The progressive pilgrim: Real and mythical Indian geography in contemporary retellings of the Rāmāyaṇa

Abstract

Several English‐language adaptations of the Indian epic Rāmāyaṇa have been published since the beginning of the 21st century. The epic has been regarded and recreated as a metonym for the Indian nation. Contemporary versions have often referred to Indian geography and have tried to poetically or literally associate mythic spaces with real ones. In this paper, I use discourse analysis in order to study some of the most influential 21st‐century English‐language retellings of the Rāmāyaṇa. I conclude that these and other versions of the epic describe India as a regionally divided nation which can ultimately be united through national geography, its association with mythology and the contrast between the geography of India and that of foreign nations. In this sense, I regard these contemporary versions as a ‘literary pilgrimage’ through which Indian readers can get to know the geography of their nation and regard it as sacred.