Libmonster ID: IN-1370
Author(s) of the publication: I. P. GLUSHKOVA

Multi-faith and multi-ethnic India is relentlessly striving for internal integrity, proclaiming the slogan "Unity in diversity", which expresses the tactics and strategy of national consolidation. The search for ways to accomplish this task has led to the use of the richest Hindu mythology as a pool of symbols designed to become components in the emerging" mental program " of the nation. The center's efforts to develop "public space "and give it" its own " characteristics led to the formation of a unified version of Hinduism, which became popular in the North Indian states. Thus, these states, united in the so-called Hindu-speaking belt of India, along with the already traditional rule of power and similar electoral behavior, began to acquire the features of a cultural region with its own identity, which is still in the process of formation.

Along with dogmas and rituals, mythology is an extremely important component of any religious system, but Hindu mythology plays a completely extraordinary role in the life of Indians, including outside of sacred texts, religious institutions and altar rooms. This role is determined by the fact that the Indian worldview is formed under the influence of time-honored stereotypes, among them-a stable idea that history is created by an ongoing conflict between the dharma (law) 2 and a-dharma (lawlessness), as a result of which dharma wins. The most ancient monuments of Indian thought - the Vedas tirelessly tell about the enmity of devas (gods) and asuras (demons). The heroic epic Mahabharata tells the story of a fratricidal war between two branches of the same clan - the Pandavas and the Kauravas; another epic poem, the Ramayana, describes the bloody confrontation between Rama, the prince of Ayodhya, and Ravana, the ruler of Lanka.

In each of these examples, participation in the dharma is postulated initially by the divine origin of one of the counterparties of the binary opposition, and whatever actions or misdeeds devas, Pandavas and Rama commit, it is their actions that are evaluated as beneficent and restoring the violated dharma on earth. The fact that dharma remains a key concept in modern India is evident at least from the fact that the so-called dharma wheel (or "Ashoka's wheel" depicted on the Sarnath capitals) was approved as the central symbol of the national flag of the Union of India a month and a half before India gained independence and has been preserved for 56 years indian independence-

Magazine version. 1 The full article will be published in the collection "South Asia: Conflicts and Compromises".

2 For the purposes of this article, the ambiguous word " dharma "is primarily used (and considered) in this sense, rather than in the broader sense of"religion".

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mosti. The same example, given until recently the special status of the Indian national flag3, i.e. its official assignment exclusively to state structures, is also confirmed by the inviolability of the context in which (both in the Vedas and epics, and in today's life) the dharma-related issues were manifested and are being manifested: the rule of power and/or the struggle for independence. her.

SPATIAL EXPANSION OF MYTHOLOGY

For two millennia, mythology, one way or another centered around the question of dharma, served as a breeding ground for author's literary works both in South Asia itself and abroad. In modern India, novels and short stories created through psychological reconstruction of the causal relationships between the actions of mythological characters are in steady market demand .4

Thus, the novel Yajnaseni by Pratibha Rai, a writer from Orissa, about the events of the Mahabharata in the perception of Draupadi, which became the catalyst for the bloody battle between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, has won numerous literary awards over the past decade and has been translated into almost all major Indian languages .5 Reporting on the death of Shivaji Govinda Savant in September 2002, the Indian media characterized the Marathi writer, despite his long track record, primarily as the author of the novel "Mahakadambari" 6 - "The Great Novel" (the title echoes the title of "Mahabharata" - " The Great Indian [legend], or [Legend of] descendants of Bharata), devoted to the analysis of the events of the Mahabharata from the point of view of Karna, the half-brother of the Pandavas, who sided with the Kauravas7 . Translated from Marathi into other Indian languages, the novel is called Mrityunjai ("The Immortal").

During the same two millennia, young Indians were educated on mythological examples, and when schools were created and textbooks were published in regional languages, texts introducing important mythological characters and episodes were established as a mandatory component of education.

So, in the comprehensive textbooks on Hindi language and literature from 2nd to 5th grades, approved by the Department of Education of the Government of Uttar Pradesh, the following subjects are offered: Sita's marriage, [childhood] Krsna, Ganga's descent from heaven to earth, Rama's life in exile in the forest, Shakuntala's [story], Krsna's birth, Abhimanyu's [actions], Sita's quest, Rama's victory, and Parasurama's conversation with Lakshmana (five of the ten texts are related to the Ramayana, the rest to the Mahabharata and Puranas) [ Cyan bharati... ] 8 .

3 Amendments to the law allowing wider (and not exclusively State) - public and private - access to the Indian flag came into force on January 26, 2002.

4 The choice of the following authors from the extensive literature of this kind and their works, which are given here as illustrations, is random, but accurately reflects the place that mythology occupies in the mentality of the modern Indian. For more information about the novel "Yajnyaseni", see [Glushkova, 2002].

5 Perhaps one of the reasons for the great attention to the novel was the extramythological curiosity of the modern reader to the non-ordinary life situation of Draupadi, who entered into a polyandrous marriage with the five Pandavas. The eldest, Yudhisthira, lost everything that belonged to him and his brothers, including their common wife, to the Kauravas in a dice game, which was followed by the indecent behavior of the older Kauravas, Duryodhana and Duhsasana, who tried to undress Draupadi in public.

6 This novel was nominated for the 1990 Nobel Prize in Literature.

7 Karna is the illegitimate son of Kunti, the mother of the three eldest Pandavas, Yudhisthira, Bhima and Arjuna.

8 Each of the four Gyan Bharati books was reprinted 26, 25, 23, and 8 times, respectively, by the year of publication of the editions available to me. I do not know what texts are included in the primary textbooks of other Hindi-speaking states. Bal Bharati, the first three books of Marathi language and literature for primary schools approved by the Maharashtra Curriculum and School Textbooks Methodological Commission, does not include mythological themes. [ Bal bharati, 1972 - 1979].

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The performance of episodes from ancient Indian epics and puranas by specially trained storytellers always found a grateful audience both at the royal court and on the village Maidan. It is also widely known that modern Indian theater was formed primarily as a result of the exploitation of mythological subjects, which in modern interpretation continue to feed the repertoire of today's theater companies. This is even more true for cinema: before 1923, 70% of Indian films were exclusively mythological in nature (Derne, 1997, p. 197). Both school and theater (a non-elite art form in modern India), and especially commercial cinema, using their own audiovisual means, undoubtedly contributed to strengthening the mythological component in the" mental program " of the Indian and, taking into account the mass circulation of school textbooks and the scale of the Indian film audience, contributed to the homogenization of mythological representations. These representations, expressed in visual or verbal forms, were fixed as a standard and united the audience around common symbols that act as socially significant integrators.

Less traditional, but nowadays more aggressively and even aggressively promoting mythological themes, means designed for the widest coverage of the population, include such multi-genre mass media as calendar and poster products, radio, television, audio and video cassette industry.

The main subject of calendar and poster products, also called "bazaar art" and perceived by the non-Indian eye as kitsch, are single images of the gods of the Hindu pantheon and detailed mythological subjects. This genre is well known to anyone who has visited India: calendars are published by various companies and distributed between real and potential customers, and adorn both the public and private spheres. Posters of various sizes, usually glazed and inserted in simple frames, are found everywhere-from the auto-rickshaw booth to the office of the vice-chancellor of the university, and as religious objects - icons complement the interiors of temples and home, often kitchen, altars. "The ubiquity of these images, due to their portability and mobility, brought Hindus closer together in their perception of the divine and provided a unified vision of the Hindu pantheon. Printed images have become one of the key elements of Pan-Hinduism, which is developing as the mobility of Indians within India steadily increases, and as they become part of the (otherwise regionally fragmented) diaspora beyond its borders" (Inglis, 1997, p.67). Thanks to the "ubiquity" of examples of "bazaar art", the pantheism inherent in Hinduism takes on a literal expression: mythology tirelessly reclaims space from other derivatives of human activity.

"Bazaar art" is not limited to calendars and posters. This category also includes postcard products that are mass-produced for religious holidays; spiritual magazines and newspapers that reflect various trends in Hinduism; and comics.

The latter are represented by multi-million issues in the endless series "Amar Chitra Katha", replicated in all Indian languages, and are in great demand among children of preschool and primary school age: their video series creates its own universe, which has a powerful impact on the child's consciousness. This is especially important because the process of creating comics involves making a new-concise and consistent-version of a particular mythological plot, and thus the question of what to include in a comic or exclude from it can and does have not only a pragmatic, but also a didactic, ideological character.

If printed products that widely exploit mythological themes provide consumers with the freedom to choose (buy or not buy, read or not read).-

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However, the monumental and decorative design of the Indian public space, which is on the rise, does not leave such a choice. On the eve of religious festivals and during them, as well as regardless of any religious dates, replicated by the efforts of artisans and/or actors of Rama, Lakshmana, Sita, Hanumana, Ravana, Meghanada, Kumbhakarna, Taraka, Krishna, Durga 9 and other characters appear on the streets of Indian cities and villages, reminding them of what they are. complexes of representations are assigned in one way or another.

