Description: The Life of a Text Performing the Ramcaritmanas of Tulsidas by Philip Lutgendorf University of California Press, 1991, First Edition, 0520066901, Hardcover, Dust Jacket, Fine/Fine condition, no marks, no underlining, no highlighting, 469 pages. The most popular and influential text of Hindi-speaking North India, the epic Ramcaritmanas is a sixteenth-century retelling of the Ramayan story by the poet Tulsidas. This masterpiece of premodern Hindi literature has always reached its largely illiterate audiences primarily through oral performance including ceremonial recitation, folksinging, oral exegesis, and theatrical representation. Drawing on fieldwork in Banaras, Lutgendorf breaks new ground by capturing the range of performance techniques in vivid detail and tracing the impact of the performance of the epic in its contemporary cultural context. The Life of a Text not only contributes to the growing body of research on the cultural contexts of sacred literature, it also offers a vivid portrait of one community's interaction with its favorite text and the way in which it functions as a flexible and evolving medium for cultural expression. After introducing Tulsidas's epic and explaining its metrical and narrative structure, the author focuses on the various ways in which it is performed, examining them in the context of older practices and then tracing the rise —especially during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries—of the Rãmcaritmãnas as the preeminent text for public performance. Lutgendorf emphasizes the interrelationships of the various performance methods and their reflection of indigenous concepts of the sacred word as both fixed and fluid. Later chapters focus on recitation rites, the rhetorical art of kathd (storytelling or exegesis), the role of royal sponsorship in the development of Ramlila (the outdoor pageants in which the epic is reenacted each autumn), and the social and cultural context of Rãmcaritmãnas performance, including speculation on the future viability of the performance methods in light of the impact of electronic communications media. Relevant to the concerns of anthropologists, folklorists, and historians of religion, as well as those interested in the culture of North India or the performance arts, The Life of a Text combines breadth of subject with careful scholarship and engaging presentation in a unique examination of Hindi culture. Philip Lutgendorf is Assistant Professor of Hindi and Modern Indian Culture at the University of Iowa. A Philip E. Lilienthal Book Jacket design by Barbara Jellow CONTENTS List of Illustrations Acknowledgments A Note on Transliteration 1. The Text and the Research Context Introduction Tulsidas and the Ramayan Tradition Metrical and Narrative Structure The Fathomless Lake: Tulsi's Narrative Framing The Mãnas and the Western Audience On Poetry and Performance Banaras: City of Tulsidas 2. The Text in Recitation and Song The Varieties of Recitation Spreading the Word: The Puranic Recitation Model The Rites of Recitation The "Great Sacrifice" of Mãnas Recitation The Pleasures of Minas Singing 3. The Text Expounded: The Development of Manas-Katha The Telling and Its Milieu Epic and Puranic Exegetical Traditions The Manas-Katha Tradition Changing Styles of Katha 4. The Art of Manas-Katha The Economics of Katha Qualifications of a Performer Performance Structure and Techniques Katha in Context: The Contemporary Performance Milieu The Performer and the Text The Nature of Katha: A Cross-Cultural Perspective The Palace of Mirrors 5. Words Made Flesh: The Text Enacted The Ramlila Tradition The "Sport" of Kings: Evolution of the Banaras Ramlila Three Contemporary Productions Ramlila and Devotional Practice The Ultimate Commentary 6. The Text in a Changing Society The Paradoxical Paradigm The Rise of the Eternal Religion The Politics of Ramraj Cracks in the Mirror People of the Book The Future of Mãnas Performance Glossary of Names with Transliteration Bibliography Index Illustrations 1. A pilgrim recites the Minas 2. Narrative framing in the Mãnas 3. The four ghats 4. Schema of Mãnas performance 5. Banaras: bathers 6. Copies of the epic on a harmonium 7. One hundred eight uniformed Brahmans chant the Minas 8. Shiva Narayan, the chief reciter at Gyan Vapi in 1982 9. Reciters at Gyan Vapi 10. Hanuman in a temple diorama 11. A tableau of Ram's crossing the Ganges 12. Two sadhus singing the Mãnas 13. Ramayan singers in a Banaras neighborhood 14. Baba Narayankant Tripathi discoursing to the faithful 15. The Tulsi-paramparä according to Anjaninandan Sharan 16. The dais and a section of the crowd at a katha performance 17. Ramnarayan Shukla performing 18. Shrinath Mishra giving katha 19. Ramkinkar Upadhyay being greeted by Basant Kumar Birla and his wife 20. The crowd at one of Ramkinkar's annual pravacan programs 21. A living tableau of Ram and Sita 22. Ramlila masks and props 23. A procession of boys adorned as RamIila svarups 24. The Kop Bhavan laa at Khojwan 25. A procession during the Ramnagar Ramlila 26. Ramji Pandey leading the chanting at Ramnagar 27. The village schoolteacher Kamlakar Mishra, who serves as a Ramayani 28. The aged drummer Kailash 29. Adult players representing monkeys and bears 30. A giant puppet effigy representing Kumbhakaran 31. The Shivpur Ramlila grounds 32. A tableau of Ram, Sita, and Lakshman, with attendant deities 33. Women reciting the Minas during a public festival nthdegree books
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Book Title: Life of a Text : Performing the Ramcaritmanas of Tulsidas
Item Length: 9.3in
Item Height: 1.4in
Item Width: 4.4in
Author: Philip Lutgendorf
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Topic: Asian / Indic, Hinduism / General
Publisher: University of California Press
Publication Year: 1991
Genre: Literary Criticism, Religion
Item Weight: 32.2 Oz
Number of Pages: 450 Pages