Ravana's Kingdom: The Ramayana and Sri Lankan History from Below

Description

Ravana, the demon-king antagonist from the Ramayana, the ancient Hindu epic poem, has become an unlikely cultural hero among Sinhala Buddhists over the past decade. In Ravana's Kingdom, Justin W. Henry delves into the historical literary reception of the epic in Sri Lanka, charting the adaptions of its themes and characters from the 14th century onwards, as many Sri Lankan Hindus and Buddhists developed a sympathetic impression of Ravana's character, and through the contemporary Ravana revival, which has resulted in the development of an alternative mythological history, depicting Ravana as king of the Sri Lanka's indigenous inhabitants, a formative figure of civilizational antiquity, and the direct ancestor of the Sinhala Buddhist people.

Henry offers a careful study of the literary history of the Ramayana in Sri Lanka, employing numerous sources and archives that have until now received little to no scholarly attention, as well as the 21st century revision of a narrative of the Sri Lankan people-a narrative incubated by the general public online, facilitated by social media and by the speed of travel of information in the digital age. Ravana's Kingdom offers a glimpse into a centuries-old, living Ramayana tradition among Hindus and Buddhists in Sri Lanka-a case study of the myth-making process in the digital age.

About the author:

Justin W. Henry earned a PhD in the History of Religions from the University of Chicago Divinity School in 2017 and is currently Lecturer in the department of Philosophy, Religion & Liberal Studies at Georgia College & State University. His academic work concerns the interaction of Buddhist and Hindu communities in Sri Lanka and South India historically, and he has published articles on aspects of Pali, Sinhala and Tamil religious literature.

Table of contents

Chapter 1: Echoes of the Past, Pressures of the Present

1.1. "We belong to the Yaksha clan!"
1.2. Ravana's Kingdom and 21st Century Populism
1.3. The Pali Chronicle Tradition and History from Below
1.4. Chapter Summaries
Chapter 2: Moving Mount Kailasa

2.1. Ravana the Subaltern Cosmopolitan
2.2. Ravana's Lanka in Indian Literature
2.3. Ravana and Rama in Tamil Temple Literature
2.4. Ravana's Lankan Image
Chapter 3: The Many Ramayanas of Lanka

3.1. The Presence and the Absence of the Ramayana
3.2. The Ramayana in Sinhala Literature and Folklore
3.3. Ravana's Mountain Abode
3.4. The Survival of Ravana's Kingdom in Popular Imagination
Chapter 4: Ravana in Modern Sri Lankan Literature

4.1. The Ramayana and the Sinhala Neoclassical Movement
4.2. Ravana on Stage and Screen
4.3. Ravana's Liminal Status in History and Historical Fiction
4.4. Ravana's Lanka as Lost Paradise
4.5. Conclusion
Chapter 5: Terraforming the Past
5.1. The Quest for Hela-Yakkha Civilization
5.2. The Ramayana Trail
5.3. Dasanana Ravana: A Master of Science and Medicine
5.4. Ravana and Global Alternative Media
5.5. Conclusion: "Our Hela World"
Chapter 6: A Bridge Too Close

6.1. Crossing the Ram Setu
6.2. Mainstreaming Ravana's Kingdom
6.3. Ravana and Post-War Reconciliation
6.4. The Apotheosis of the Demon-King
Appendix: Text and Translation of the Ravana Kata
Bibliography