In contrast to the non-iconographic images of common Hinduism that serve as a security function, installed on the borders of settlements or hidden in fields, religious sculpture of classical Hinduism for centuries was a sign of the temple interior or home altar, and worship was traditionally carried out individually or within the family. Attempts to give worship a collectively organized character, in particular by moving it beyond the sacred to the profane, public space, were made in some parts of India as early as the middle of the XIX century.11 and by the beginning of the XX century, against the background of the active formation of a common Indian identity, they were successfully instilled in Maharashtra. There, on the initiative of the nationalist reformer B. G. Tilak and his associates, the annual calendar holiday of Ganesh Chaturthi began to significantly, albeit temporarily, change the appearance of city streets [Glushkova, 1999, pp. 305-307].

Among the legends that explain the appearance of this festival on the fourth day of the bright half of the lunar month of Bhadrapad, the most common is the story of the defeat of the demon Gajasura by the god Ganesha, who defeated all other gods and thereby restored the dharma.

However, the divine images of Ganesha, made in the style of the "bazaar" canon and installed on huge platforms surrounded by other figures, not only form the Maharashtra landscape for ten days, but also "respond" to the most pressing problems of the socio-political life of the region and the whole country. Thus, the" festive " Ganesha of the beginning of the XXI century reacts sharply to everything that does not leave the front pages of Indian newspapers: the growth of tension in South Asia, the escalation of international terrorism, the aggravation of interfaith relations, corruption, poverty, environmental degradation, etc. - and by the will of its creators, who combined the religious with the secular, gives a consonant version of them. give an assessment of what is happening.

Other Indian regions, eventually following this initiative, called for solving the urgent problems of their celestials and with calendar frequency began to saturate the local landscape, and in fact-public space, with images of regionally significant gods. In Bihar and West Bengal, where Durga Puja is actively celebrated from the first to the tenth day of the bright half of the month of Ashwin, the current moment in the socio-political life of the states and the whole country is discussed with the help of the popular warlike goddess Durga, who became famous for a nine-day battle with the demon Mahi who oppressed the gods-

9 Rama, his brother Lakshmana, his wife Sita, and his fellow servant Hanuman are positive characters in the Ramayana; Ravana, his son Meghanad, and his brother Kumbhakarna are negative, as is Taraka, the demoness who was disfigured by Rama and Lakshmana and subsequently killed by the former; Krishna is one of the central characters of the Mahabharata and the main character "Bhagavata Puranas"; Durga is a warrior goddess who defeated the formidable demon Mahishasura, which the leading gods of Hinduism could not cope with.

10 A sculpture of Nandi, Shiva's mount, placed in front of Shaivite temples in the open air, is usually separated from the profane part of the settlement by a temple fence.

11 For example, Keshobchondro Sen, a prominent member of the Bengali reform society "Brahmo Samaj", initiated open religious processions on the streets of Calcutta [Rybakov, 1981, p.52].

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shasura and victory over it on the tenth day (dasera), which was a necessary condition for the restoration of dharma on earth. In Bihar, since 1990, Lalu Prasad Yadav, the former Chief Minister of the state, leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal Party (RDD, National People's Party), who is depicted against the background of a multi-armed Durga sitting on a lion/tiger, has been a constant figure in festive layouts [India Today, 28.10.2002, p. 12].

In Delhi, the enthusiasm for durga Puja and its corresponding street props can be seen in areas of compact Bengali settlement, for example, in the Chittaranjan Park district, where nine platforms were installed in 2002, compared to last year's eight, including a figure of Durga made of sea shells [Hindustan Times, 10.10.2002]. Other parts of the huge metropolis these days recall other mythological events.

Simultaneously with the ten-day celebration of Durga Puja, the Hindu-speaking area of the Ganges-Yamuna interfluve pays tribute to another mythological event - the nine-day divine service of Rama in honor of Durga, followed by receiving a gift from her - the long-awaited victory over Ravana, and therefore the tenth day here has not only an ordinal (dasera) name, but also a functional " tenth [day] of victory"(vijay-dashami). For nine days, theatrical performances of ram-lila based on a consistent presentation of the Ramayana plot are performed at specially prepared venues, and in the final (tenth) day, huge effigies of Ravana and his accomplices are burned everywhere, demonstrating the final victory of good over evil, dharma over a - dharma.

Ram-lilas, which have been actively promoted in the Hindu-speaking belt since about the 1830s, have now lost the integrating (inter-confessional and inter-caste) function that was originally laid in them, when such representations were brought to the public space as symbols of "one's" faith. Nowadays, they are mostly put up not by the princely patrons and quarterly committees (as before), but by various public and political organizations that have permanent working groups with characteristic mythological names for these purposes - for example, "Lava-Kusha ram-lila komiti" (the name plays on the names of the sons of Rama, who were born in the village of Kush-kush-kush-kush-kush-kush-kush-kush-kush-kush-kush-kush-kush-kush-kush-kush-kush-kush-kush-kush-kush-kush-kush-kush-kush-kush-kush-kush according to legend, trained by the sage Valmiki, they were the first performers of the Ramayana). Moreover, there has long been an unspoken rivalry among the ramlilas scattered throughout the Delhi metropolis, in which the organization whose ramlila is visited by the maximum number of "very important people" wins, which is certainly reflected in all the mass media.

The greatest success is considered to come to the presentation of the Prime Minister of the country. When in 2000 there was a threat that A. B. Vajpayee would not be able to climb the 20 steps leading up to the platform where the Rama, Lakshmana and Sita performers, who were deified throughout the ram lila, performed due to a knee condition, one of the oldest organizers of the ram lila in the capital, "Dharmik lila Komiti", decided solve the problem by installing a special device near the platform: "The lift will help the Prime Minister not to miss his rendezvous with God Rama" [The Times of India, 27.9.2000]. This was far from the first and not the only case of a special arrangement of a "(temporarily) mythologically saturated place" in order to give more political weight to the campaign. When the President of India, Shankar Dayal Sharma, complained of ill health on the eve of Ram Lila a few years earlier, the same committee managed to convert part of the podium into an air-conditioned room with a constantly maintained temperature and thereby ensure the visit of a distinguished guest [The Times of India, 27.9.2000].

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Along with major political tasks, local ones are also put on the agenda. Thus, on Daseru 2000, in protest at the inefficiency of the administration in Muradabad, along with the figure of Ravana, effigies of Municipal Corporation officials were burned (one of the main reasons for discontent expressed by activists of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was that the approaches to the site where the ram-lila was to be played were not considered to be the most effective). the Hindustan Times, 10.10.2000], i.e. the public space was not transformed in accordance with the pathos of the event and the expected flow of visitors).

The apotheosis of the pseudo-meaningful interpretation of the religious and mythological holiday was a composition erected on the occasion of ram-lila near the Ajmer Gate in the Indian capital in October 2002. Traditionally, any event in India begins with a prayer service to Ganesha, which in this case took place against the background of an 8-meter model of two American twin towers built of bamboo and paper. As part of an innovative ritual, a remote-controlled miniature airbus filled with festive crackers brought down each of the towers in turn, and the whole action, according to the organizers, contributed to "an unusual way to adjust society to the need for peace and a symbolic appeal to Ganesha to save India from such a thing" [Hindustan Times, 8.10.2002].

Another interpretation of the meaning of dasera connects this festival with the Pandavas, who on this day extracted from the cache of magic weapons, hidden by them after 12 years of exile before going to the year-long service to King Virata 12 . It was these weapons, among other factors, that later helped them defeat the Kauravas in the bloody battle of Kurukshetra .13 Contamination from the defeat of Ravana and the glorification of weapons, i.e., in any case, the celebration of the final victory, is especially close to the members of the public organization "Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh" (RCC, Union of [Voluntary] Servants of the Nation), who consider dasera to be their main calendar holiday on 14 and celebrate the ritual of honoring weapons with traditional Hindu liturgy flowers and flowers. syndrome15.

Whatever meaning dasera is given in modern conditions, any interpretation raises the question of restoring the dharma and is linked to the starting point in the deployment of successful military operations. However, many Indian regions see other mythological characters as protectors of the dharma, rely on their own - local, regional or supra-regional-legends, and accordingly celebrate the popular holiday in a different way.

So, during dasera in Mysore (Karnataka), a procession is organized in which the main character is the goddess Chamundeshwari, whose image is taken to visit her "sister" in a rich palanquin on a horse-drawn carriage. The procession is decorated with elephants and a loud orchestra, and rows of matryoshka dolls (kolus), also associated with the goddess, are installed in the dwellings, which are humored with dances and songs of religious content. And in the Kulu Valley (Himachal Pradesh), dasera is celebrated for seven days as a celebration in honor of the god Raghunath, in which the local maharaja participates: a palanquin with an "outrigger" statue of the god is carried by adepts on the shoulder.-

12 After losing a second dice game to the Kauravas, the Pandavas, observing the conditions of the game, were forced to go into exile for 12 years and live the 13th year unrecognized.

13 Kurukshetra-the field where the battle between Pandavas and Kauravas took place, is currently located 100 km northwest of Delhi.

14 K. B. Khedgevar (Marathi), the founder of the RCC, announced the creation of a new movement during the 1925 Dasera celebrations [Andersen and Damle, 1987, p. 34].

15 In this sense, the RCC focused on the military background of dasera, which has always been of particular importance in the Kshatriya princely courts. Sometimes RSF members associate their worship of weapons with the military achievements of the Marathi national hero Shivaji (Andersen and Damle, 1987, p. 93).

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There's a fair raging all over the city, and folk ensembles from different districts are performing.

