Rustom Bharucha

An Oral History - Conversations with Komal Kothari

Rajasthan

Paula Richman

The Ramayana, one of the two pre-eminent ancient Hindu epics, has played a foundational role in many aspects of India's arts and social norms. For centuries, people learned this narrative by watching, listening, and participating in enactments of it. The story has continued to be retold and rethought through the centuries in many of India's regional languages, such as Hindi, Tamil, and Bengali, and has provided the basis for enactments in recitation, musical renditions, dance, and avant-garde performances. This volume introduces non-specialists to the Ramayana's major themes and complexities, as well as to the highly nuanced terms in Indian languages used to represent theater and performance.

Enactments, Interpretations, and Arguments

Performing the Ramayana Tradition

The Political Theater of Bengal

Rehearsals of Revolution

An Epic-Style Narrative That Celebrates The Living Traditions Of The Desert For Over Five Decades, Komal Kothari Has Journeyed Through Rajasthan Exploring Its Rich Cultural And Musical Traditions. Neither An Old-Fashioned Seer Nor A Modern Academician, He Has Developed An Understanding Of People S Knowledge Systems In A Manner That Is Uniquely His Own. In This Book, Rustom Bharucha Attempts To Map His Vast Experience Of The Desert, Drawing On Extended And Freewheeling Conversations With Kothari. Weaving In And Out Of Several Contexts, Kothari S Interconnected Reflections On Land, Water, Agriculture, Irrigation, Livestock, Sati And Shrines Supplement His Observations On Musical And Performance Traditions Puppetry, Teratali, And The Folk Songs Of The Langas And Manganiyars. Geography Colours The Chants And Vocal Improvisations Of Nomads, And Agriculture Is Embedded In The Performative Rituals Of Pastoral Communities. Also Discussed Here Are The Intellectual Property Rights Of Folk Musicians In An Electronic Age, And The Challenge Of Globalisation. The Outcome Of This Process Of Recording India S Master Folklorist Itself Becomes A History, In Its Frame, Texture And Timbre. Informal In Its Discourse And Packed With Nuggets Of Folk Wisdom, Rajasthan Brings Out The Diversities And Play Of Local Traditions. While Being A Major Contribution To The Fields Of Folklore, Ethnomusicology, And Cultural And Performance Studies, This Book Can Be Enjoyed By All Those Drawn By The Spell Of Rajasthan.

Conversations with Komal Kothari

Rajasthan, an Oral History

"Performing the Ramayana Tradition: Enactments, Interpretations, and Arguments, edited by Ramayana scholar Paula Richman and Rustom Bharucha, scholar of Theater and Performance Studies, examines diverse retellings of the Ramayana narrative as interpreted and embodied through a spectrum of performances. Unlike previous publications, this book is neither a monograph on a single performance tradition nor a general overview of Indian theatre. Instead, it provides context-specific analyses of selected case studies that explore contemporary enactments of performance traditions and the narratives from which they draw: Kutiyattam, Nangyarkuttu and Kathakali from Kerala; Kattaikkuttu and a "mythological" drama from Tamilnadu; Talamaddale from Karnataka; avant-garde performances from Puducherry and New Delhi; a modern dance-drama from West Bengal; the monastic tradition of Sattriya from Assam; anti-caste plays from North India; and the Ramnagar Ramlila. Apart from the editors' two introductions, which orient readers to the history of Ramayana narratives by Tulsidas, Valmiki, Kamban, Sankaradeva, and others, as well as the performance vocabulary of their enactments, the volume includes many voices, including those of directors, performers, scholars, connoisseurs, and the scholar-abbot of a monastery. It also contains two full scripts of plays, photographs of productions, interviews, conversations, and a glossary of Indian terms. Each essay in the volume, written by an expert in the field, is linked to several others, clustered around shared themes: the politics of caste and gender, the representation of the anti-hero, contemporary re-interpretations of traditional narratives, and the presence of Ramayana discourse in everyday life"--

It Examines The Cultural Resources Underlying Manifestations Of `Faith` In The Context Of Communalism And Fundamentalism. The Author Offers Alternative Modes Of Resisting The Violence Of Our Times Through Respect For Cultural Difference.

Rustom Bharucha

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