6.2 Ram and Sita's wedding - part 1

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From the course by The University of Melbourne

Contemporary India

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The University of Melbourne

Contemporary India

29 ratings

This course presents some important vignettes of a complex, highly diverse India that is also witnessing unprecedented changes since its formal independence in 1947 from Great Britain. The lectures revolve around social dimensions of change, the continuing influence of ancient texts on contemporary India, political democracy, economic transition from the state to the market, gender relations, India's economic globalisation and changing world view. While one of the objectives is to capture the multifaceted process of change, the course also critically examines some of the tensions inherent in these changes. For example, how does gender inequality play itself out in a changing Indian society, how do the modernist conceptions of art entailing market valuation challenge the more socio-centric values found in South India, what are the politics linguistic identities, and how might India address its myriad development challenges such as poverty and unemployment. No specific prior knowledge is required. However, it would be helpful if students are aware of the socio political dynamics at play in contemporary India and keep themselves abreast with current affairs and debates in the country to fully appreciate the various dimensions and contours if the subject matter in the course. This course is taught in English. View the MOOC promotional video here: http://tinyurl.com/hx8mhxb

From the lesson

The Ramayan

This week we will discuss one of India's ancient epics - The Ramayana. Here you will not just be introduced to the text but the various Ramayana traditions, which include a wide range of performance traditions, be it in folk theatre, women's Ramayana songs or shadow puppetry. At the core of these traditions is the idea of morality or dharma, which continues to find resonance in contemporary India even though it was written around 500BC. Because there are innumerable interpretations of the Ramayana, often the sacred becomes the source of controversy. But these disagreements often reinforce the relevance of the epic in the daily lives of Indian society.

6.1 Many Ramayanas: text and tradition12:35

6.2 Ram and Sita's wedding - part 110:10

6.3 Ram and Sita's wedding - part 214:15

6.4 The forest exile10:16

6.5 The battle at Lanka7:40

6.6 Many Ramayanas: the story continues9:54

Meet the Instructors

Anthony D'Costa
Professor
School of Social and Political Sciences

Welcome back.

I'm going to talk about my time conducting field work on North Indian folk song in

a village named [FOREIGN] in North India.

In [FOREIGN] in the district of [FOREIGN] near the city of [FOREIGN].

This is a village in the region of North India where Hindi is widely spoken.

The local language of the village is [FOREIGN],

a language that is related to Hindi, but is never the less a separate language.

And most of the songs you'll hear in this presentation are in [FOREIGN].

When I first arrived in the village in 2003,

I expressed my interest in [FOREIGN], folk songs.

Because this is the topic I was researching, village folk songs.

Yes, explained my host Ram Saugersing, you'll find

many song artists in our village, especially among the older generation.

And I found this to be true.

There were many expert elderly singers.

There are also many younger singers learning their grandparents songs, and

also innovating their own.

Ramsaga asked me, would you like to see a wedding?

He asked me this during my first week in the village.

And it was May, the month of May, which is during the hot season.

It's so hot, in fact, that there's a pause in most agriculture activity.

So for this reason,

it is also the wedding season, because it's a time when many people are free.

Of course I did want to go to the wedding,

because I knew that weddings are one of the primary occasions for village songs.

The wedding was taking place in the same quarter of the village where I

was staying.

A young gentleman named [FOREIGN] was marrying a woman from the next district.

When we arrived at Sureish's house that evening,

the family men were building the wedding tent, called the marowa, or mundup.

That morning they had cut down five large bamboo poles,

and they were now putting them up, one at each corner, and a fifth in the middle.

And on the ground inside the squared marked off by the four poles,

the men wove together a thatched roof.

You can see Ram Sager in this photo making this roof.

His back is turned to us.

When it was completed, they lifted it up and tied it to the poles.

Once the structure of the wedding tent was secure,

they could add various important items to be used in later wedding rituals.

Many family members and community members had important rolls.

The grooms aunt, his father's sister, known as a [FOREIGN] or

[FOREIGN], she had returned from her married home.

And she has some of the most important ritual jobs during this occasion, and

many of the songs that the women sang that evening described the relationship

between this aunt with other members of the family.

Because in many villages in North India,

women sing during important wedding rituals.