Along with the recycled (burned or solemnly lowered into water bodies) models of mythological characters made for traditional and innovative rituals during religious or pseudo-religious holidays, the Indian landscape is actively saturated with stationary samples of monumentalism. Among these, the first place belongs to the extra-temple sculptures of the god Hanuman, the commander of the monkey army and a loyal companion of Rama. This trend was evident in the mid-1970s, when a huge figure was carved on a rocky cliff located in the prestigious suburb of Bangalore (Karnataka), depicting a warlike monkey at the moment of its landing in Lanka, "in anticipation of a joyful meeting with Rama, holding an uprooted mountain in the palm of his hand, among the lush vegetation of which was hidden medicinal plant sanjivani, necessary for reviving Lakshmana " [Lutgendorf, 1994, p. 213]. This initiative was supported in many parts of India.

In January 1990, on the outskirts of Delhi near the road leading to the international airport. A 15-meter sculpture of Hanuman weighing 1,300 tons, carved from a granite monolith, was installed. The influential sadhu Prabhudatt Brahmachari, who has always dreamed of installing "India's largest Hanuman", explained its location by saying that a strong and reliable associate, Hanuman, acts as the "guardian of the entrance" (dwarpalak) to Delhi, the capital of India, "protecting it from possible attacks by Pakistanis and the like" [Lutgendorf, 1994, p. 211-212].

By the beginning of the 3rd millennium, the figure of Hanuman, ready for battle or already victorious and trampling the demon with one foot, had become a familiar element of Indian space (there are already several of them in Delhi), especially in Hindu-speaking regions, and in Northern India the deified monkey became no less, if not more, popular 17 than Rama. By the way, none of the famous gurus who initiated the triumphal procession of the monumental, muscle-building Hanuman, according to the observation of F. He was not a fan of the Ramayana, and some were not even Vishnuites. In their eyes, Hanuman is the bearer of two important qualities necessary for today's India to solve internal and external problems-shakti (physical energy) and bhakti (devotion to God). Towering over a city or village and dominating the natural landscape, it becomes a tool for developing public space, while at the same time giving it a taste of "national Hinduism" [Veer, van der, 2000, p. 7].

On Tuesdays, Hanuman's favorite day, thousands of people come to the colossi scattered in different parts of the country with gifts: in this way, a new ritual of worship is formed and unified - not related to the narrow temple, but taken out, not deeply personal, but ostentatiously public. Performed in front of everyone, this ritual becomes "a way of communication through which the individual discovers his identity and the meaning of his actions "[Veer, van der, 2000, p. 84], and becomes a signal for "his own".

Simultaneously with the multiplication of ram-lilas and the advent of Hanuman, the question arose of opening a Rama Museum in the Indian capital. The initiator was the organization "Dharma Yatra mahasangh "(in the name, along with the significant word dharma, another keyword is involved - yatra18), associated with the RSS. Anant Kumar, Allied

16 Karnataka claims to be Hanuman's "home" because his mother Anjana "lived" here, and Hanuman is often referred to as the matronym Anjaneya.

17 " Hanuman Chalisa "("Forty verses [in honor of] Hanuman"), composed in the XVIII or XIX century (although attributed to someone who lived in the XVI century). Tulsidasu) is the most frequently cited religious text in the Hindu-speaking area (Lutgendorf, 1994, p. 230).

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The Minister of Urban Planning, promising to allocate land for the construction of a museum building, said: "The greatness of Rama is not in his historicism, but in the very concept of Rama and in his contribution as a mythological figure. < ... > To perceive him as a historical figure is to belittle him." Mange Ram Garg, President of Dharma Yatra Mahasangha (and also head of the Delhi branch of the BJP) explained: "It will strengthen our culture" [The Times of India, 4.2.2002].

Along with the development of space by decorating with unified mythological elements that transform the occupied space into "their own", the rights to this are also claimed in another way - by purposeful movement using certain symbols. Thus, since 1984, the Ramayana in all its variants has been transformed from an object of research into an object of propaganda by an International Conference held annually either in India or abroad: among the countries that received delegates (mainly Indians from India and members of the Indian diaspora), there were also Thailand and Indonesia, Nepal and China, Mauritius and Belgium, Holland and Canada, USA and Suriname. In September 2002, the next XVIII International Ramayana Conference was held in South Africa (Durban). The presentation of the International Ramayana - Universal Solidarity Award to former South African President Nelson Mandela was supposed to be a qualitatively new moment in this stage of mythological expansion. Permanent President of the conference Lallan Prasad Vyas explains the meaning of the" triumphal procession "of the Ramayana around the globe: "I foresee its great role - perhaps the greatest in the history of mankind - in transforming the fate of civilization" [Vyas, 2001, p. 2]. The "outward" movement was accompanied by ritualized travel across India itself in the years when the conference was held in the epic's homeland. For example, the XVI conference opened in Delhi in 1999 by Ramananda Sagar, who became famous as the director of the television series Ramayana and received the title "Tulsidas of our time" 19, lasted for 11 days, because it included a trip from Ayodhya (Uttar Pradesh) to Chitrakut 20 on the border with Madhya Pradesh, imitating the path taken by Bharata 21 to persuade Rama, who went into 14-year exile, to return and take his rightful throne.

In the 1980s, leading Hindi writers, led by Patriarch Sachidananda Vatsyayana, followed Sita's footsteps - from Sitamarhi in Mithila, Bihar, where, according to legend, she was discovered in a furrow in a field by her adoptive king Janaka, through Janakapur and Ayodhya to Chitrakut-to find out why the Ramayana"it has penetrated so deeply into the consciousness of people" [Kishwar, 2000, p. 295]. Such movements, performed with an appropriate entourage and powerful information support, are usually called yatra or tirtha-yatra, meaning "movement" and "movement to shrines", i.e. pilgrimage: the use of" high " terms gives the imitation or action a sacred significance.

Religious and mythological themes, usually in the form of spiritual chants and short dramatizations, have always played a prominent role on Indian radio. Since the 1980s

18 For the yatra, see below.

19 Tulsidas (XVI century) - author of "Ramacharitamanas" ("The Sea of exploits of Rama" - in Russian available in translation by A. P. Barannikov [Barannikov, 1948]), which became the most popular version of" Ramayana " in the Hindu-speaking area of India. It is considered Valmiki's avatar. See below.

20 The area around Chitrakut is completely sacralised by the" footprints " left by Rama and Sita: It is believed that they lived on Kamadgiri Hill, that Sita performed her daily ablutions in the Janaki-kunda ("reservoir of Janaki", i.e. Sita) on the banks of the Mandakini River, and that all the rivers of India came here - to the secret Godavara caves - to pay their respects to the gods incarnated in human form.

21 Bharata is another half - brother of Rama, whose Kaikeyi mother used her influence with King Dasaratha to persuade him to send Rama into exile, giving the throne to Bharata.

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In recent years, in parallel with the increasing spatial mobility of Hindu visual symbols, the rapid growth of audio products began, and by the beginning of the 3rd millennium, powerful acoustic pollution, if not all of India, then its urban part, became an obvious fact. Bhajan and kirtan study groups and amateur choirs that performed them have become very popular, and they usually gather in open spaces, often in rented areas in school yards or temple verandas. Audio recordings of religious music and hymns, necessarily enhanced by additional means of sound distribution, were used by temples and were widely used in the private sphere for performing, for example, morning puja or other rituals.

At the same time, in the 1980s, devocionalist music ceased to be a component of ritual only and in the form of audio cassettes entered into active competition with the pop music of cinema, providing a more stable sales market than pop music [Babb, 1997, p.12]. Along with the general rise of religious sentiment in India and the peculiar fashion for "ethno-spirituality", the success of the new production was facilitated by the fact that the voices that glorify the Hindu celestials belong to famous Qawwali (performers of Sufi chants) or such off-screen star vocalists of Indian cinema as Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, etc. By distributing music products to a wide audience - both those who purchase tapes and passive listeners, 22 the recording industry creates a sound background and leads certain recordings that gradually gain power and influence over the minds of the audience [Marcus, 1997, p. 176].

The spatial-visual and verbal-expansion of unified and even simplified (comics, "bazaar art", ram-lila) mythological symbols in India itself and, with the support of the Hindu diaspora, beyond its borders, also generates social mobility of these symbols: they become equally accessible to all, integrating society into the community. And the space covered with dharma, which is carried by invincible divine characters, turns into "its own".

TV EXPANSION OF MYTHOLOGY

Mythological characters, usually depicted in the style of the same "bazaar art", irresistibly penetrate the blue screen, video products and, of course, advertising. Indian television, which started in 1972 primarily with educational programs, has long and successfully established itself in the vast expanses of the country, overcoming technical, but not regional barriers. The latter, on the contrary, were significantly strengthened as a result of the development of satellite and cable television, which was facilitated by the partial weakening of state control over radio and television broadcasting due to the creation in 1991 of the autonomous Prasar Bharati Corporation, more or less independent from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting [Mitra, 1993, p.22-24]. But even before the creation of the corporation, the only state-owned channel at that time, Durdarshan, began actively introducing Hindu mythology into the consciousness of Indians.

