The Adiya Ramayana is an oral telling rooted in Adiya community life in Wayanad, not one fixed alternative scripture. In the version described by Sahapedia, familiar epic figures are placed in local landscapes and judged by local social values: Sita is associated with Pulpally, local deities outrank Rama and his companions, and Rama is questioned over abandoning her. Details vary among tellers, so these features describe particular accounts rather than every Adiya narration.
Who tells the Adiya Ramayana?
A Scroll excerpt from Azeez Tharuvana’s Living Ramayanas: Exploring the Plurality of the Epic in Wayanad and the World presents Kali Mathei, an Adiya elder and traditional healer from Thrissilery, telling a story he inherited from his father. His account is one telling within a living oral tradition, not a definitive written text for all Adiya narrators. Read the Scroll excerpt.
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Tharuvana’s doctoral field research on Wayanad folk versions of epic stories was conducted between 2003 and 2007, according to Onmanorama’s 2021 report. That is a reported period of research, not a measure of the tradition’s age or current popularity.
How does the Adiya telling localize the epic?
In Sahapedia’s account of the Adiya Ramayana, the story’s geography extends across Wayanad and Coorg rather than following only the distant, pan-Indian landscapes familiar from literary versions. Sita is described as an Adiya woman from Pulpally, and Lanka lies near a river rather than across an ocean. The result is an epic made legible through nearby places and community life. Sahapedia’s overview of the Ramayanas of Wayanad also emphasizes that oral tellings are shaped by local cultural, social and environmental settings.
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What happens in Kali Mathei’s excerpt?
The Scroll excerpt begins with Pakkatheyyam asserting authority over Pulpally and ordering Sita to leave. She sets out with her belongings in a bamboo basket. Rama sees her and tells Lakshmana that he would like to marry her. Later, Hanuman reaches Sita by hiding in a basket of washed clothes carried by an Adiya woman; he then draws attention by throwing coconuts from a tree. These details belong to the excerpted narration and should not be collapsed into Sahapedia’s separate account of the tradition.
Sahapedia interprets the episode in which Pakkathappan orders Sita off his land as resonating with Adiya experiences of dispossession and landlord control. That is an interpretation of the episode’s social meaning, not a claim that the story itself explicitly explains the history.
How are the characters and moral judgments different?
In Sahapedia’s description, local deities—including Valliyoorkavu Bhagavathi, Pulpalli Bhagavathi, Pakkatheyyam, Tirunelli Perumal, Siddhappan, Nenjappan and Mathappadeva—hold higher status than Rama, Lakshmana and Hanuman. The hierarchy shifts the center of the story toward local sacred figures and community authority.
Rama is also answerable to others. Sahapedia describes tribal chiefs questioning Rama and Lakshmana about abandoning a pregnant Sita. In a Sahapedia interview, Professor K. M. Anil characterizes the figure this way: “Rama in Adiya Ramayana is just an ordinary man.” Anil says an Adiya elder challenges Rama for deserting Sita and asks him to bring her and the children back. He interprets such oral retellings as forms of social criticism, rather than treating Rama’s authority as beyond question. Read the interview with Prof. K. M. Anil.
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Which episodes differ from familiar literary Ramayanas?
Sahapedia’s account says Ravana takes Sita with her consent and that she knew him before meeting Rama. It also says that this version has no battle scene. These are features of the version Sahapedia describes; they should not be generalized to every Adiya telling or to all oral Ramayanas. Kali Mathei’s Scroll excerpt, meanwhile, supplies its own distinct narrative details, including Pakkatheyyam’s command and Hanuman’s arrival in a laundry basket.
Comparison with versions associated with Valmiki or Tulasidas is most useful when it asks how a particular telling handles place, sacred authority, moral judgment, episodes and transmission. Oral narrative is not a single text with one stable set of changes: tellers and accounts can differ even within the same community. Sahapedia’s broader discussion of Wayanad Ramayanas provides that context without making every local telling identical.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Where can readers find the account in fuller form?
The directly relevant book is Azeez Tharuvana’s Living Ramayanas: Exploring the Plurality of the Epic in Wayanad and the World, from which the Scroll excerpt is drawn. Its title and author are also listed in the Google Books record. This identifies the book as further reading; it does not establish a particular edition, format or current retailer availability.
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