28 - 30 August, 1995
Leiden, The Netherlands

XIIth International Ramayana Conference

The XIIth International Ramayana Conference was held at the Nonnensteeg 1-3, Leiden from 28 to 30 August 1995. The conference, which was hosted by the Leiden University, was sponsored by a number of academic institutions. The main theme of the conference was the interrelationship and mutual influence of text, sculpture, folklore and performing arts. Twenty-six papers were presented in nine plenary sessions and four special lectures of which two in the memory of Dr Leen van Daalen and two to honour Dr Godard Schokker, were delivered during the three days of the conference. Scholars from eleven countries joined their Dutch colleagues in the scientific discussions of different aspects of Ramayana research. Taking into account the wide-spread interest in the Ramayana and the presence of scholars from Asian, European and American universities, a very careful selection was made to guarantee the quality of the conference. Scholars who had written doctoral dissertations about any subject related to the Ramayana or those who are presently engaged in Ramayana research were the first to receive an invitation. Further the list of scholars included those with valuable and important publications in this field. A few who possess a good knowledge of the textual and cultural traditions also took part in the conference.

By A.G. Menon

In his opening speech Prof. L. Leertouwer, Rector Magnificus of the Leiden University, emphasised the importance of the conference as a meeting place for Ramayana scholars from various countries, who have come to Leiden to share their views on the different aspects of one of the important epics of the world. The transmission of the story, the performing traditions and the religious dimensions received his special attention. Prof. D.H.A. Kolff, director of CNWS, welcomed the participants. Prof. T.E. Vetter introduced the research cluster Words and Values and Dr A.G. Menon, organising secretary, thanked all those who helped to organise the conference.

Ramayana from Burma
The three days of the conference were structured on the basis of regions, languages, transmission and traditions. It is impossible to summarise the contents of the twenty-six papers and the four special lectures within this short report. The first session was opened by Dr John Brockington (Edinburgh) with a paper examining the influence of the script on the recensions and sub-recensions of Valmiki Ramayana. He suggested the Venn diagram as a model for solving the problems of overlapping influences which form a manuscript. Reconstructing the original text of Valmiki on the basis of episodic deviations in details was attempted by Mrs. Mary Brockington (Edinburgh). Mrs. Brockington pointed out the inconsistencies in the story of Marica. The problems concerning the different recensions of the Ramayana of Valmiki and specially the recensions from the North and South of India were dealt with in a critical lecture delivered by Prof. Henk Bodewitz (Leiden) as a tribute to the researches of late Dr. Leen van Daalen.
A number of papers dealt with the Ramayana in Cambodia, Burma, China, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Dr Pou (Paris) pointed out the disappearance of the concept of avatara and Rama as god in the post-Angkorian time in Cambodia. While the paper of Pou showed the influence of Theravada Buddhism on the conception of Rama, the paper by Prof. De Casparis (Leiden) discussed the absence of the influence of the epic in a country like Sri Lanka where the Theravada Buddhism is prevalent. He further dealt with the Sri Lankan Sanskrit kavya Janakiharana based on the Valmiki Ramayana. On the basis of a comparative study of the Indian and Chinese cultural values Prof. Jin Dinghan (Beijing) showed the emerging picture of Rama in China. The conference witnessed the presentation, for the first time, of an until now unknown version of the Ramayana from Burma. Based on his fieldwork Prof. OHNO Toru (Osaka, Japan) delivered a special lecture on the complete version of Loik Samoing Ram - the Mon version of the Rama story. It is an important contribution to the comparative and historical study of the epic.
Archaeology and art history are two important instruments in the study of the Ramayana. The international Ramayana conference brought together scholars representing a wide range of disciplines. The importance of the study of archaeological remains, inscriptions and textual corroboration in determining the traditions of Ramagiri, believed to have been visited by Rama and Sita during their exile, was illustrated by Dr Hans Bakker (Groningen). Episodes from Ramayana were often depicted in the miniature Pahari paintings. Dr Paul-Gupta (Leiden) analysed the style and contents of these paintings collected by the late Leiden professor Dr J.Ph. Vogel.