In both of these photos, you can see family and neighborhood

women gathering to sing at different days, during [FOREIGN] wedding in [FOREIGN].

This is a wedding I attended in 2003.

The songs will often elaborate on the events taking place.

In one ceremony, for example, family members rubbed yellow turmeric paste

into the bride or groom's skin to beautify the skin.

And the woman will sing the appropriate song, the song about the turmeric

ceremony, and insert the names of each specific family member as he or

she enters the wedding tent.

Many other wedding songs are Ramayan songs.

Some compare the men of the groom's wedding party to Ram's ancient army.

Some others refer directly to the wedding of Ram and Sita.

So these songs are like a running commentary,

that the women provide from the side of the wedding tent,

on the events that are taking place during the wedding.

How did the textural male-authored traditions treat the wedding of Ram and

Sita?

The image here is an 18th century depiction of that wedding.

Ram is marrying Sita, Ram's three brothers are also marrying at the same time.

The similarities between today's [FOREIGN] village wedding tents and

this 18th century painting.

So, the similarities between a wedding tent in [FOREIGN] and

the image in this painting, as well as Ram's wedding in [FOREIGN] 16th

century [FOREIGN] are striking, for sure.

No doubt this is an example of what [FOREIGN],

the new chair of Indian Council of Historical Research, meant when he said

that Indian village life provides proof of the historical truths in the Ramayana.

But what about the women singing?

They're present in this painting you can see them playing a [FOREIGN] drum

off in the corner, they're watching the events under the wedding tent and

singing songs about what's happening, just as women do in the village today.

In [FOREIGN] 16th century texts, he mentioned several times the women

singing under the wedding tent, but he doesn't tell us exactly what they sing.

How did the sung versions of the Ramayana performed in the village today, compare?

How did they compare to the wedding and the textual versions?

The textual versions often focused on the splendor of the wedding, but not so

with the song you're about to hear.

The women in this song reference the splendor of Ram and Sita's wedding.

Ram's wedding in Ayodhya, in his hometown, was filled with items of gold, they say.

But we can't afford gold things like that.

That's the message of this song.

So the song is about Ram's father, King Dasharatha.

The women imagine that Dasharatha has arrived in the village.

He's with them in the village observing their family wedding.

He calls on the barber.

He calls on the Brahman to travel to Ayodhya, the scene in this picture right

here, Ram's birthplace, to bring back the golden items used in Ram's wedding.

Now, the barber and

the Brahman are traditionally seen as messengers between the bride's family and

the groom's family, so as messengers, they're suitable for this task.

The task of traveling to Ayodhya, to Ram's birthplace, and

bringing back the golden items used in Ram's wedding, so

that the family members in the village can use them.

But in the song, you'll hear the women stop Ram's father,

they stop King Dasharatha and they call him crazy.

They call him crazy.

We're too poor, they say.

We're too poor to afford these items.

So instead of golden items, we must use wooden items.

This is all we can afford.

You'll just hear one clip of the song.

It's a long song.

They can mentioned all of the important items under the wedding tent.

As family members bring the items under the wedding tent,

the women sing about them.

The various in the parts that are used in rituals, the baskets that are used,

the candle in Ram's wedding, all of these items were made of gold the women sing,

but [FOREIGN] you're crazy for asking us to have gold items.

We must use wooden ones.

In the verse you'll hear here, they sing of the parrot, the golden parrot,

that was hung in Ram's wedding tent as an auspicious symbol.

And you'll see in the picture in the video,

that the men are tying a wooden parrot to the modoa, to the wedding tent.

Because in Buntua, as the women sing, they cannot have the golden parrot.

They must have a wooden one.

So while you're listening to this song,

consider how the women are also voicing the opinion of the men in their community,

who are right there, building the wedding tent as the women sing.

And you will hear that activity in the background.

Men.

Men in this setting, during the wedding while they're building the wedding tent,

they cannot publicly question the Gods.

They can't call [FOREIGN] father of the lord [FOREIGN], crazy.

Nor are they allowed at this moment to complain publicly

about the cost of the wedding.

Women do it for them, and they do it from within a village [FOREIGN] tradition.

[MUSIC]

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