From January 25, 1987 to July 31, 1988, every Sunday morning at 9: 30 a.m., life on the usually crowded Indian streets froze: everyone was rushing to the screens

22 Designs of modern Indian homes (lack of thick walls, dense frames, sound insulation) and the general" with open windows " lifestyle, formed under the influence of a hot climate and odorous condiments, turns into unwitting listeners not only immediate neighbors, but also entire neighborhoods.

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Watch the latest 78 episodes of The Ramayana TV series, directed by Ramananda Sagar. The series was shown on the Durdarshan channel, which never ignored religion in general or religious practices, and became the first nationwide "soap opera" where the main character was a divine incarnation [Mitra, 1993, p. 93]. The combination of three elements - a sacred epic, darshan, i.e., seeing the divine faces of Rama and Sita, and an auspicious consonance (darshan - "Durdarshan", namely "tele + vision") in the name of the TV channel-set up the audience in a pious way: many, as before a ritual procedure, performed ablutions, laid a garland of flowers to the TV. scented flowers and burned incense 23 .

It's hard to say what the series ' rating was, but the fact that it was incredibly high is clear from the steady increase in the number of ad inserts in each episode. After a month of airing (i.e. four episodes), the number of such fragments was about 15, by April it had grown to 32, by September 1987 each episode already contained 40 advertising inserts. By August, the series was generating 1/8 of the total revenue of national television, and by September, it was generating about 3 million rupees a week [Lutgendorf, 1994, p. 222]. In the long run, more important than commercial success was the fact that the TV series, which was supported by the government, standardized general ideas about Rama based on different, usually regional arrangements of the Ramayana, i.e. "edited" and distributed common cultural symbols. The" editing " also affected the image of Rama - from omnipresent, imperturbable and forgiving, he turned into a tough, eager to punish, saber rattling. Famous from the epic mythological Ayodhya, where the dharma finally reigned and ram-rajya - "the kingdom of Rama" - was established, vol.e. The "state of universal justice" was equated in the mass consciousness with the provincial town of Ayodhya, located on the Sarayu River 120 km from Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh [Veer, van der, 2000, p. 178], and the local Hindu-Muslim conflict, which began in the middle of the XIX century, began to take on contours a nationwide problem.

Inflamed by the success of the valiant Rama, the Hindu part of India finally heard the lamentations of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (WCP, World Council of Hindus), which began in 1984, about the Babur Mosque, which" blasphemously " stands where the temple of Rama once stood, built on the site of his birth .24 At the same time, to justify the need to oust Muslims from the sites in Ayodhya, Mathura (where the god Krishna was born) and Varanasi, a special "Dharma Sansad" - Dharma25. Shortly after the series ended, a new call by the VHP to contribute and send a consecrated brick bearing the name of Rama to Ayodhya found strong support in almost all of India, 26 with the exception of the southern, Dravidian, states and the northeast.

23 From the point of view of cultural anthropology, this attitude to the modern technical device is also explained by the fact that an atmosphere has been created around it, in many ways similar to that created around a home altar. The television set (like an altar) became an object that organized the spatial and temporal structure of the home and family in a certain way, and even the exterior design - a wooden carved box with shutters specially purchased for careful storage of an expensive item-resembled wooden altars-houses popular in domestic use.

24 Neither archaeological data nor textual studies confirm this.

25 In 1984, the VCP's appeal fell on deaf ears, also because the assassination of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi soon followed, and the society turned its anger on the Sikh community on the one hand, and rallied around Rajiv Gandhi, the new leader of the Nehru - Gandhi dynasty, on the other.

26 This story has already become the subject of artistic interpretation in Shashi Tharoor's novel "Outrages" (Tharoor, 2001).

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Soon "Durdarshan" offered the audience a 93-episode film adaptation of another great Indian epic - "Mahabharata" directed by Ravi Chopra, which ended in July 1990. The sequence of the show reproduced the mythological chronology, according to which the story of "Ramayana" took place in an earlier era (tretayuga) than the events of "Mahabharata", and Rama as an avatar of Vishnu preceded his own avatar in the form of Krishna. The new TV movie was even more colorful and special effects: "the colors of the rainbow that shimmered on the screen were additionally saturated with silver and gold, which sparkled on the clothes of each of the characters and in general from every corner [of the screen]. The more important a character was, the more jewelry he wore" [Milewska, 1999, p. 176]. Three episodes were devoted to the Bhagavad-gita, a philosophical treatise in the Mahabharata, where on the eve of battle, Krishna reveals his divine form and calls Arjuna, the third of the five Pandavas, to follow his military duty, i.e. to kill, and at the same time explains the basics of the universe. However, each of the 93 episodes was preceded by an image of those sitting in the divine chariot avatars and Arjunas, and in the background of the running credits, the famous words of Krishna, which he explained to Arjuna before the decisive battle with the Kauravas, were heard.: Whenever in this world I dharma decline sets in, / when brazen vice triumphs, / I generate myself, Arjuna (IV, 7) 27 .

Thus, in a 93-fold repetition, the main idea of the epic was again and again confirmed: the restoration of the dharma and the merciless struggle against those who trample on it. The events unfolding on the screen were commented on by the dispassionate "Voice of Time", which again and again insisted on the universality of the archetypal confrontation and " informed the audience that the questions Arjuna asked were not about him alone, but were significant in the past, in the present and will not lose their significance in the future... The voice argued that each age has its own Kurukshetra and to overcome the troubles of its time, one should only turn to Krsna " (Malinar, 1995, p. 460). The incessant pressure on the dharma and the call to search for the enemy turned the TV version into "political propaganda" [Malinar, 1995, p. 465].

In 1990, at the initiative of the VHP and the BJP, a powerful campaign was launched in the form of the so-called Chariot March (rath yatra), led by L. K. Advani, then the party's president. The final destination of the almost 10,000 km route was Ayodhya, and the procession started in Somnath, where in 1026 Mahmud of Ghaznevi destroyed the famous Shaivite temple, rebuilt in 1950. Places where the procession passed led by L. K. Advani, who addressed the people from an air-conditioned Toyota decorated like Arjuna's chariot from the TV series "Mahabharata", they were decorated with posters with the image of Rama: "Rama was drawn looking forward, his left hand holding a drawn bow, and his right hand holding a sharpened arrow, his face expressed divine impassibility. It seemed that he was resisting the storm, because both his hair and dhoti were fluttering in the wind, and the clouds were darker than dark" [Davis, 1999, p. 27]. Thus, the set of symbols that has already become familiar in the last decade was finally established: the warrior god Rama, the temple at the place of his birth in Ayodhya, the liberation of the sacred place.

Both series naturally appeared on the market in videotape recordings and quickly became popular among the Hindu diaspora, while simultaneously providing religious, mythological and ethno-linguistic education to new generations. After the TV versions of "Ramayana" and "Mahabharata" appeared, nothing could stop the mythological avalanche that hit the Indian audience. The creators of new works took a tricky path, "tearing" epics into individual characters and building the narrative around one or another epoch-making figure. This is how the series Krishna, Karna, Shaktiman 28 and others were created; the first one besides Mahabharata

27 Cit. translated by V. S. Sementsov [Bhagavad-gita, 1999].

28 "Powerful", i.e. Bhishma-respected by both Pandavas and Kauravas patriarch of the family.

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He also drew on the Bhagavata Purana, that is, he also told about the boyhood of the eighth avatar of Vishnu.

As new TV channels opened, funny situations often arose when several series based on the same mythological hero and plot, but created by independent producers, were simultaneously shown on Sunday mornings that had become traditional for such shows. For example, Hanuman helped Rama in the TV series "Vir Hanuman" ("Hero Hanuman") on Durdarshan and Jai Veer Hanuman (Long Live Hero Hanuman) on Sony [India Today, 31.3.1997]. And in 2000, two of the most successful private channels (Sony and Zee) launched an annual show of two independent series about elephant-headed Ganesh: "Sri Ganesha" ("Lord Ganesha") It launched on Sunday morning, September 24, on Sony, and Jai Ganesha (Long Live Ganesha!) on Sunday morning, October 1, on Zee, which naturally immediately led to a legal battle between the competing channels, while advertisers bought time from both. [The Times of India, 20.9.2000].

At the same time, the Zi channel continued to work on a new-presumably 200-episode-film adaptation of the Mahabharata called "Another Mahabharata"; its creators decided to implement the concept of" mythological realism", i.e. to find ways to explain the inexplicable phenomenon , and at the same time to modify the characters themselves, presenting instead the characters in the spirit of a la (Raja) Ravi Varma 30 reconstructed representatives of the tribes that hypothetically inhabited India in 1300 BC.

In the new version, however, a number of performers migrated from the previous one: for example, the actor Surendra Pal in the former "Mahabharata" played Drona, the mentor of the Pandavas and Kauravas; in the new project, he plays the patriarch Bhishma, the honor and conscience of both families [The Week, 11.5.1997, p. 64-66]. From time to time, the same channel is engaged in "cloning" - usually Durdarshan is different: the indefatigable Krishna caught 1,600 cowherd girls first in " Krishna Katha "("The Story of Krishna"), and then in "Sri Krishna" ("Lord Krishna"); Shiva performed his famous dance of destruction and destruction. the creation of the world first in "Om namah Shivai"" [Let's say the sacred syllable "OM [in honor of] the name of Shiva", and then in the "Shiv Purana" ("The Legend of Shiva") [India Today, 31.3.1997, p. 134].

