Different Versions of Ramayana

Three hundred to as many as thousands of versions of the Indian epic poem the Ramayana are known to exist. The oldest version is generally recognized to be the Sanskrit version attributed to the sage Valmiki.

In northern part of India, the Tulsidas Ramayana, also known as the Ramcharitmanasa, is the most popular. Goswami Tulsidas rewrote the Valmiki version in Hindi in about 1574, changing it somewhat to emphasize Rama as an avatara(incarnation) of Vishnu. Another notable change was that Sita had a duplicate (cchaya site), who was kidnapped while Sita remained safe.

The Kamban Ramayana is popular in the state of Tamil Nadu and is of course written in Tamil. Segments of the strory were changed to better reflect Tamil ideas, including Ravana not being as cruel to Site.

These are just some of the versions and many more do exist.

Other  versions range from Jain, Buddhist and even Islamic interpretations of the story of Rama to Mynamarese, Laotian, Cambodian, Indonesian, Malaysian variations.

In the Buddhist variant of the Ramayana, Dasaratha was the king of Benares and not Ayodhya. Rama, Sita and Lakshmana were the siblings born to the first wife of Dasaratha. To protect his children from his second wife, the king sent the three in exile to the Himalayas. Twelve years later, the trio came back to the kingdom with Rama and Sita ruling as consorts. The abduction of Sita did not find a place in this version.

The Jain versions have some variations from Valmiki’s Ramayana. Dasharatha, the king of Saketa had four queens: Aparajita, Sumitra, Suprabha and Kaikeyi. These four queens had four sons. Aparajita’s son was Padma, and he became known by the name of Rama.. According to Jain texts, Ravana will be the future Tirthankara (omniscient teacher) of Jainism.

When it comes to the Islamic interpretation of the Ramayana we have to go to Kerala. Amongst the Mappila Muslims of Kerala. The Muslim Ramayana from Kerala or the Mapilla Ramayan as it is known existed as an oral text till it was collected by Malayalam scholar and writer M N Karassery in 1960. This version forms a part of the Mappillapattu which is a genre of folk singing, popular amongst the Muslims of Kerala and Lakshadweep.

Outside India the Ramayana could not escape assimilation and indigenisation in each country. Depending on a country’s social priorities, Rama may be depicted as a god, a romantic hero, an ideal husband, a womaniser, a temperamental brother; Sita a goddess of love, a faithful wife, or vengeful demi-goddess; Hanuman a chaste bachelor, a fickle lover and father of many children; and Ravana a cruel tyrant, sincere ascetic, and a gentle young man.

Malaysian natives, seers and Islamic prophets figure in the ‘Hikayat Seri Rama’. It is the oldest extant copy of Malay version of the Ramayana. Described by scholars as a Malay literary work of “a Hindu prose narration with a few Islamic adjustments here and there” ...at the onset. In Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim country, all the ministers including the Prime Minister take oath in the name of the ‘Sri Paduka’, the Sanskrit version for the footwear of Rama. Remember that Bharata ruled Ayodhya for 14 years worshipping the Rama Paduka during the Lord’s ‘vanvas’.

The President of Malaysia (who is elected from among the nine sultans) takes oath of office and secrecy in the name of ‘Seri Paduka Dhuli’, which means the dust of Rama’s Paduka.

In Lao it is claimed that Buddha recited the story of Rama to his disciples, and Laotians believe that the jataka tale to be tale of Buddha’s previous birth. There are two popular versions of Ramayana namely Phra Lak Phra Lam and Gvay Dvorahbi. According to these Ramayanas, Ravana is the nephew of King Dasarath. Rama while roaming in the desert in search of Sita eats a fruit and becomes a monkey.

Cambodian version of the Ramayana “The Reamkher” states Ram as incarnation of Vishnu. Akaingameso which means God’s doorkeeper was reborn as Ravana. Sita, in her earlier birth was the wife of Indra, who was insulted by Ravana. To avenge the wrong, she was born as Ravana’s daughter. Ravana was cautioned by his astrologer and brother Bibhek about his daughter’s evil birth. Ravana put her in a chest and buried her. King Janaka later discovered her. There is one important deviation. Sita gave birth to a son named Ramalaksha parented by Valmiki! One day she went to the river for a bath with her son when the sage was in deep meditation. After meditation Vamiki could not see his son, hence created another son by his yogic power and named him Jupalaksha.

Indonesian Ramayana is known as the Ramayana Kakawin. The first half of the story is very similar to the Indian Ramayana. In the second half it acquires a distinctly Indonesian flavour. Enter the guardian god of Java, Semar and his four misshapen sons known as the ‘clown servants’ and the end result is something totally unrecognisable from the familiar story of the prince fighting the demon king to win his wife back.

In the Philippines the epic becomes the story of a Sultan’s sons and a monkey named Laksmana. Here is the tale of the eight-headed Maharadia Lawana, a prince who was banished to another island to rule because of his unworthy ways. Later on in the story come Radia Mangandiri and Radia Mangawa, two sons of a Sultan who are on a ten-year journey to ultimately court Malaila Ganding, a princess in a distant land.

Yama Zatdaw unofficially Myanmar’s national epic, is the Burmese version of the Ramayana. There are nine known pieces of the Yama Zatdaw in Myanmar. The Burmese name for the story itself is Yamayana, while zatdaw refers to the acted play or being part of jataka tales of Theravada Buddhism.

In the South East Asia, each country infused its own value system into the Ramayana, thereby modifying or transforming the epic’s characters and plot