Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the sixth update of our material on the Oxford Research Archive, first deposited in January 2016; this update is identified as July 2022. 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:

·      Within the folder D. Ancillary material and then the folder “Photographs (JLB), the addition of a number more Rāmāyaṇa-related photographs and the inclusion of a substantial number of photographs of various Indian monuments taken over more than fifty years.

·      Apart from minimal changes to the folder C. Narrative Elements, work by MB consists mainly of more on the folder F. New Beginnings: an overall survey of the effects on the traditional portrayal of the VRm’s heroes and villains when varied supplementary elements now mostly collected into the CE Bāla and Uttara kāṇḍas were added to the core text, classified as Stage 3 (JLB 1985).  The two books are themselves far from unitary; their diverse nature sheds light on the development, not only of Stage 3 itself (including the occasional transformation of the human Rāma into an avatāra of Viṣṇu), but also of a few puzzling episodes in the so-called ‘core’ books.  Six chapters are planned, with the first three now complete:
1: Techniques and structure, including the role of allusions within the narrative
2: The core narrative: evidence from three summaries and from the Rāmopākhyāna for its contents and segmentation
3: The role of boons
4: [planned] Establishment of a Rāghava dynasty
5: [large part composed] Agastya’s post-victory narrative, 7,1—34
6: [largely incomplete, focusing only on the Ahalyā and Hanumān episodes] Change of genre and divinisation of the heroes
7: additional files presenting supporting material and notes.

·      Work by JLB includes considerable further additions to all the bibliographic sections of files within B. Bibliographic Inventory, as well as substantial 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