular society. The visual representation of Sita’s purification test could immediately horrify people. This can easily be assumed if someone reads that Sita jumped into the fire woul definitely be scared. However, to see something that miserable took place could leave the person in shock for sure. This remarkable exhibition of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum and personal collections can come into consideration (Robinson). The particular illustrations of Ramayana can be discovered in the different media and texts, carvings of temples, manuscripts illustrations. The use of the context of Ramayana in the art of mask making, puppets, textiles make this epic significantly popular. The adaptation of this epic in film and television also help to make it significant even in the contemporary context.

The South Asian artists made the images of the Rama’s Vanavash, mistreatment of Suparnakha’s by Lakshmana, Sita Haran (Kidnap), Sita’s purification test and Aswamedha Yagya (Ritual) real with the master strokes of their brush (Robson). The common people would immediately relate to the story once they could see the visuals. There is no significant differences in the epic and the visualization of this epic. However, there are multiple versions with different interpretations of Ramayana is available.

It is notable that the visual representation of Ramayana is an art attained significant popularity. This can be said that the one significant reason of such popularity if the lively narrative representation of it. The lively images motivated the common people to devote their time in the holy act of auspiciousness.

Reference:

Robinson, Frank. "A Museum Director’s Life An Intimate History of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, 1992–2011." (2014).

Robson, Stuart. "THE RAMAYANA IN JAVA AND BALI: Chapters from its Literary History." Traces of the Ramayana and Mahabharata in Javanese and Malay Literature (2018): 5.