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THE RAMAYANA IN INDONESIA. By Malini Saran and Vinod C. Khanna. Delhi: Ravi Dayal and Orient Longman Ltd., 2004. 264 pp. Rs 900 (approx. $19.80).
In their survey of the Ramayana traditions of Indonesia, Malini Saran and Vinod Khanna have created a volume notable for comprehensive coverage of the tale of Rama and Sita in the archipelago. It is simultaneously a balanced presentation of a historical process that is all too often weighted too heavily to one side, either toward "Indianization" or toward what Sheldon Pollack (1996) termed "defensive indigenism."
The greatest contribution of this work arises from the sheer breadth of knowledge of Ramayana traditions demonstrated by the authors. In the first chapter they survey standard works of the Indian tradition, including the epic Ramayana of Valmiki and the Bhattikavyam, which is today understood as the prototype for the Old Javanese Ramayana Kakawin. They also draw our attention Vimalasuri's Prakrit Paumacariya, Kamban's Tamil classic Iramavataram, and other retellings from the Bengali and Jaina traditions. These worksas well as theater traditions like the kathakalaksepa of South India, the chhau of Orissa, and the patua sangit of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa-provide a basis for Saran and Khanna's survey. Variations on the tale in Southeast Asia, such as the Malay Hikayat Seri Rama and the Javanese Serai Rama, can be illuminated with reference to these "many Ramayana-s" of India. In their first chapter Saran and Khanna also lay a firm basis for the Rama-Sita tale in narrative reliefs of Indonesia by surveying the history of Ramayana reliefs in India. They include the eighth-century reliefs at Paharpur temple in Nalanda, a center of Buddhist learning whose influence on the archipelago in the first millennium CE was second only to its influence on Tibet.
With chapter 2, Saran and Khanna provide a background for the role played by the Ramayana in Indonesia...