Bhakti, Print, and Performance: Canonizing the Ramcharitmanas

Abstract

The dichotomy between the “Great Tradition” (Sanskritic, elite, pan-
Indian) and the “Little Tradition” (vernacular, folk, local), as argued by
scholars like Robert Redfield and Milton Singer, suggests that there is
usually a one-way flow of cultural prestige from the former to the latter.
But the historical trajectory of the Ramcharitmanas belies this rigid
model. Composed in Awadhi, a dialect of the masses, in the sixteenth
century, the text faced intense initial resistance from the orthodox
Brahminical establishment of Varanasi. Over the centuries, however, it
rose to a status of supreme canonical authority, effectively functioning
as the foundational “Great Tradition” text for the Hindi-speaking belt of
North India.
This paper argues that the canonization of the Ramcharitmanas was not
a passive process of Sanskritization, but a dynamic restructuring of the
religious hierarchy driven by three specific, interlocking forces: the
egalitarian ethos of the Bhakti movement, the performative ubiquity of
Ramlila, and the standardization and commodification of the text
through print culture, specifically exemplified by the efforts of the Gita
Press.