Ramayana of Tulasidasa
A full day of the conference was filled with a number of interesting theoretical and analytical papers dealing with different aspects of the Ramayana of Tulasidasa. Sufi poets like Jayasi adopted episodes from the Rama story and a poet like Tulasidasa should have been familiar with the works of his contemporaries and predecessors. The theoretical model of intertext to explain the underlying structures in the work of Tulasidasa and Jayasi was an important contribution by the youngest participant of the conference, Thomas de Bruin (Leiden). His paper on the story of Rama as intertext needs a special mention in this report. The reception of the Ramacaritamanasa in the early seventeenth and eighteenth centuries forms the subject of Prof. Pollet's (Louvain, Belgium) well-documented paper. An author like Tulasidasa who does not call himself a poet, produces a literary work of high quality. In his paper Prof. Pandey (Napoli, Italy) showed the subtle conception of poetry in the Ramayana of Tulasidasa. The social aspects of the Ramacaritamanasa and its importance for the modern community were discussed in a detailed paper of Dr Shukla & Dr Sitaram (Durban, South Africa) and in the lecture of Prof. Dharampal (Haridwar, India). The treatment of Rama's honour and Sita's chastity in the Ramacamdracandrika of the Braj poet Kesavadasa was subjected to a deep analysis in the well-documented and erudite paper by Dr Schokker (Leiden), in the light of similar treatments in earlier works such as the Valmiki Ramayana, Adhyatma-Ramayana and Ramacaritamanasa. The first special lecture to honour Dr Schokker was delivered by Dr Winand Callewaert (Louvain, Belgium). In his eloquent description Callewaert emphasised the importance of collecting, collating and publishing manuscripts and in the later part of his lecture another unknown Ramayana from Rajasthan became the central theme of his lecture. The second lecture to honour Dr Schokker was delivered by Prof. Philip Lutgendorf (Iowa, U.S.A.). In his richly illustrated discourse, Prof. Lutgendorf discussed the various aspects of Hanuman as found in the texts and outside the texts. The place of Hanuman in the thinking of the modern Indian society and its correlation with the descriptions in the text were described and illustrated with pictures from advertisement to idols.

The spread of Ramayana
The Indian epic spread to Southeast Asia and manifested itself in text, temple architecture and performance. Four papers dealt with these aspects. Dr Clara Brakel (Leiden) analysed the performance of Ramayana in an Islamic context with the help of dances performed in central Java. Problems of interpolation in the Old Javanese Ramayana with reference to the letter of Sita evoked a lively discussion. Dr Willem van der Molen (Leiden) analysed this problem from the angles of prosody, interpretation of the contents and sequences of actions. The literary traditions and their history may also contribute to solving such problems. Dr Roy Jordaan's (Leiden) paper on the date and origin of the Ramayana reliefs in Prambanan - central Java - suggested a possible Buddhist influence on the architecture and looked for its support in the Buddhist versions of the Rama story. How the Rama story accumulates the important features of the local culture is discussed in the paper of Dr Noriah Mohamed (Malaysia) who pointed out the Malay influence on Hikayat Sri Rama.
The contributions of the three Thai scholars on the Ramakien, the Thai version of the Ramayana, enriched one of the main themes of the conference: the textual transmission and the local adaptations. Prof. Poolthupya's paper on the karma, Prof. Thepsawasdi's paper on the relevance of the concepts in the Ramayana and Prof. Prapandvidya's paper on the Jataka elements in the Ramayana, all of them from Thailand, used textual material for the interpretation. One of them even showed the relevance of Ramayana in the context of our modern scientific knowledge of medicine. A similar paper on the scientific development during the period of Ram was presented by Dr R.M. Tiwari (Amsterdam).
Though the focus of the conference was not on the modern political dimensions of the Ramayana, the paper of Dr Victor van Bijlert (Leiden) on the Ramayana and modernity dealt with the role of religion in the context of Indian nationalism and Hindu militancy. A theoretical paper which tried to analyse the structure of the subversions of the Ramayana of Valmiki was presented by Dr Radhakrishan Nair (Kottayam, India). In the last academic session of the conference the story of the Patala Ravana - another Ravana - received attention. Prof. Lutgendorf (Iowa) analysed the story of the other Ravana in the light of the reception and cultural role of the epic and Dr A.G. Menon (Leiden) in his discussion of the three versions - one in Tamil and two in Malayalam - of the Patala Ramayanam pointed out, with the help of parallelism in the plot and the deviations in the details, the cultural milieu in which such a deviation could have developed.
Keeping up the main theme of the conference, a Ramayana ballet from South Bali, Indonesia was performed. A number of fragments from the Ramayana was staged. The participants enjoyed the literal, artistic and performing traditions of the Ramayana. About 160 people witnessed the ballet and about eighty scholars took part in the conference. The proceedings of the conference will be published in 1996. 





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