In general, state television, as a skirmisher and conductor of rampant "omifologization", still, despite the efforts of other channels, overtakes everyone in terms of mythological content: for example, the 3rd State Channel, after finishing the demonstration of "Vir Hanuman" and "Om Namah Shivaya", in late 2001 - early 2002 simultaneously showed: "Jai Santoshi-ma" ("Long live Santoshi's mother!" 31 ), a repeat of the Mahabharata, "Jai jai Tridev" ("Long live the Trident [Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva]") and then added a repeat of the Ramayana [The Indian Express, 21.12.2001]. Appointed executive director of Prasar Bharati in 1997, S. S. Gill, reacting to the mythological dominance of the blue screen, angrily exclaimed :" This damn thing dominates television! " [India Today, 8.12.1997], which did not change anything.

Just as technological progress does not stand still, so there is no limit to innovation in the exploitation of mythological themes and characters. In recent years, the Jean range-

29 Director Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, for example, does not believe that Gandhari, Dhritarashtra's wife, could have given birth to 101 children (100 Kauravas plus their sister), and believes that Dhritarashtra had several wives, of which Gandhari was the eldest, so all the offspring officially recognized her as the common mother, etc.

30 At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the artist (Raja) Ravi Varma initiated the "hyperreal" style in the depiction of Hindu gods and actually became the founder of the "bazaar art" genre.

31 The cult of the goddess Santoshi-ma ("Merciful Mother") is a newly formed and rapidly gaining popularity in Northern India. The series, which tells about the influence of the goddess on the lives of three modern families, was created based on the popular film (mythological genre), which presented Santoshi-ma as the daughter of the god Ganesha.

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The number of mass demonstrations has increased as a result of the appearance of cartoons created on the basis of great epics. The first installment was the two-hour "Ramayana: the Legend of Prince Rama", which appeared thanks to the efforts of animators in India, Japan and the United States by mixing the style of the Japanese manga school, Disney technology and images created by (Raja) Ravi Varma. Receiving the award for Best Animated Film of the Year at the Santa Clarita International Film Festival (USA), the film's producer Krishna Shah stated:: "This is not just an epic set in Indian settings. This is the code of life that millions and millions of people follow" [The Hindustan Times, 26.3.2000]. Another winner of many awards "Pandavas: five warriors" - a two-hour computer animation based on the "Mahabharata" - is already an Indian brainchild. The creators, probably taking into account certain technical difficulties and moral prerogatives of the new era, allowed themselves a fairly free reading of the original, removing many characters from the cartoon (including Bhishma, Karna, and even Krishna) and limiting the polyandrous Draupadi to one husband - Arjuna [The New Indian Express, 5.1.2001]. An additional attraction for both films was the fact that the Hindi and English versions of each were voiced by stars of Indian "Bollywood" 32 .

On the eve of Dasera and Diwali 2002, the Kartun Network channel prepared a special program block "Great Indian Epics", first showing half-hour excerpts from the film "Ramayana: the Legend of Prince Rama" on October Saturdays, then-from November 5, on Diwali day, it began to show it in full, adding a series of "Pandavas".: five warriors", which tells about the victories of dharma over a-dharma. When talking about this project, newspaper announcements described the entire TV package as "a saga of timeless values and selfless devotion" [The Hindu, 4.10.2002].

The standardization of myths existing in various regional versions has become an important consequence of the development of myth-centered television and video products, which combine three functions at once - religious, ethical and entertainment. Public interest, which is simultaneously satisfied within one's own home, generates a sense of participation, creating, in the terminology of B. Anderson, imagined communities [Anderson, 1983] 33 . In addition, the gods and heroes from the temple complexes and home altars, having gone beyond the sacred space, settled down in the private sphere not as a silent visual series, but as verbalizing their activities, based on the idea of dharma, "friends of the house", in which they became "their own".

MYTHOLOGIZATION OF THINKING AND VISUAL MEDIA

Mythological characters, due to their strong connection with either dharma or a-dharma, have long been transformed for Indians into ethical and aesthetic standards of human qualities and actions, and epic plots and situations have enriched the idioms of all Indian languages. The mere mention of a mythological name evokes certain associations and serves for an emotional and moral assessment of events and / or their participants. Force majeure inevitably increases the number of references to the heroes of the Mahabharata and Ramayana, who have become very close, thanks to modern means of technological progress.-

32 The common name of the aggregate of all film studios in Bombay.

33 Later, Salman Rushdie transformed this category into imagined homelands, which can be successfully used in assessing the contribution of the Hindu diaspora to the construction of modern representations and identities.

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manentno staying in a situation that requires the highest intensity of physical and mental strength.

The article describing the reconstruction project of Gujarat destroyed by the 2001 earthquake is named after the beautiful capital of the Pandavas, built by them with the help of divine architects: "Indraprastha is a dream come true in Bhuja" [People's Victory, 1.1.2002, Iss. 1]. The title of the article about the confrontation between Tamils and Sinhalese in Sri Lanka-"Mahabharata in Ravanpur" [The Hindu, 23.4.2002]- contains a double allusion, recalling both the military actions of the "Mahabharata" and the fact that the "Mahabharata" is not a real name. Lanka as the residence of Ravana from the Ramayana. An article calling for a pre-emptive strike on terrorist camps in connection with the attack on the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001, states that this requires crossing the "Lakshmana Line", i.e. the physically existing line of control separating the Indian state of Kashmir from Pakistan [The Pioneer, 15.12.2001]. The forbidden line, which is very dangerous to cross, is named after Lakshmana, the younger brother of Rama, who begged Sita not to cross the line he had drawn on the ground. Sita, who had violated the ban, was eventually abducted by Ravana, and thus Rama was doomed to be restored to the land of dharma. The additional wordplay associated with Bangaru Lakshman's name has ensured that the idiom is constantly used in the press, particularly when the former BJP president was implicated in a bribery case about two years ago.

The article titled "Ekalavya loses his thumb again" describes a new curriculum that was named after an inquisitive character from the Mahabharata, who, because of his low birth, was not allowed to attend classes by Drona, the common mentor of the Pandavas and Kauravas, and was forced to listen at the door. Deprived of government financial support, the Ekalavya program is compared to the hero of the same name, whose thumb was demanded by a drone as a tuition fee. As the" quote of the week", a phrase from the speech of the chairman of the Indian National Congress (INC) party, Sonia Gandhi, who turned to the usual division of epochs into yugas to strengthen the negative assessment of a political rival was highlighted:" The BJP governments announced the arrival of Kaliyuga and brought politics to complete decline " [India Today, 11.11.2002, p.12]. In the daily" spiritual " column, which is now very popular in all newspapers, the author Pradeep Kaushal, in an even more detailed metaphor, contrasts the blessed shilas (stones) tretayugi (Rama era), with the help of which a bridge was built leading to the island of Lanka, in the kingdom of Ravana, shilam of the current era, referring to the unrest in Indian society in connection with the intention of supporters of the construction of the Rama Temple on the site of the destroyed Babur Mosque to lay the foundation stones in March 2002: "The shilas of tretayuga, consecrated by Rama, collected by monkeys and bears and laid by animal leaders, kept on the surface of the water and [thus] created conditions for for the advance of good on evil. Such are not the shilahs of discord raised by the mortals of the present Kaliyuga. Some wanted to bring them [to a certain place], others-not to allow it. And hell broke loose. Everything is in motion - the government, Parliament, Supreme Court, opposition, security forces, babu and sadhu ... " 34 [The Indian Express, 11.4.2002].

The Hindu-Muslim bloody riots in Gujarat in 2002 caused a flurry of publications and readers 'responses using familiar metaphors:" The policy of the BJP ruling in the Center and Gujarat is very similar to that of the Kauravas. To cover up the mistakes of Gujarat's Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the central government is taking the same steps as Dhritarashtra did with its son Duryodhana. The behavior of both is infinitely similar.<... Just as Dhritarashtra, who had assumed the throne, wanted to hand it over to his son Duryodhana, due to circumstances, so the BJP, which has gained power in the Center through compromises, is preparing to keep the Gujarati throne in Modi's hands. Just as Duryodhana was afraid of Bhima's club and Arjuna's arrows, so Narendra Modi is incredibly afraid of the Congress leadership. It would be nice to remind you

Kaliyuga- 34 in the traditional Indian time division is the fourth and most terrible era (yuga), a period of degradation, when only a fourth part of human virtues remains. Babu and sadhu are officials and spiritual leaders here, respectively.

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The BJP believes that it was Dhritarashtra's love for his son that drove all the Kauravas to hell, " Indramohan Shukla writes in the Hindu-language newspaper [Amar Ujala, 24.9.2002]. He is echoed by Rajiv Matta, who saw slightly different features in the faces of modern Indian politicians: "All this is reminiscent of the Mahabharata with Modi (Duryodhana) staging the removal of clothes from Draupadi (Gujarat), while his loyal supporters K. R. Narayanan (Bhishma-pitamah), A. B. Vajpayee (Dhritarashtra) and L. K. Advani (Shakuni - mama ) [idly] contemplate what is happening " 36 [Outlook, 13.5.2002, p. 2]. Rag Bansal also couldn't resist recalling the opponents of the good Pandavas: "<...> I am truly saddened by L. K. Advani. I don't know if he remembers, but I do remember who was the charioteer on his famous chariot: one Narendra Modi. And if the BJP insists on keeping this charioteer, it will suffer the same fate as the Kauravas "[Outlook, 13.5.2002, p. 2].

