Lire Ramayana, écrire des contes : le culte Bhakti et les chants de Rama
Reading Ramayana, Writing Tales: Bhakti Cult and the Songs of Rama

Summary/Abstract: Reading or listening to Ramayana is a usual practice in an ordinary Hindu household.Sometimes a narrator popularly called kathak or katha-vacak is called to narrate or read theepic story to the entire family, the clan, or the village. Inside the household, it is the womenwho particularly read the Ramayana during their normal ritual austerity. But the epicpoetry is not restricted to this fixed environment; rather it has travelled into the livedexperience of the people of the subcontinent. Originally written by Valmiki, the legend ofRama has been retold in more than 200 languages of South and South East Asia. What isinteresting, though, is the manner in which the Ramayana is rewritten. In the article, I willanalyse the act of reading the Ramayana and will explore the methods that are imparted tore-write the text.

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