[Download] "Re-figuring the Ramayana as Theology" by Ajay K. Rao " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Re-figuring the Ramayana as Theology
- Author : Ajay K. Rao
- Release Date : January 03, 2014
- Genre: Hinduism,Books,Religion & Spirituality,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 14431 KB
Description
The RÄmÄyana of VÄlmÄ«ki is considered by many contemporary Hindus to be a foundational religious text. But this understanding is in part the result of a transformation of the epic’s receptive history, a hermeneutic project which challenged one characterization of the genre of the text, as a work of literary culture, and replaced it with another, as a work of remembered tradition.
This book examines RÄmÄyana commentaries, poetic retellings, and praise-poems produced by intellectuals within the ÅrÄ«vaisnava order of South India from 1250 to 1600 and shows how these intellectuals reconceptualized RÄma’s story through the lens of their devotional metaphysics. ÅrÄ«vaisnavas applied innovative interpretive techniques to the RÄmÄyana, including allegorical reading, Ålesa reading (reading a verse as a double entendre), and the application of vernacular performance techniques such as word play, improvisation, repetition, and novel forms of citation. The book is of interest not only to RÄmÄyana specialists but also to those engaged with Indian intellectual history, literary studies, and the history of religions.