The Life of a Text
  Acknowledgments
  A Note on Transliteration

 collapse sectionOne  The Text and the Research Context
 •Introduction
 •Tulsidas and the Ramayan Tradition
 •Metrical and Narrative Structure
 •The Fathomless Lake: Tulsi's Narrative Framing
 •The Manas and the Western Audience
 •On Poetry and Performance
 •Banas: City of Tulsidas
 collapse sectionTwo  The Text in Recitation and Song
 •The Varieties of Recitation
 •Spreading the Word: The Puranic Recitation Model
 collapse sectionThe Rites of Recitation
 •The Samput
 •The Arti
 •Practitioners Of Mas Parayan
 •Manas As Marathon
 •A Family Celebrates Divali
 •Path as Protection/Propitiation
 collapse sectionThe "Great Sacrifice" of MANAS Recitation
 •The Reciters
 •Beginning Each Day's Program
 •Other Perormance Elements
 •Other Nine-Day Programs
 •Recitation as "Sacrifice"
 collapse sectionThe Pleasures of Manas Singing
 •Kajli in Visheshvar Ganj
 •Holi Singing
 collapse sectionThree  The Text Expounded: The Development of Manas-Katha
 •The Telling and Its Milieu
 •Epic and Puranic Exegetical Traditions
 collapse sectionThe Manas-Katha Tradition
 •Tulsi the Singer
 •The First Retellers
 •Indigenous Exegetical Terms
 •The Rise of Royal Patronage
 •The Tulsi-Parampara
 •Mahant Ramcharand as and Jnani Sant Singh
 •Shivlal Pathak and Ramgulam Dvivedi
 •Raghunath Das and Kashthajihva Swami
 •Vandan Pathak, Chakkanlal, and Ramkumar
 •The Manas Piyus
 •The Later Tulsi-Parampara
 •Changing Styles of Katha.
 collapse sectionFour  The Art of Manas-Katha
 •The Economics of Katha
 collapse sectionQualifications of a Performer
 •Brahmans and Others
 •Becoming a Vyas
 •Studentship and the Tradition
 •Internalizing the Text
 •Written Sources
 •Preparing for Performance
 collapse sectionPerformance Structure and Techniques
 •The Vyas Seat
 •The Mangalacaran and the Kirtan
 •The Performance Cycle
 •Performer-Audience Interaction
 •The Language of Katha
 •Formulaic Epithets
 collapse sectionKatha in Context: The Contemporary Performance Milieu
 •Daily Katha an Afiternoon at Sankat Mochan
 •The Sammelan: an Evening at Gyan Vapi
 •One-man Show: Ramkinkar at Birla Temple
 collapse sectionThe Performer and the Text
 •Vyakhya And Vyakaran
 •Creative Retelling: Dialogue and "Domestication"
 •Esoteric Interpretations
 •Numerology and "Structural" Analysis
 •Allegorical Interpretation
 •The Nature of Katha: A Cross-Cultural Perspective
 •The Palace of Mirrors
 collapse sectionFive  Words Made Flesh: The Text Enacted
 •The Ramlila Tradition
 •The "Sport" of Kings: Evolution of the Banaras Ramlila
 collapse sectionThree Contemporary Productions
 •Chitrakut and the Bharat Milap
 •Bharat Milap
 •The Enthronement
 •Khojwan: Ramnagar Remade
 •Kop Bhavan
 •Nakkatayya
 •Ramnagar: Pilgrims and Singers
 collapse sectionRamlila and Devotional Practice
 •Theological Views of Lila
 •Entering the Play
 collapse sectionThe Ultimate Commentary
 •Shivpur’s Visual Allegory
 collapse sectionSix  The Text in a Changing Society
 collapse sectionThe Paradoxical Paradigm
 •Brothers and Others
 •The Limited Ideal
 •The Rise of the Eternal Religion
 collapse sectionThe Politics of Ramraj
 •Liberation Theology in Avadh
 •Gandhi's Katha
 •Ramraj and the Right
 collapse sectionCracks in the Mirror
 •Shastri's Sastra
 •No Apologies from Kanpur
 •Dona Nobis Pacem
 collapse sectionPeople of the Book
 •Rush-Hour Revival
 •You've Read the Book . . . Now Buy the Cassette
 •. . . And Watch the Video
 •Banking on the Name
 •Avadhi, Khari Boli, and "Hindi-Ization"
 •The New Patrons
 •The Future of Manas Performance

  Glossary of Names with Transliteration
 collapse sectionBibliography
 •Ramcaritmanas Editions and Commentaries
 •Other Sources
 collapse sectionIndex
 •A
 •B
 •C
 •D
 •E
 •F
 •G
 •H
 •I
 •J
 •K
 •L
 •M
 •N
 •O
 •P
 •R
 •S
 •T
 •U
 •V
 •W
 •Y
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