Rethinking India's Oral and Classical Epics: Draupadi among Rajputs, Muslims, and Dalits

Throughout India and Southeast Asia, ancient classical epics-the Mahabharata and the Ramayana -continue to exert considerable cultural influence. Rethinking India's Oral and Classical Epics offers an unprecedented exploration into South Asia's regional epic traditions. Using his own fieldwork as a starting point, Alf Hiltebeitel analyzes how the oral tradition of the south Indian cult of the goddess Draupadi and five regional martial oral epics compare with one another and tie in with the Sanskrit epics. Drawing on literary theory and cultural studies, he reveal.;List of Maps and Tables; List of Plates; Acknowledgments; Conventions; 1. Introduction; 2. Oral Epics; A. Classical and Oral Epics; B. Epic Development and the ""Real Hero""; C. Against Death and Deification; D. Bhakti, Regionality, and the Goddess; E. Back to the Frames; 3. The Elder Brothers and the Heroes of Palnadu; 1. Births of the Heroes; 2. Marriage and Virginity; 3. The Virgin's Blessing; 4. Campuka's and Anapotu Raju's Stratagems; 5. The Virgin's Anger; 6. Impalements; 7. Satis, Revivals, Salvation; 8. Transformations of Dasara; 4. The Epic of Pabuji.