Le Rāmāyana: du dharma à la bhakti

Abstract

One of the major directions multimillenial Hinduism took was to divert from strict ritualism to devotion or bhakti marked by a sentimental relationship between the devotee and his god. A study of the evolution of the Rāmāyana from the original Sanskrit version to the Bengali version, which dates back to the end of the 15th century reveals significant changes in the devotional tone, as much in content as in the narrative style. It is seen how the theme of the protection of dharma, omnipresent in Vālmīki’s poem is substituted by the theme of devotion in multiple forms, from one end of the Bengali poem to the other. In the Rāmāyana of Krttibās, being the work of a man of letters, the theme of dharma does not disappear completely but takes second place most of the time and finds itself encompassed in bhakti, which is much more vast and more delicately developed as regarding relationship between the devotee and his God, whatever be the latter’s identity.