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Krittivasa Ramayana: The Birth of Bhagiratha (Bengali)

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Same-Sex Love in India

Abstract

This text, which even today is the most popular Bengali version of the Ramayana is ascribed to the fourteenth-century poet Krittivasa; however, additions to it continued to be made well into the eighteenth century.2 The sage Bhagiratha is famed for having succeeded in bringing the river Ganga down to earth from heaven. Three of his forefathers had tried and failed to perform this task. Even today, in many Indian languages, the term Bbagiratba prayatna is the equivalent of a “Herculean enterprise.”

Text used for this translation is Sachitra Krittivasi Saptakanda Ramayana, ed. Chandrodaya Vidyavinod Bhattacharyya (Calcutta: Manoranjan Bandopadhyaya at Hitavadi Pustakalaya, 1914). The extract is from the Adi Kanda, tracing the ancestry of Rama, incarnation of Vishnu.

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  1. Ruth Vanita
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Ruth Vanita Saleem Kidwai

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© 2000 Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai

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Vanita, R. (2000). Krittivasa Ramayana: The Birth of Bhagiratha (Bengali). In: Vanita, R., Kidwai, S. (eds) Same-Sex Love in India. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62183-5_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62183-5_12

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-62185-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-62183-5

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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