Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the fifth update of our material on the Oxford Research Archive, first deposited in January 2016; this update is identified as April 2021. We do so in order that it can be available for others to consult even in its present, unfinished state.It can be accessed at the same location <http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8df9647a-8002-45ff-b37e-7effb669768b> or you can find it via the Bodleian Libraries website, under ORA, by looking for either our surname or its title, "Development and spread of the Rāma narrative (pre-modern)".

As before, there are additions, revisions and corrections to the material throughout.  However, areas which have seen the greatest changes are:

·      further re-organisation of folders: introducing a new folder, F. New Beginnings, which replaces the now deleted document within B. Bibliographic Inventory entitled 2A. Notes towards stage 3 (some of its contents have been transferred instead either to 2. Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa or to 3. MBh & Purāṇas);

·      Work by MB includes some new material, particularly on N Indian vernacular texts, in the ‘Narrative Elements tabulations’, where the previous ‘Cumulative’ file was becoming so unwieldy that it has now been sub-divided into 3 parts for greater ease of access.  Most other work is focused on stage 3 of the VRm, revising previous notes and preparing new material for an in-depth study (in preparation) of the Bāla and Uttara kāṇḍas themselves and their consequences for the rest of the VRm text and narrative as a whole.  Included is a detailed examination of 7,1-36 (Agastya’s post-victory narratives of the earlier exploits of the rākṣasas and of Hanumān’s supremacy), exploring the innovative image of gods, heroes and rākṣasas alike now being presented by these new authors;

·      Work by JLB includes considerable further additions to all the bibliographic sections of files within B. Bibliographic Inventory, as well as the merging of the previously separate bibliographies for the VR as a whole and for the third stage and other additions to and revision of 2. Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa.  There have also been major additions to the data within 10. visual (India).

If you are aware of colleagues in other fields (for example Southeast Asian languages or visual culture) who might be interested, do please pass the information on to them – and similarly, if any of you have access to suitable academic lists on which it could be posted, we would be grateful if you would send it to them.

As always, we shall be grateful for any comments from anyone who has used the material.

With all good wishes

John and Mary

John Brockington

Fellow, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Emeritus Professor of Sanskrit, University of Edinburgh

Vice President, International Association of Sanskrit Studies

Mary Brockington

Fellow, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Research Fellow, International Association of Sanskrit Studies