Epic Narratives and Cultural Memory Dharma in Transition: Eastern Indian Retellings of the Rāmāyaṇa as Cultural and Ethical Narratives

Abstract

The Rāmāyaṇa, far from being a fixed or monolithic text, survives as a dynamic cultural continuum shaped through translation, transcreation, oral performance, and regional adaptation. This paper examines the Eastern and North-Eastern Indian Rāmāyaṇa traditions—particularly Madhav Kandali’s Saptakanda Rāmāyaṇa (Assamese) and Krittivas Ojha’s Rām Panchali (Bengali) to demonstrate how dharma functions as a unifying ethical principle across diverse linguistic and cultural contexts. Drawing upon literary history, oral tradition studies, and comparative textual analysis, the study foregrounds the role of semi-oral poetic forms, performative modes, and colloquial diction in making the epic accessible to non-elite audiences. The paper argues that these regional retellings privilege moral action and social consciousness over doctrinal rigidity, thereby reflecting localized cultural values while retaining the epic’s core philosophical intent. Through close readings of selected narrative episodes and phrases, the analysis highlights how deviations from Valmiki’s Sanskrit Rāmāyaṇa—such as the incorporation of goddess worship in Krittivas’s text or the pastoral and ethical focus in Kandali’s rendering—reinforce righteous conduct within specific socio-historical milieus. Ultimately, the study contends that the paradoxical play of words, images, and narrative choices across Eastern Rāmāyaṇa traditions does not dilute the epic’s meaning but reaffirms dharma as a stable moral condition that offers ethical coherence and cultural continuity across time, language, and region.