Page - 34 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 07/02

34 | Genoveva Castro www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/2, 31–53 many groups, such as cannibals, primitive cave dwellers, shamans, particular tribes, historic ethnic groups, and Buddhists.8 Furthermore, Rāvaṇa has also been understood in the tradition as “an enemy devotee who seeks liberation at the hands of Rāma”.9 The chief antagonist of the story may be seen as the representative of prejudices, or in other instances as a religious ideal. George Hart and Hank Heifetz argue that the South Indian Rāmāyaṇa by Kampan, composed in Tamil in the 12th century, reflected local history. They explain that there were two patterns of social organization: the first consisted of small chieftains and armies which fought against each other in the first centuries of the Common Era, while the second was established during Pallava rule in the 6th century. In the later pattern, upper-caste land- owners who were non-Brahmins adopted a system of alliances with a more centralized government and North Hindu Brahmanical practices. There was a certain level of co-existence of both old and new structures. Rāvaṇa in Kampan represented the old Tamil king who terrified everyone, was strong in battle, and concerned with pleasure. All elements of Tamil tradition that did not fit in with the new order were assigned to Rāvaṇa.10 Therefore, a distinct socio-political configuration was represented in the kingdom of the demon. This political dimension of the story of the Rāmāyaṇa is also relevant to discussions in South India in the late 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. In a literal reading, Rāma, Sītā, and Lakṣmaṇa come from the North, and the demons, who are explicitly not human, are from the South. In a more nuanced reading, the inhumanity could be interpreted as an otherness arising from differences in culture. In South India, people have recognized themselves in that otherness, and Rāvaṇa has become the char- acter with whom they identify. The Rāmāyaṇa has been read as a struggle between the Aryan North and the Dravidian South.11 Thus, the narrative of Rāvaṇa taking a different turn came to represent South Indian identity. This Aryan–Dravidian reading of the Rāmāyaṇa was related to the develop- ment of a political movement in South India that sought social justice. In the first decades of the 20th century, there were calls for anti-caste social reforms 8 Pollock 2006, 31–32. 9 Hospital 1991, 86. 10 Hart/Heifetz 1989, 27–29. 11 Richman 1991, 176. The terms “Aryan” and “Dravidian” refer to two distinct linguistic families spoken in the North and South respectively; the terms have also been used to identify different cultural streams.