An entire article ("The Aging Bhishma") is based on a comparison of the Prime Minister of India A. B. Vajpayee with the patriarch of the Bhishma family, one of the most authoritative characters in the Mahabharata. The author, Jyotirmaya Sharma, believes that "there is a historical parallel that bears a striking resemblance to Vajpayee - the life and actions of Bhishma from the Mahabharata <...> Among others, Sisupala and Karna quickly pointed out to Bhishma his shortcomings. In their eyes, Bhishma has become too old. Even so, he didn't want to part with the duties assigned to him. His age and lack of independence [in judgment] disrupted his vision of the future and his ability to distinguish [black from white]... Vajpayee, like Bhishma, believed in his own magic and became aroused by his own public image generated by the media and the intelligentsia. The current tendency in India to give moral and ethical excellence to people who create poetry, pursue creative vocations, and read "good" books is the real reason for creating such myths. < ... > To say that Vajpayee is attached to the" family " of the Union [RCC. - I. G. and its ideology through self-interest, means to state the obvious. < ... > Like someone suggesting that there is no room for poetry after Auschwitz, did Godhra and Ahmedabad destroy our moral and ethical vocabulary? Since women are the most affected in Gujarat, let Draupadi have the final say on the issue: "It is not a [respected] assembly where there are no elders; elders are such only in name, if they do not explain the nuances of the dharma; and the dharma is such only in name, if it does not carry the truth." and the truth is not the truth if it contains deceit and deceit" " 37 [The Sunday Times of India, 24.4.2002].

The epithet "Bhishma-pitamah of Indian archaeology" also earned the historian B. B. Lal, who supports the popular hypothesis in nationalist circles of India, according to which the Aryans were not newcomers, but the indigenous population of Hindustan. At the invitation of the Indian Council for Historical Sciences, B. B. Lal made a presentation on "The Hindu past of the Indus Valley civilization", in which he said: "Probably, the creators of the Indus Valley civilization were Vedic Aryans who spoke Sanskrit" [The Times of Indi, 12.5.2002].

The image of the authoritative character of the Mahabharata, Vidura the Wise 38, is convenient for thinking about the new president of India, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. In the commentary "Portraying Vidura the Wise", Khushwant Singh writes :" Is there a role model in front of Kalam? When the children asked who his favorite character from the Mahabharata was, Kalam answered without hesitation: "Vidura". Let me remind you that Vidura -

35 Dhritarashtra is the father of the Kauravas.

36 Shakuni-mother-uncle of the Kauravas on the maternal side.

37 For the events in Gujarat, see Kutsenkov, 2002. Sisupala is a cousin, but also an implacable opponent of Krishna, who appeared in the Mahabharata on the side of the Kauravas.

38 Vidura is the half-brother of Dhritarashtra (the father of the Kauravas) and Pandu (the father of the Pandavas).

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the son of a low-caste maid. And he made an impression on Kalam, for he "showed bravery by [speaking out] against acts committed by high officials, and had the courage to disagree when everyone else preferred to sacrifice to the a - dharma of tyranny." He was also the wisest of the brothers. Kalam can't help but understand that he belongs to a discriminated minority, and being nominated as a candidate for President of our republic implies that he must cover up the a-dharma sins committed by members of the ruling coalition in Gujarat. He will have many opportunities to guide people who follow the path of evil under the guise of dharma to the right track of secular democracy "[Outlook, 22.6.2002, p. 68].

The entire Mahabharata became for the writer and politician Shashi Tharoor the occasion and means for retelling and rethinking the entire history of twentieth-century India in the Great Indian Novel (1989), 39 whose title once again echoes the Mahabharata. Among his characters are Bhishma Mahatma Gandhi, Dhritarashtra-Jawaharlal Nehru, Pandu 40-Subhash Chandra Bose, a hundred Kauravas-Indira Gandhi, Krishna, a personified image of Politics in general, and India-Draupadi, which is jointly owned by politicians of all stripes - Pandavas [Tharoor, 1993; Glushkova, 2002]. In general, it has become a tradition to turn to the image of a torn and humiliated Draupadi, when personal pain sensations reach the level of generalizations - just at the beginning of the XX century, the Tamil poet Subramanya Baradi presented India in the patriotic poem "The Oath of Draupadi", condemning his compatriots for passivity and cowardly indifference, when they saw the desecration of Mother India [Bychikhina Dubyansky, 1987, p. 144].

RDD leader Lala Prasad Yadav is often ironically referred to as the" Krishna of Yadava politics", playing on the pastoral roots and belonging to the Yadava clan of both the divine character and the modern politician, a representative of the Yadava caste, and hinting at the ambiguous behavior of the epic Krishna, who often gave treacherous advice to the Pandavas. Party comrades no longer ironically refer to Marchhiya Devi, the mother of L. P. Yadav, as "the mother of Avatar Krishna", and residents from Phulvarisharif, the Bihar politician's home village, pay ritual homage to the statue of Marchhiya Devi erected in these places. L. P. Yadav, getting used to the flattering image, went to one of his election campaigns in a horse-drawn chariot. His associates "explained this by saying that by portraying Krishna, he opposes the BJP with their brand of Rama" [The Telegraph, 30.10.2002]. Bal Thakre, the leader of the Shiv Sena 41, denouncing a former associate who had defected to another party, compared him to a Kaikeyi who had viciously betrayed King Dasaratha by trying to put her son Bharata on the throne instead of the rightful heir Rama [Outlook, 9.10.2000].

In general, ironic notes are often heard when referring to mythology in the context of socio-political issues. Describing the many thousands of celebrations in connection with the 75th anniversary of the RCC on the outskirts of Agra, where members of the Union from different parts of India gathered, S. Prasannarajan already resorts to caustic satire, dressing it all in the same mythological clothes: "View from Mount Govardhan: the idyllic space of Hindu Rashtra, the most perfect karma-bhumi of the East, soaks in civilizational fatigue. It's green everywhere, greener than normal greens, as the plants are fed with cow dung. These rural expanses and their leafy abundance are nothing more than a bucolic response to chemical intrigues. Look, there are painted cows, selfless mothers with wet eyes, grazing on the grass.

39th Novel was awarded the Commonwealth Literary Prize.

40 Pandu is the father of the Pandavas.

41 Shiv Sena-the party of Shivaji (national hero of the Marathas), a regional political party with a communalist bias. At present, it is gaining pan-Indian significance.

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a cow symphony in the grasslands conducted by cowboys in khaki shorts. Why, they are little Krsnas with pipes in their mouths and peacock feathers in their hair, their blue bodies still smelling of Kamadhenu brand soap made entirely from cow dung, and their teeth are blinding white because they use toothpaste made of - what else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? - What else? "the same divine dung. And beyond the meadows, you can see churches, temples and mosques, where all the citizens of this Punyabhumi pray in the most sacred of languages-Sanskrit. And all of them - all the Samuels, Shankars and Salims, absolutely all of them-are proud to be descendants of Krishna and Rama, and the cross and crescent are just brothers of the trident, brothers in culture " 42 [India Today, 10/30/2000]. This is how the author of the publication describes the utopian ideas of the RCC about the future of India.

Mythological metaphors are not limited to the verbal sphere, but are also actively used in visual genres. In the report "The evil of terror in a mythical dimension" about the opening of a new exhibition at the All India Center for the Arts, dedicated to the first anniversary of the attack on the Indian Parliament, it is reported: "The teaching of Indian mythology that good overcomes evil is as relevant today as it was five millennia ago. At least that's what Gujarati artist Mohsin Sheikh thinks. Drawing inspiration from the ancient epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, he captured the attack on Parliament in his canvases, likening figures such as Ravana and Kansa to Pakistan. " 43 At the opening of the exhibition, Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani said: "One of the four canvases dedicated to this event depicts the battle of Lanka, in which Rama kills Ravana. Ravana means Pakistan." The artist himself explained: "I would like to express my solidarity with the security service personnel who died in the line of duty. In Hinduism, we talk about dharma and a-dharma, and I thought that using images of Shiva, Krishna, Rama and Hanuman, which are close to the common people, would be emotionally expressive..."

There are many examples of the use of mythologems outside the religious context, without even thinking about the fact that mythological symbols are often manipulated in order to replace a political problem with a moral or pseudo-moral one and thus avoid solving it altogether. A unique and universal "dictionary" created on the basis of Hindu mythology, in which each unit is not just a lexeme, but a sign that hides the whole plot, makes it possible to compose a communicative message and at the same time make a moral assessment of its content.: what is good and what is bad, where is dharma, and where is a-dharma. Such a "dictionary", if accepted by society, connects different strata by the ability to speak the same " language "and unites them by adhering to a common -" own " - system of symbols.

PR FUNCTIONS OF MYTHOLOGIA

The usual appeal to the mythological brand (in modern terminology) is fixed in various PR campaigns aimed at creating a positive image of products and ideas offered to society. First of all, this is evident when India creates products that strengthen its position in the international arena and/or positively affect the image of the central government within the country. It is not surprising that the improved model of the Indian car was given the name "Maruti" - "Son of the wind", inevitably vyzi-

The 42nd Congress was held near places that mythological sources associate with the childhood of Krishna. Govardhan is a mountain in the Braja district that Krishna raised to protect the locals from the rain. Karmabhumi - the land where all ritual prescriptions are fulfilled; punyabhumi - the land where staying cultivates merit; Hindu Rashtra - the Hindu state; Kamadhenu - the mythological cow that fulfills all desires.

