Indian Antiquary Vol 41

SR No.: 032533
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 320
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 39 MB

Page 277

DEORBER, 1912.) THE RAMACHARITAMANASA AND THE RAMAYANA
273
THE RAMACHARITAMANASA AND THE RAMAYANA.
BY L. P. TESSITORI; UDINE (ITALY).
[TAE present paper on the connection between Tolasi Dasa's Ramacharitamanasa and Valmiki's Råmdyana was first published in Italian in the Giornale della Società Asiatica Italiana (Vol. XXIV, 1911), and is now republished in English at the kind suggestion of Sir G. Grierson and Sir R. O. Temple. The subject is indeed a most interesting one, as it involves a question w.ich has remained sub judice up to the present day.
Many different opinions have been advanced as to the principal source from which Tulasi Dasa derived his d nacharitamanasa, but they bave all been mere conjectures, rather than inductions from a sufficient quantity of positive evidence, and, being also very unlikely, bare only helped to make the question more intricate instead of solving it. The two extremes have been represented: (a) by the scholars who, being not directly acquainted with the Ramacharitamanasa, have almost necessarily tended towards conceiving it as a poor and close rifacimento of the Ramdyana, bearing no stamp of or ginality; and (6) by the scholars who, being more or less acquainted with the Ramacharitamanasa, have allowed themselves to be misled by its outward appearance and by the different meaning of the facts in it, and have arrived at the conclusion that Tulasi Dasa had availed himself of other sources and was not at all or very little indebted to his great predecessor. It is iroportant to determine the right course between the two exaggerations and to give the Ramayana its proper place amongst the sources of the Ramacharitamanasa.
The solution of the problem can be reached only by freeing ourselves from any preconception, or misleading influence of general impressions, and confining ourselves in the impartial. examination of positive facts. It is chiefly a work of patience: The Hindi poem must first be compared verse for verse with the Rámáyana, with the object of ascertaining all points of agreement with the Sanskrit text. Then, by placing agreements and disagreements in the same scale, it must be ascertained whether the former outweigh the latter to such a degree as to permit us to classily the Ramdyana as the principal source of the Ramacharitamanasa. The way is however, made arduous by the fact that Tulasi Dass does not confine himself to only one recension of the Ramayana. This makes it necessary to carry on the same inquiries into both the principal recensions, and ascertain in which places of the Ramacharitamanasa either of the two prevails. Another difficulty is that of distinguishing between real and apparent discordances, i. e., between particulars derived from sources different from the Ramdyana and particulars derived from the Rámáyana itself, but modified either because of their incompatibility with the religious principles of the new poem, or for some other reason. The reader will judge whether the present study covers all the above points and proves sufficiently that Tulasi Dasa availed himself of the Ramayana as a principal source for the particulars of Rama's life, but at the same time strove with all his power to keep as clear as possible of Valmiki's art, so that on the whole the Ramdyana can only be called his source of information, never his artistic niodel.
Of course, the fact of having taken into consideration only the Ramayana gives the above conclusions a temporary character. We know Tulasi Dasa availed, himself also of the Adhyatmar&ulyana, mystic rifacimento of the Ramdyana, which is included in the Brahmandapurana. When inquiries are brought to bear on this source, too,-a task which the author of this article may possibly carry out in the near future-then only can the priority of the Ramayana amongst the sources of the Ramacharitamanasa be definitely established. But on the whole, even if sonne