Event Details

About the lecture:  

There are as many Ramayanas as there are languages and dialects in our great country. Valmiki's Ramayana in Sanskrit has inspired any number of poets to write in the story of Rama in their own mother tongues, delicately flavoured with local colour. Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas in Avadhi, Krittibashir Ramayan is Bengali and Kamba Ramayana in Tamil are but a few examples of such unique works of high poetry. 

The Rama-Sita wedding is at the very heart of every Ramayana rendition. Valmiki, Tulsidas, Krittibas and Kamban have each imagined a novel wedding: new rituals, new angles of narrative interest, new characters, original treatment of traditional scenes, each of these poets sees a new beauty in this scene and etches it lovingly against his own cultural background. The same wedding is celebrated so differently by these creative geniuses. This lecture is an attempt to appreciate this special moment in the company of four great poets.

About the Speaker:

Prof. Vidya Vencatesan did her Ph.d on a comparative study of the Valmiki Ramayana and the French epic, le Cycle de Guillaume d’Orange at the University of Sorbonne, Paris 3. Former Head of the Department of French, University of Mumbai, she is presently Director, Centre for European Studies, University of Mumbai.  

She has several scholarly articles in national and international publications. She is Editor in chief of India's only francophone peer reviewed international research journal Synergies Inde. Her translation of Javed Akhtar's nazms was published in Paris in 2014. She is a recipient of three international awards from the Governments of France and Italy.