How the Valmiki Ramayana is almost an encyclopaedia of Indian civilisation

In the foreword to his thought-provoking travelogue Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God, Jonah Blank underlines the significance of the Ramayana of Valmiki in modern Indian culture:

Imagine a story that was the Odyssey, Romeo and Juliet, the Bible and a Hollywood blockbuster all rolled into one … [This is a timeless story] that could make young children marvel, grown men weep, and old women dream.

For better or worse, no Indian – Hindu or non-Hindu – can escape the influence of the Ramayana on their life and consciousness. My own name, Rajiv, is found in the Sanskrit version of the epic: Rama is described as Rajivlochana, or “lotus-eyed”. Like most Indians of my generation who grew up in the late 1980s, I was under the spell of Doordarshan’s television adaptation of the Ramayana. As Punjabi kids, we were especially thrilled to see one of our own, Dara Singh, play the role of Hanuman, the vanar (or monkey) god. Once, in an attempt to mimic Hanuman’s punching power, I gave another boy a severely bloody nose – the horrific sight and the boy’s howling made me realise the necessary distinction between fantasy and reality.

Over three decades, in India and the West, I studied literature and read many works, including the Bible and Homer’s epic poems. These texts reveal curious narrative...

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