Inter-cultural translation

Paula Richman says: “This account of E. V. Ramasami's interpretation of the Ramayana confirms that even in the modern period the Ramayana continues to be reread in ways that reflect and shape the concerns of both exegete and audience” (Many Ramayanas). If this was the case of a translation influenced by ideology, the epic in other countries show the influence of cultural differences. Ramayana is a living tradition in Thailand, Nepal, Indonesia and other South Asian countries. Frank Reynolds argues that Ramakien, as the Ramayana is known in Thailand, shows the influence of Thai Buddhism (Many Ramayanas). In this version, Sita is Ravana’s daughter who is abandoned because of an astrological prediction that she will bring destruction on her father. Kakawin Ramayana of Indonesia bears the stamp of the old 9th century Javanese text called Yogesvara Ramayana written by Yogesvara. Bhanubhakta Acharya of Nepal is considered to be the adikavi of Nepali for his rendering of the Ramayana into Nepali. The Ramayana has been appropriated by the target culture to fashion an epic according to its norms. Another country which has its own Ramayana tradition is Cambodia which has Reamker. This epic has variation in the depiction of certain characters like Hanuman.

Appropriation of the text to suit the target culture can be seen within India also. The Ramnamis, a dalit sect of Chattisgarh consider the Ramcharit Manas to be their authentic text. But they edit out certain verses they do not agree with, and has an epic that has around 400-500 slokas instead of the original 24,000. Richman notes: “In addition, through ritual chanting and debates, members of the sect continue to personalize their Ramayana text, embellishing it with verses that usually then become part of the corpus” (Many Ramayanas). Thus, the notion of an ‘original’ that can be translated becomes more and more hazy.