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Bharat Ek Khoj—The Discovery of India A Production of Doordarshan, the Government of India’s Public Service Broadcaster Episode 7: Ramayana, Part-I With Salim Ghouse as Rama, Pallavi Joshi as Sita, Ravi Jhankal as Lakshmana, Pankaj Berry as Bharata, Devendra Malhotra as Dasharatha, Ila Arun as Kaikeyi, Ajit Karkare and Ravindra Sathe as Singers O hunter, don’t dare break the love-chain, by killing the male-dove immersed with its consort in the conjugal bliss, proclaims the meditating sage Valmiki, outraged by the sudden forest-carnage and is amazed at his own utterance, for, he has just composed the world’s first lines of verse! Nehru considered the Ramayana, written by Valmiki, as a unique epic poem and loved by the people. He quoted from the French historian Michelet extolling the Ramayana: There lies my great poem, as vast as the Indian Ocean, blessed, gilded, with the sun, the book of divine harmony wherein is no dissonance. A serene peace reigns there, and in the midst of conflict an infinite sweetness, a boundless fraternity, which spreads over all living things, an ocean of love, of pity, of clemency… Here are the Ramkatha singers from the north, with Rama’s name emblazoned on their apparels, praising enthusiastically the sterling virtues of Rama, the Maryada Purushottam - one of infinite purity, self- control, sincerity, affection and boundless love. In the production of Bhasa’s play, Abhishek, Sita is playfully trying out a valkal (arboreal skin) and accosting Rama on his impending abhishek (coronation). There is an evasive reply from Rama referring to a whisper of the maid Manthara into King Dasharatha‘s ears and the foreboding of evil in Rama’s asking for a valkal, meant only for mendicants. Soon the premonitions prove true with brother Lakshmana storming in and accusing Rama of his nonchalance, when there is a conspiracy going on against his coronation. Rama stands by the parental commitment and abdicates the throne in favour of brother Bharata. It is clear now, Rama is proceeding to the forest for 14 years, and wife Sita and brother Lakshmana have insisted on joining him. The repentant king, having taken to his deathbed, is ranting about Rama. Bharata, on return, is beside himself with rage at his mother’s machinations and refuses to recognise her. In the eventual coronation as there has to be a king on the throne to protect the subjects, as inevitably as clouds have to be present to yield rains, he resolves to put Rama’s footwear on the throne and remain its ‘patron guardian.’ Next, the forest-dweller Rama is seen to protect the meditating sages against the marauding Rakshasas (demons) against Sita’s remonstrations. Interesting contrast is visible between the urban Ayodhya and the thickly-wooded Dandakaranya, and the forest-dweller demons are perhaps non-Aryans; then part of an ‛Aryanisation’ process. Yet Sita’s argument is quite valid: what is the rationale for Rama to take upon himself the task of eradicating the forest-dwellers who are disturbed by the Aryans: advancing into forests with their occupations and ritual? The drama ends on the note of ‘clash of civilisations’. |
