?amb?ka and the R?m?ya?a Tradition

According to V?lm?ki's Sanskrit R?m?ya?a (early centuries CE), ?amb?ka was practicing severe acts of austerity to enter heaven. In engaging in these acts as a ??dra, ?amb?ka was in violation of class- and caste-based societal norms prescribed exclusively by the ruling and religious elite. R?ma, the hero of the R?m?ya?a epic, is dispatched to kill ?amb?ka, whose transgression is said to be the cause of a young Brahmin's death. The gods rejoice upon the ??dra's death and restore the life of the Brahmin. Subsequent R?m?ya?a poets almost instantly recognized this incident as a blemish on R?ma's character and they began problematizing this earliest version of the story. They adjusted and updated the story to suit the expectations of their audiences. The works surveyed in this study include numerous works originating in Hindu, Jain, Dalit and non-Brahmin communities while spanning the period from ?amb?ka's first appearance in the V?lm?ki R?m?ya?a through to the present day. The book follows the ?amb?ka episode chronologically across its entire history-approximately two millennia-to illuminate the social, religious, legal, and artistic connections that span the entire range of the R?m?ya?a's influence and its place throughout various phases of Indian history and social revolution.