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DR. N. M. KANSARA
SAMBODHI
At the end of his book, Lele has given a Bibliography listing twenty-nine English, two Hindi, one Prakrit, and nineteen Sanskrit works, an Index of titles of works and authors. His bio-data on the last is very interesting and reveals his highly bright career both as a student and as a writer. Unfortunately, may be by oversight, he has omitted the details of his proessional career which we would have loved to know from his bio-data. N.M.K.
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Raghavan, Dr. V: Sanskrit Rāmāyaṇas Other Than Valmiki's The Adbhuta, Adhyatma, and Ananda Rāmāyaṇas, Dr. V. Raghavan Centre For Performing Arts, Chennai - 600 020, 1998, pp. xiv + 143, Rs.100/-.
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The present volume is a compilation of the lectures on the three Rāmāyaṇas delivered by Dr. Raghavan under the H.R. Karnik Endowment at the University of Bombay. It gives a remarkable insight into the non-Valmiki Rāmāyaṇas, viz., the Adbhuta Rāmāyaṇa, the Adhyatma Rrāmāyaṇa, and the Ananda Rāmāyaṇa, which are all the Sanskrit digests. Dr. Raghavan gives a new perspective to comprehend the plan and the purpose of each one of them.
The main purpose of the Adbhuta Rāmāyaṇa is to present the Sakta religion and philosophy. To this end, Sītā is here made the cenral figure and identified as the form of Śakti, like Mäheśvarī, Durga and others, with her glory described on the model of Vibhuti-yoga of the Gītā and she acts like Mahākālī, destroying Rāvana. Consequently, certain important changes are introduced in the story, envisaging two Rāvanas, descriptions of the Rāgas and the Rāginīs, Sitā presented as Rāvana's daughter, Rama losing his wife, and Mantharā playing a wicked role. Although these do not seem to be relevant for the central purpose of giving a Śākta orientation to the Rāmāyaṇa, the title of the work is justified by the marvellous acts performed by Sītā while killing the senior Rāvana.
The very title of the second work, viz., Adhyatma Rrāmāyaṇa suggests that the work has a philosophical orientation, with much of its philosophy drawn from the Bhagavata, and the philosophical stotras and discourses that occur in the latter work are summarized here. Rama, though an incarnation of Visnu, is described here as a role model of Krsna in the Bhagavata. This work is known to have considrably influenced Kabira and Tulasīdasa, and presents the philosophy of Rāmānanda also.
The Ananda Rrāmāyaṇa starts with Ravana's misdeeds much earlier than his act of abducting Sītā. He carries Kausalya to Lanka on learning that her marriage with Dasaratha is proposed and the son born to them would kill him. This digest
