Exploring Co-wives’ Relationship in Select Re-tellings of the Rāmāyaṇa
Abstract
Exploring Co-wives’ Relationship in Select Re-tellings of the Rāmāyaṇa
Mayuri
This paper explores co-wives’ relationships depicted in re-tellings of the Rāmāyaṇa, and their convergence and divergence from their ur-text. Vālamīki Rāmāyaṇa being the source text; provided the plot of the story, which is widely accepted and culturally reproduced by many authors; resulted in numerous re-tellings. Leading to numerous portrayals of characters and their relationships, one of such relationships is the co-wives’ relationship which significantly differs in different re-tellings. Three primary texts selected here for this exploration are: Vālamīki’ Rāmāyaṇa (VR), Tulsidās’ Rāmacharitmānasa (TR), and Lāl Dās’ Rameshwarcharit Mithilā Rāmāyaṇa (RMR). This paper aims to highlight depiction of co-wives’ relationships in two different cultural te-tellings; i.e. Rāmacharitmānasa composed in Awadhi and Rameshwarcharit Mithilā Rāmāyaṇa which is composed in Maithilī. However, adapted from the same text they choose to portray this relationship differently. While the former one is well known and widely celebrated; the latter one is not even heard of by many. As A.K Ramanujan stated in his The Collected Essays, “Obviously, these hundreds of tellings differ from one another.” (134) which makes it important to take consideration of exploring not only celebrated text but also other less known re-tellings of the Rāmāyaṇa.
Keywords: Co-wives, power dynamics, re-tellings, voice