43 Kansa - the demonic ruler of Mathura, defeated by Krsna.

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conjuring up the image of the fast-moving and omnipresent Hanuman. The Indian Air Force is armed with the Agni (Fire) and Prithivi (Earth) missiles, named after the elemental gods of the Vedic (pre-Hindu) pantheon; recently, the ultra-modern Trishul (Trident) short-range missile and the water-class missile were successfully tested-water ""Dhanush" ("Bow") - both names refer to weapons that are permanent attributes of the gods Shiva and Rama, respectively. The firstborn of the tank industry was named "Arjuna", after the middle brother of the five Pandavas, reminding of his superiority in martial arts, and Indian scientists are working on the project of a reusable spacecraft" Avatar "("Earth incarnation of God").

The name" Arjuna " is also the highest sports award in India, the highest recognition of coaching achievements is the award of the "Dronacharya" (Drona). The Vyasa Award, named after the legendary compiler of the Mahabharata and having a material value of 250,000 rupees, is awarded for the best work in Hindi , the official language of India. In 2002. It was awarded to Kailash Vajpayee for his poetic essay " The Dark Phase of the Earth "(the title also contains the name of Krishna, since Krishna means "black"), created based on the [Outlook, 27.1.2003, p.6]. The Maharashtra Women's Commission has established the Duryodhana and Rakshasa (Demon) awards: the former should be awarded to authors of film and television productions who have created negative images of women and allowed them to be treated with disrespect on the screen; the second-to creators of films based on excessive use of violence in general. Among the first contenders for the Duryodhana Award were not only widely released feature films, but also television commercials, for example, advertising condoms "Kama Sutra", which borrowed the name of an ancient Indian erotic treatise.

Mythologems with positive meaning are inevitably used to legitimize social and political ambitions. Some (untouchable) castes of street cleaners in the Hindu-speaking area, for example, prefer the self-name balmik and trace their origins to Valmiki, the author of the Sanskrit Ramayana, who, according to one legend, was also of low birth. After learning during the first TV screening of the Ramayana that the creators planned to limit themselves to only six books and not film the seventh and final part of the epic (in which Sita, driven out of Ayodhya by Rama, finds refuge in the forest abode of Valmiki), cleaners in many major cities of Northern India went on strike and did not start cleaning the streets until The central government, frightened by the threat of the epidemic, did not announce that it was providing funds for filming the remaining episodes [Richman, 1991, p. 3, 17]. Hijras (hermaphrodites and castrati who insist on recognizing them as the third sex), one of the most mysterious socio - professional groups in Indian society, actively breaking into politics at the level of municipalities and legislatures, connects their origin with Rama, then with Arjuna. In the first case, they claim to be descendants of the third sex who waited for Rama to return from 14 years of exile at the gates of Ayodhya, while the men and women went home; in the second, they connect themselves with Arjuna, who disguised himself as a eunuch during the 13th year of exile [Glushkova, 2001 (2)].

Also significant is the name of the Bajrang Dal youth organization that emerged in the early 1990s under the auspices of the VHP-"Hanuman's Army", which took advantage of

44 The main character of the essay is Pariksit, the grandson of Arjuna, who, after Yudhisthira and the rest of his brothers retired from the world, sat on the kingdom.

page 22

one of the names of the divine monkey. Bajrang means "strong as a vajra" (a mythological weapon), and even before the stunning rise of Hanuman's popularity in Northern India, it was and remains in high esteem among professional wrestlers. Bajrang Dal activists ostentatiously equip themselves with tridents and clubs, and during the Hindu - Muslim bloody clashes in February-March 2002 in Gujarat, they distributed these attributes to their supporters along with members of the VHP. Haresh Bhatt, the Vice president of VHP in charge of Gujarat, responding to the accusations of contributing to the escalation of the conflict, said: "Swords and tridents are not considered weapons, they are divine tools used by our gods" [The Indian Express, 10.4.2002].

A favorable aura is also created around actors who perform mythological roles, especially the protagonists. For example, the actress Deepika-Sita from the TV Ramayana, while participating in one of the election campaigns as a BJP candidate, began rallies with praises in honor of Rama and India: "Jai sri Ram, Bharat mata ki jai!" Further, speaking, for example, in Gujarat among the Gujarati-speaking population, she continued to speak Hindi, giving it a special-sacred-status: "I will communicate with you in the same language that I spoke on television" [Mitra, 1993, p. 157]. Close to religious exaltation, the feelings of the audience were also explained by the fact that Sita, the faithful wife of Rama, is recognized in India as the highest female ideal, and Deepika, who merged with Sita through the TV show, was perceived by everyone in this perspective. Against this background, the appointment of Arvind Trivedi Lankesh, a former BJP member of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly, as the new head of the Censorship Committee seems logical. None of the press mentions are complete without references to his performance as Ravana in the TV series.

The political flair is increasingly evident on purely religious holidays such as Rama and Krishna's birthdays-Ram Navami (the ninth day of the bright half of the month of Chaitra) and janm-ashtami (the eighth day of the dark half of the month of Bhadrapad). In recent years, appeals to the nation by senior officials of the state have become traditional. Thus, K. R. Narayanan, as the President of India, addressed the Indians with the following maxim about ram Navami: "May the epic Ramayana, as it was narrated by Valmiki and [then] retold by sages-storytellers in all corners of the country, inspire our deeds and encourage us to achieve nobility in the future. thoughts, words, and actions." [The Hindu, 21.4.2002].

The secular-minded INC has also been exposed to what the Indian press has described as "Congress turning to Rama." A commentary on the meeting of leading Indian politicians at the residence of one of the leaders of INC Arjun Singh in connection with ram navami says:: "It is the Congress' turn to address God Rama in accordance with the trend of this turbulent time." Among those invited to the meeting were BJP members-Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani and Minister of Information and Broadcasting Sushma Swaraj 45, Vice President Krishan Kant, Deputy Speaker of the Upper House of Parliament Najma Heptulla and others. Along with participation in the traditional religious ritual for this date, an hour - long sermon by Swami Avdeshananda Giri Maharaj was heard, telling about the significance of Rama at the present stage [The Times of India, 23.4.2002].

In principle, Indian politicians try not to miss any opportunity to declare full acceptance of (Hindu) religiosity and its accompanying mythology. In January 2001, the entire press was talking about the bathing of the Italian and former Christian Sonia Gandhi, the leader of INC., in the triple confluence of the sacred waters of the Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical underground Saraswati during the festival.

45 Since February 2003 - Minister of Health.

page 23

Kumbh Mela in Allahabad. In the same place and on the same days, the VCP held a "dharma parliament", where the further tactics of the struggle aimed at erecting the Rama Temple on the site of the Babur Mosque destroyed in Ayodhya were determined, accompanied by a demonstration of a huge mock-up of the proposed structure [Glushkova, 2001 (1)].

None of the Indian politicians will refuse to be present as the main guest at the opening ceremony of the website or the presentation of CDs and new books related to this or that famous epic. Knowing this, authors and publishers usually target the highest echelons of power: in Delhi, Prime Minister A. B. Vajpayee participates in the presentation of Ramayana Darshanam, another translation of the Ramayana translated from Kannada to Hindi [The Hindu, 24.8.2002]; in Bombay, Bal Thakre, the leader of the Shiv Sena, gives his presence an important contribution to the development of the Ramayana movement. weight of the presentation of a music album containing ritual chants in honor of the god Ganesha [The Times of India, 27.8.2002]. It is also impossible to imagine political speeches at any level without allusions to characters and events from the Mahabharata and Ramayana: such passages are usually met with cheers and applause from those present and provide a positive emotional background for a rally or rally.

The use of mythologems in general can be attributed to special techniques of public speaking in India-language tricks (claptrap), which are used not only to decorate speech, but also to cheer up a tired audience. The fact that the mythology has been assimilated and reworked by all areas of Indian life and all genres of Indian art makes it easy to hold a public lecture on "Draupadi and today's women", further attracting listeners/viewers with the subsequent stage composition "Draupadi" performed by the famous dancer Swapnasundari [The Hindu Metro Plus, 7.11.2002]. The same composition in a different production, shown as part of the project of the ecological movement, focuses on Duhshasana's attempts to undress Draupadi: "With the help of choreography, this episode can make the viewer understand the danger of an environmental catastrophe due to the fact that the Earth's surface is "exposed" by deforestation and pollution of nature " [Klyuev, 2002, p. 89]. Sounding the alarm about the catastrophic situation with pollution and destruction of the environment, Indian environmentalists often call for help either Shiva, who is called "Sineshei" because of the color of his neck, which turned blue from drinking a terrible poison that could destroy all life on earth; or Krishna, who defeated the dragon Kaliya, who poisoned river rivers. water.

