Deepa Mehta's _Fire_

[N. Ganesan]

<<<<
[I can't help it. It's my job, and I also take them most
semesters to the Rama temple in Lemont, Illinois
<http://www.ramatemple.org/>, a temple complex whose sthapati was the
esteemed Thiru Ganapathi Sastri of Mamallapuram. ]   I hadn't heard
about the film yet, when one or two students mentioned having just
seen it at the Chicago Film Festival [yes, in response to my slides
of Vijayanagar period mss. paintings and Thai mural depictions
[among others] of Sita's _Agni Pariksha_ [to use a phrase from Metha's
film].
>>>>

  The ordeal by fire is beautifully described by Kamban in
  9th or 11th century AD in the best book ever written in Tamil.
  See:
  David Shulman, Fire and Flood: the testing of Sita in Kampan's
  Iraamaavataaram
  in Paula Richman, Many Ramayanas, OxUP, 1991.

  Yours
  N. Ganesan


______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com