Sambuka and the Ramayana Tradition - Aaron Sherraden

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According to VālmÄ«ki’s Sanskrit Rāmāyaṇa (early centuries CE), ÅšambÅ«ka was practicing severe acts of austerity to enter heaven. In engaging in these acts as a Śūdra, ÅšambÅ«ka was in violation of class- and caste-based societal norms prescribed exclusively by the ruling and religious elite. Rāma, the hero of the Rāmāyaṇa epic, is dispatched to kill ÅšambÅ«ka, whose transgression is said to be the cause of a young Brahmin’s death. The gods rejoice upon the Śūdra’s death and restore the life of the Brahmin. Subsequent Rāmāyaṇa poets almost instantly recognized this incident as a blemish on Rāma’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 ÅšambÅ«ka’s first appearance in the VālmÄ«ki Rāmāyaṇa through to the present day. The book follows the ÅšambÅ«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 Rāmāyaṇa’s influence and its place throughout various phases of Indian history and social revolution.Â