EXPLORING ETHICS AND AESTHETICS OF ECO-CARING IN UTTARARĀMACARITA
Keywords:
Eco-aesthetics, Rāmāyaṇa, Eco-theology, eco-caring, Uttarrāmacarita, Anthropocene, Symbiocene, sustainable societyAbstract
This article analyses and appreciates the skilful use of ethics and aesthetics as tools for prompting the care and concern in humans for non-humans and their surrounding environment in an eighth-century Sanskrit play Uttararāmacarita composed by Bhavabhūti. The play is a theatrical representation of the later phase of the theological narrative of Rāmāyaṇa with minor changes towards giving a happy ending to the Uttarakānda of Rāmāyaṇa. The playwright, having known the fact that Rāma and Sītā are immensely revered, deftly appeals to the ethos of the reader and audience for respecting the ecosystems. Bhavabhūti portrays Rāma and Sītā worshipping various phenomena of nature with a motive of creating equal reverence in the heart of people worshipping Rāma and Sītā towards nature so that a sustainable society could be created where nature remains revered and consequently unharmed. This paper shows the interdependence of social and ecological systems through the analysis of the play undertaken for study and claims that to achieve the sustainable development goals, the maintenance of healthy ecosystems is indispensable. This paper draws its contemporary relevance from its aim of exploring the ways of protecting environment to achieve various sustainable development goals set by the United Nations.
References
Bhavabhūti. Uttararāmacarita. Ratnam Aiyar T. R. and Kashinath Panduranga Parab. Eds. Bombay: Nirnaya-Sagar Press, 1903.
Bhavabhūti. Uttara-Rāma-Carita. Trans. G. K. Bhat. Surat: The Popular Publishing House, 1965.
Callicott, J. Baird. “Leopold's Land Aesthetic.” Nature, Aesthetics, and Environmentalism: From Beauty to Duty. Eds. Allen Carlson and Sheila Lintott. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008: 105-118.
Carlson, Allen. "Environmental Aesthetics, Ethics, and Ecoaesthetics." The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 76 (2018): 399-410.
Carson, R. Silent Spring. London: Penguin Books, 2000.
Coward, H. "Hindu Views of Nature and the Environment." Nature Across Cultures. Science Across Cultures: The History of Non-Western Science. Ed. Selin H. Dordrecht: Springer, 2003.
Doniger, Wendy. "Women and the Ogresses in the Ramayana," The Hindus: An Alternative History. New York: The Penguin Press, 2009.
Hettinger, Ned. "Allen Carlson's Environmental Aesthetics and the Protection of the Environment." Environmental Ethics 27 (2005): 57–76.
Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Judgement. Trans. James Meredith. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1928.
Kauppinen, Heta. “Environmental Aesthetics and Art Education.” Art Education 43.4(1990): 12-21.
Radharani, P. “Hinduism and Natural Environment.” Journal of Dharma 31.4(2006): 497-504.
Rolston, Holmes. “From Beauty to Duty: Aesthetics of Nature and Environmental Ethics.” Environment and the Arts: Perspectives on Environmental Aesthetics. Ed. Arnold Berleant. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002. 127–141.
Shusterman, Richard. Pragmatist Aesthetics: Living Beauty, Rethinking Art. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000.
Swarnalatha, R. “Ecological Dimensions of the Ramayana: A Conversation with Paula Richman.” The Trumpeter 25.1(2009): 22-33.
Vālmīki. Śrimad Vālmīki Ramayana. Gorakhpur: Gita Press, 2016.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Trans. D. F. Pears and B. V. McGuinness. New York: Routledge, 1961.
Xiangzhan, C. “Ecoaesthetics and Ecocriticism.” Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 17.4(2010): 785-789.
Zacharias, Usha. “Union with Nature: Prakriti and sovereignty in Aravindan's Kanchana Sita.” Ramayana Stories in Modern South India: An Anthology. Ed. Paula Richman. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008. 99–107.
