The Ramayana
Javanese Shadow Puppetry and Gamelan Performances
Sunday 1 June 2008
Shadow puppet theatre, wayang kulit, remains a vibrant
and popular tradition across South East Asia and in particular Java
and Bali, where it is accompanied by the hypnotic chiming rhythms
of the gamelan. Its combination of action, comedy, morality play
and social commentary makes it perfectly suited to telling the story
of the Ramayana. The British Library is
proud to present an ensemble of world class performers bringing
the Ramayana to dramatic life over four
days.
Please note these will be unseated performances.
Event time: 14.00
Location: Entrance Hall, British Library
Price: Free. Tickets must be booked in advance.
All Tickets Taken
Once Upon a Time - The Ramayana as Painted Narrative
Vidya Dehejia
Monday 2 June 2008
Focusing on the magnificent British Library manuscripts, this talk explores the different ways in which artists presented the Ramayana narratives and the varied ways that the viewer responds. Capitalising on the lure of storytelling, artists of richly painted manuscripts in pre-modern India used many different ways of telling the story of Rama. Just as one may narrate a story in the form of a novel, a poem, or a drama; so too one may present it visually as continuous narrative, a narrative network or monoscenically.
Vidya Dehejia is Barbara Stoler Miller, Professor of Indian Art, Columbia University, New York.
Event time: 18.30 - 20.00
Location: Conference Centre, British Library
Price: £6 (concessions £4)
Book
Late at The Library
Thursday 5 June 2008
A special open house with live music from tabla virtuoso and composer Kuljit Bhamra, club DJs Bobby Friction and Nerm, screenings, bars and late access to British Library exhibitions including The Ramayana: Love and Valour in India's Great Epic.
Supported by BBC Asian Network
Presented as apart of the Lates festival
Event time: 19.00-23.00
Location: Entrance Hall, British Library
Price: £5 (no concessions)
Book
Three Hundred Ramayanas
Jatinder Verma and Michael Wood
Wednesday 11 June 2008
More than any other story in the world's great literature, the
Ramayana exists in many, often radically
different, versions. Some have become the moral bedrock of millions,
spinning their own large scale traditions of devotion and performance.
This great epic has been set against invasions, migrations and colonisations,
has been retold in dozens of languages, and garnered the world's
largest ever TV audience. It remains to this day an extremely potent
force, whether as the spark behind the razing of the Ayodhya mosque
in 1992, the focus of intense debate among Indian feminists, or
even the subject of a recent dispute over the dredging of a shipping
channel between Sri Lanka and India.
The endlessly fascinating context and living history of the Ramayana
is explored in a discussion between Michael Wood,
writer, historian and broadcaster known for his many books and BBC
series, most recently The Story Of India; and Jatinder
Verma, Artistic Director of Tara Arts and co-designer of
the exhibition.
Event time: 18.30 - 20.00
Location: Conference Centre, British Library
Price: £6 (concessions £4)
Book
Ramayan - An Epic Re-Screened
Thursday 12 - Sunday 15 June 2008
Screened
across India from 1987-88, Ramanand Sagar's 78-episode Ramayan
remains one of the great phenomena of world television history.
It was enormously popular, drawing audiences of over 100 million
with whole communities coming to a stop every Sunday morning in
order to follow the adventures of Rama.
The British Library presents a chance to sample this remarkable
re-imagining of India's great myth as it is shown in marathon fashion
across four days.
Presented with the kind agreement of Sagar Arts
Location: Entrance Hall, British Library
Price: Free, drop in. This event is not seated.
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