Comments on: Rama in early Tibet http://earlytibet.com/2008/08/07/rama-in-early-tibet/ Notes, thoughts and fragments of research on the history of Tibet Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:21:15 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: earlytibet http://earlytibet.com/2008/08/07/rama-in-early-tibet/#comment-835 earlytibet Wed, 13 Aug 2008 08:15:42 +0000 http://earlytibet.wordpress.com/?p=197#comment-835 Dear Somadeva, Thank you for clarifying the letter-writing issue. Just the kind of expert and informed opinion I was hoping to elicit, even if it contradicts my idea that the letter-writing (or shall we go for the technical term again again and say 'epistolary'?) episodes in the Tibetan Ramayana are non-Indian. Kālidāsa certainly predates Tibetan literature -- well, written Tibetan literature anyway. So, that leaves me wondering if an exchange of love-letters between Rama and Sita does feature in any of the Indic versions of the Ramayana... Dear Somadeva,

Thank you for clarifying the letter-writing issue. Just the kind of expert and informed opinion I was hoping to elicit, even if it contradicts my idea that the letter-writing (or shall we go for the technical term again again and say ‘epistolary’?) episodes in the Tibetan Ramayana are non-Indian. Kālidāsa certainly predates Tibetan literature — well, written Tibetan literature anyway.

So, that leaves me wondering if an exchange of love-letters between Rama and Sita does feature in any of the Indic versions of the Ramayana…

]]> By: somadeva vasudeva http://earlytibet.com/2008/08/07/rama-in-early-tibet/#comment-834 somadeva vasudeva Tue, 12 Aug 2008 02:14:19 +0000 http://earlytibet.wordpress.com/?p=197#comment-834 Letter writing is actually a very common plot device in Sanskrit literature. It is also considered to be of sociological significance that literacy was quite widespread (e.g. in Kālidāsa's Śakuntalā, for instance the young hermit girls scratch with their nails a love letter on to a lotus leaf). There seem to be also quite a few interesting letter writing manuals, see for example: Die Lekhapaddhati-Lekhapancasika: Briefe und Urkunden im mittelalterlichen Gujarat; Text, Ubersetzung, Kommentar: Glossar (Sanskrit-Deutsch-Englisch). By INGO STRAUCH. Monographien zur indischen Archaologie, Kunst und Philologie, vol. 16. Berlin: DIETRICH REIMER VERLAG, 2002. Pp. 526. There is a more recent English study of this by Pushpa Prasad, though I have not seen this yet (http://www.amazon.com/Lekhapaddhati-Documents-Everyday-Ancient-Medieval/dp/0195684478) Letter writing is actually a very common plot device in Sanskrit literature. It is also considered to be of sociological significance that literacy was quite widespread (e.g. in Kālidāsa’s Śakuntalā, for instance the young hermit girls scratch with their nails a love letter on to a lotus leaf). There seem to be also quite a few interesting letter writing manuals, see for example:

Die Lekhapaddhati-Lekhapancasika: Briefe und Urkunden im mittelalterlichen Gujarat; Text, Ubersetzung, Kommentar: Glossar (Sanskrit-Deutsch-Englisch). By INGO STRAUCH. Monographien zur indischen Archaologie, Kunst und Philologie, vol. 16. Berlin: DIETRICH REIMER VERLAG, 2002. Pp. 526.

There is a more recent English study of this by Pushpa Prasad, though I have not seen this yet (http://www.amazon.com/Lekhapaddhati-Documents-Everyday-Ancient-Medieval/dp/0195684478)

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