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A situation of Closure
A
situation of Closure
Folk Traditions in the Ramayana
(with special reference to Orissa)
Dr. Manorama Biswal Mohapatra
She Ramayana has influenced the social, cultural, literary
and moral values over the centuries in India and beyond and
it has several versions. The subjective vision of this great
tradition created by the great epic has tied the regional
cultures of India in one thread in order to keep this ideal
alive, due to which the thought of Ramrajya has not yet been
forgotten. Sarala Das, the first poet of the Oriya Ramayana,
makes himself prominent by introducing new episodes of the
Rama-katha unknown in Valmiki, into his great epic-Mahabharata.
As a writer of Mahabharata, it was expected of him to have
the Sanskrit Mahabharat as his main source. But it was not
like that and the Rama-episodes in his Mahabharata, have a
striking similarity to the Bhatti kavya, the Pauma chariu
of Swayambhu, the Nrisimha Purana and the Mahanataka. The
Ramayana episodes are also popularized by the sixteenth century
poet Balarama Das in his Dandi Ramayana/Jagamohan Ramayana.
Beyond these, the worship of Rama and performances of Ramakatha/leela
has its own popular folk traditions in different places of
Orissa.
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