Mythologems are no less actively involved in business, appearing in the names of companies and their products (for example, "Shree Hanumaan Fireworks-Pollution-free Crackers"), restaurants (for example, "Shiva Blue Restaurant") and their design, advertising (usually in the form of a background, not related to the advertised product), etc. etc. Public and private tourism especially persistently uses mythological symbols, targeting entire tourist complexes with them. Thus, the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Corporation, promoting the special qualities of the new mountain resort, sets up roadside billboards that encourage visitors to visit these places, because they preserved "a piece of the power of Hanuman, who stopped here on his way to Lanka for a holiday with Mount Mahodaya [in his hand], torn from the Himalayan mountain range."

TV games that have become incredibly popular in India in recent years ("Who will become a millionaire?"," Mastermind India", etc.) necessarily involve blocks of questions based on a thorough knowledge of the epic and other mythological sources ("Which of the Pandavas was the son of the wind god Vayu?", " What god did his mother set as an example to Ravana Kaikashi, when did he come to visit his grandfather Vishravas?", " Who gave Goddess Durga the lion that became her mount?", etc.).

page 24

To promote the games and train potential participants, print media and electronic information open pages that "train" on the knowledge of mythological details. And the same mythology is used to help solve sensitive personal problems: foster parents who do not want to hide the fact of adoption, relying on the television series "Krishna", explain to the child that he has two mothers, like Krishna (Devaki and Yasoda) - the one who gave birth, and the one who raised.

A number of political parties and public organizations claim special rights in the interpretation and use of mythologems, which thereby turn into exclusive symbols representing certain structures. On September 16, 2002, during the Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations, a group of Shivsena activists burned a pack of the India Today weekly dated September 11, 2002, protesting that the issue contained a picture of the god Ganesha holding a cricket ball made, according to the protesters, out of leather. They said that such a combination is offensive to Hindus, since leather items are forbidden during puja (liturgy). The leader of the local (Meerut) branch of the Shiv Sena, in a memorandum sent to the district court, stated that those who dare to "dishonor the god Ganesha for financial gain should be punished so that no one will be in the habit of playing on the religious feelings of followers of any religion" [The Hindu, 17.9.2002].

In recent years, the influence of Hindu communal organizations has also been acutely felt in the field of art: their leaders recognize the right not only to evaluate finished works, but also to interfere in the creative process. The creators of the feature film "Ramayana [vremena]" prepared in 1987 for release on the screen. kaliyugi", based on modern material, but associated with epic conflicts, under the pressure of traditionalist organizations, they were forced to change the "unfavorable" combination in the name and first replaced the subordinate connection with the compositional one - "Kaliyuga and Ramayana", and in the end left only " Kaliyuga and ???" At the insistence of the same curators, Ram, Lakshman, and Sita - the" coincidental " names of the characters - were replaced with other names (Derne, 1997, p. 196).

The greatest scandal broke out in the period 1998-2000. around the films of the Canadian director of Indian origin Deepa Mehta "Fire" and" Water " [Glushkova, 2000]. In the first case, in Bombay and Delhi, members of the Shiv Sena destroyed cinemas where the film "Fire" was shown, and in the second, they launched a powerful protest campaign against the film group that began shooting the film "Water" in Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh). The communists were particularly enraged by the fact that the heroines of "Fire", who entered into a lesbian relationship, were called Sita and Radha (the beloved cowherd girl of the God Krishna). The film included an episode from the ram-lila about Sita's ordeal by fire, which was supposed to confirm her moral purity after being captured by Ravana and through which she stoically passed, and the film ended with the fact that the edge of the sari of one of the heroines caught fire, but she, even having lost the right to be called pativrata-a faithful wife, did not she died in the fire, and after knocking down the flames, together with the second heroine, she left the house that turned into a prison. Along with the inappropriate use of sacred names, the advocates of traditional values were certainly outraged by this parallel, which seemed to deny the inviolability of the values established by the great epic. The second film, which was never made, was considered by the Shiv senators, who were actively supported by the VHP, firstly, insulting the sacred river Ganga, calling it simply "water", and, secondly, encroaching on Tulsidas and his "Ramacharitamanas", since some episodes were supposed to be shot on Tulsidas Ghat , a ritually arranged descent to the river, where, according to legends, in the XVI century. Tulsidas finished writing the North Indian ver-

page 25

He wrote the Ramayana by starting it in Ayodhya. Among a number of accusations leveled against Deepa Mehta, the loudest was that she was associated with foreign capital that promotes other (primarily Christian) values.

Thus, simultaneously with the development and appropriation of space by "their", it is finally alienated from" others/strangers " who do not have rights to it. These "others/strangers" are defined by a simple sign: everything they do is a - dharma. If there are still any discrepancies about the Mahabharata (in one of his poems, even Prime Minister A. B. Vajpayee recalls the ambiguity of the protagonists and antagonists of this story: Who are the Kauravas and who are the Pandavas? This is not an easy question... In the end, even if a battle won by mass extermination of relatives and friends does not bring the Pandavas happiness, the Ramayana uncompromisingly distinguishes between good and evil and offers "distilled tools for deifying "one's own" and demonizing "others"" (Pollock, 1993, p.264).

(The ending follows)

list of literature

Barannikov P. A. Ramayana, L.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1948.

Bhagavad-gita, Moscow: Vostochnaya literatura Publ., 1999.

Bychikhina L. V., Dubyansky A.M. Tamil Literature, Moscow: GRVL, 1987.

Glushkova I. P. Pan-Indian god Ganesha // The Tree of Hinduism. Editor's note. Glushkova I. P. Moscow: Vostochnaya literatura Publ., 1999.

Glushkova I. Fire, water and copper pipes. Indian ways to protect national identity / / Nezavisimaya Gazeta. 10.6.2000.

Glushkova I. In the confluence waters. Grandiose event on the banks of the sacred Ganges / / Nezavisimaya Gazeta. 24.2.2001 (1).

Glushkova I. Superiority of uncertainty. The Indian Castrate as a literary character / / NG-Ex libris. 6.9.2001 (2).

Glushkova I. Dharma does not fade. Indian epic and modernity / / Eastern Collection. Spring. 2002.

Klyuev B. I. Religion and Conflict in India, Moscow: IV RAS, 2002.

Kutsenkov A. A. Tragediya v Gujarat [The Tragedy in Gujarat]. 2002. N 8.

Rybakov R. B. Bourgeois Reformation of Hinduism, Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1981.

Andersen Walter K., Damle Shridhar D. The Brotherhood in Saffron. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu Revivalism. New Delhi: Vistaar Publications, 1987.

Anderson Benedict. Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. L.: Verso, 1983.

Babb Lawrence A. Introduction // Media and the Transformation of Religion in South Asia. Ed. by Babb L.A. & Wadley S.S. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1997.

Bal bharati. Bhag 1 - 3. Pune: Maharashtra rajya pathyapustak nirmiti va abhyaskram samshodhan mandal, 1972 - 1979.

Cyan bharati. Bhag 2 - 5. Sampadak shiksha nideshak, Uttar Pradesh. Lakhnau: Prabha prakashan grih. 1984 - 1985.

Davis Richard H. The Iconography of Rama's Chariot // Making India Hindu. Religion, Community, and the Politics of Democracy in India. Ed. by Ludden D. New Delhi: Oxford University Press (second impression), 1999.

Derne Steve. Market Forces at Work: Religious Themes in Commercial Hindi Films // Media and the Transformation of Religion in South Asia. Ed. by Babb L.A. & Wadley S.S. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1997.

Inglis Stephen R. Suitable for Framing: The Work of a Modem Master // Media and the Transformation of Religion in South Asia. Ed. by Babb L.A. & Wadley S.S. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1997.

Kishwar Madhu. Yes to Sita, No to Ram: The Continuing Hold of Sita on Popular Imagination in India // Questioning Ramayanas. A South Asian Tradition. Ed. by Richman P. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Lutgendorf Philip. My Hanuman is Bigger than Yours II History of Religions. 33. 1994. N 3.

page 26

Malinar Angelika. The Bhagavadgita in the Mahabharata TV Serial: Domestic Drama and Dharmic Solutions // Representing Hinduism. The Construction of Religious Traditions and National Identity. Ed. by Dalmia V. & Stietencron von, H. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1995.

Marcus Scott L. On Cassette Rather than Live // Media and the Transformation of Religion in South Asia. Ed. by Babb L.A. & Wadley S.S. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1997.

Milewska Iwona. Two Modern Film Versions of the Mahabharata: Similarities and Differences Beyween an Indian and a European Approach // Composing a Tradition: Concepts, Techniques and Relationships. Proceedings of the First Dubrovnik International Conference on the Sanskrit Epics and Puranas. August 1997. Ed. by Brockington M. & Schreiner P. Zagreb: Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, 1999.

Mitra Ananda. Television and Popular Culture in India. A Study of the Mahabharat. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1993.

Pollock Sheldon. Ramayana and Political Imagination in India // The Journal of Asian Studies. Vol. 32. 1993. N 2.

Richman Paula. Introduction: The Diversity of the Ramayana Tradition // Many Ramayanas. The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991.

Tharoor Shashi. The Great Indian Novel. N.Y.: Arcade Publishing, 1993.

Tharoor Shashi. Riot. A Love Story. N.Y.: Arcade Publishing, 2001.

Veer, van der P. Religious Nationalism. Hindus and Muslims in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press (second impression), 2000.

Vyas Lallan Prasad. The Future Divine Role of the Ramayana // The Ramayana and the New Challenges. Ed. by Vyas L.P.. Delhi: B.R. Publishing Corporation, 2001.


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