With the advent of bhakti, Rama’s transition from godlike prince to God became complete. This was a critical transformation of the Rama story—unlike Valmiki’s Rama, the Rama in the bhakti tellings of his story is unequivocally divine.
SO interesting!! I had no idea and am embarrassed by my ignorance of Bhakti. And, this also makes so much sense to me. Of course Rama was only a prince, later elevated as an avatar. I think the version I learned in grad school was from the 16th century epic, but as I am presently horizontal in the wee hours of the morning, I cannot check.
Hi Jan, I do not know why, but for some reason I did not get an alert that you had commented. Therefore my very slow response. Apologies. It’s very likely that the story you learnt in school was from one of the later versions. They are much more popular and very few people, even educators I am sad to say, bother to look beyond. But I am glad you found this interesting. Bhakti is utterly fascinating - for the impact it had and still continues to have on the literary, social, cultural and landscapes of India.
SO interesting!! I had no idea and am embarrassed by my ignorance of Bhakti. And, this also makes so much sense to me. Of course Rama was only a prince, later elevated as an avatar. I think the version I learned in grad school was from the 16th century epic, but as I am presently horizontal in the wee hours of the morning, I cannot check.
Hi Jan, I do not know why, but for some reason I did not get an alert that you had commented. Therefore my very slow response. Apologies. It’s very likely that the story you learnt in school was from one of the later versions. They are much more popular and very few people, even educators I am sad to say, bother to look beyond. But I am glad you found this interesting. Bhakti is utterly fascinating - for the impact it had and still continues to have on the literary, social, cultural and landscapes of India.