Many more Ramayanas, not the irreverent variety
I wrote this in
2008 after a solo trip across Indonesia via Malaysia, and the edited
version was published in the Hindustan Times. Never before I had taken leave
for so long, and also a trip that extended to nine days. That was triggered by
a new boss, and looking back I am thankful to him for being what he was in our
first interaction. The trip to Indonesia holds a special place in my travels,
the one I started on an impulse, regretting at times the money I was spending
and at times feeling guilty about not taking the family along. My friend,
Anu was as usual my partner in crime, arranging all that I needed to complete
the tour and engaging in long distance conversation from China, when I felt
little unsafe at Jogja. I have added a lot more photos here from Prambanan than
what I could have in the print article. It was written 12 years ago, didn't
want to go back and recreate a new write up today, but though I will just
preserve the old one as it hasn't been available on the newspaper archive any
longer.
The Trimurti temple has three
shrines dedicated to Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and a smaller shrines opposite
them for their respective Vahans. Prambanan is supposed to be derived from
"para Brahman" and there are also local legends about how the temple
got built in a day. This temple is dated somewhere between 9th-10th century and
I was wondering if this got built before our grand chola, Rajaraja's Thanjai
periya kovil. This temple is supposed to be a symbol of the Hindu re-emergence
after Buddhist reigns that built a grand Borobudur shrine.
Reproducing
here the piece published in the HT
The
signboard Ramayana cheered me up, as Yogyakarta initially
was unnerving for a lone woman traveler. To escape from touts offering variety
of services from taxis to a tour of Sultan Palace or the silver
market, I entered Ramayana, a departmental store. The cheerful shop attendants
and the non stop Ramayana, Ramanaya announcement as if it was a mantra
prepared me for the trip ahead. Pronounced Jogjakarta or popularly
known as Jogja, this city in central Java links travelers to Borobudur and
Prambanan, the Buddhist and Hindu temple complexes dating back to 9th century.
This is Indonesia,
the largest Muslim nation in terms of population but carries undeniable Hindu
and Buddhist past. Once out of Ramayana store, I had to quickly find
a taxi that would take me to Prambanan's Trimurthi temple and also wait there
while I try to catch up with the live Ramayana performance at the
open air theatre with the temple as the backdrop. The guide book said it would
be criminal to come to Jogja and miss the Ramayana performance which
is performed in the open air theatre during the dry season beginning May and
moves indoors into the beautiful Trimurthi theatre behind the temple. I didn't
have to go far to look at a Ramayana calendar, because the
performance is not daily. It is displayed at all the taxi, tour operator
offices and the Muslim operators are only too happy to help us find out if
there is a performance that day or not.
So far, I
have been to most of the South Asian countries that have the Ramayana link
- Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and now Indonesia.
All these countries are today either Buddhist, or Islamic countries, but have
kept the memory of Ramayana alive, without being skeptical about its
religious connection, faith in Rama as an avatar, creation or being an import
from a distant country. Cambodian capital Phonm Pen has one of the most exhaustive Ramayana murals,
painted on the walls of the palace facing river Mekong. I found a tourist
guide taking an American tourist around with just a sketchy knowledge of Ramayana.
But the simple identification of Rama the hero, Ravana, the villain, Sita the
abducted heroine, Hanuman the monkey that helped the human Rama to reclaim his
wife was enough to make his day. But Ramayana is unerasable from
Cambodian soil as the story is etched in beautiful detail on the walls of the
largest temple complex in the world, Angkor Vat.
Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia continue
to perform Ramayana. The performance of Ramayana at Prambanan
temple is spectacular. I had not seen such a beautiful, racy, close to the
source, powerful performance, great set and above all an enormous effort to
keep the show going throughout the year, even in India. Why hasn't India built
a cultural bridge, the Rama Sethu to the south east Asian countries where Ramayana spread
a millennium ago. Sri Lanka, the battle torn neighbour wasted no time in
spreading tourism awareness about the Ramayana sites when the
controversy over the Sethusamudram project started. Have we every promoted a
tourism circuit to bring our Asian neighbours to visit places connected with Ramayana -
Ayodhya, Nandigram, Chitrakoot, Nanded or Rameswaram? Or have we ever invited
the dancers at the Prambanan temple to come and perform for us in India.
The post-independence India aligned with various fora, from
Commonwealth to Non-aligned movement to ASEAN, but the secular India failed
to establish the most important alliance that would brought the people together
and not just the leaders to broker power. We have had trade links with these
countries and culture spread along. Colonialism changed the trade equations.
But post-independence what prevented India from forging a
cross-cultural and trade alliance. Secular leaders probably forgot to see
beyond the economy and politics. Time the whole of India is aware
that every year in Orissa Bali Yatra is performed by floating paper boats,
recollecting the days of voyages from Orissa to Bali, even today. Take the Ramayana route
to build an Indian-ocean community which several scholars have been advocating,
without being biased about Ramayana's Hindu identity.
PS: We have a Ramayana festival in the country now with international troupes performing here. Hope with the construction of new temple at Ayodhya, it would become a vibrant and host many of the Ramayana troupes from across the country and the world.
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