Ramayana: Historicizing Myth and Mythologizing History 67(Dasaratha, Rama), wisdom (Vashista), spiritual power (Vishwamitra,
Ravana), and loyalty (Lakshmana, Bharatha, Hanuman), but women sym-
bolize cunningness (Manthara), ductility (Kaikeyi), desirability (Kaikeyi),
lust (Soorpanaka), chastity (Sita), and usurpation (Sita, Thara).
Reiterating the same old social text of man-domination and woman-
subordination, the Ramayan also reproduces the "social reality" where
the powerful occupy the center and everybody else is ordained to play
the supportive role for their drama. When the heroic class happens to
be the modern, scientific, entrepreneurial creators, as the Ramayan he-man
happens to be God himself, others hardly even matter. The weaknesses
of Rama are glossed over, or covered up or explained away; the villain,
who does not play by the heroic rule, can never be anything but a mali-
cious menace, and as can be expected, the other characters go unnoticed.
Though the Ramayana may be Ram's story, everybody else's stories are
twisted to fit in that. The Ramayan's correspondence with the omnipres-
ence of the modern middle class and the obliteration of the marginalized
groups is neither casual nor coincidental.
Another loud and clear message persistently repeated and reiterated all
along the Ramayan is that the Brahmins should be respected and revered.
The caste system with the Brahmins on top and the shudras at bottom (inci-
dentally, these people do not come into the picture at all) is ascertained
time and again through contexts, dialogues, and actions. A typical sample
is the pervasive presence of Brahmins, Brahminical rituals and supersti-
tions, their daily practices, and their "wisdom" and teachings in the first
four episodes of the serial.
When a Brahmin comes to the court, the king himself washes the "holy"
visitor's feet, wipes them, and pays respect. Rama himself does this quite
frequently to different Brahmins. In most of the crucial situations in Ayod-
hya, it is a Brahmin, Vashista, who decides things and gives commands to
the king and others. Every court has Brahminical priests; the king remains
the "kshatriya hand" but the priests stay the "Brahminical brain" and pon-
tifical rulers all through the Ramayan. The epic is no longer a civilizational
text teaching different cultural mores to diverse peoples, but a religious
scripture to be defended and deified as in the Semitic religions. Having
been made a singular religious literature rather than a cultural text with
multifarious tellings in manifold genres, the Ramayan has come to repre-
sent one humanity, one Hindus, one Hinduism, one God, one culture, one
ethos, one language, one country, and one future. By the courtesy of the
Ramayan, the Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan dream stands realized.
Reading politics into the making of the Ramayan is by no means an idle
exercise. In fact, the serial always had the political shade, from the very
beginning of the project. When he spoke at a VHP function, Ramanand
Sagar said that Rajiv Gandhi had always wanted a Ramayan program pro-
duced, but the bureaucracy did not show any interest. According to him,