SOURCE: Desai, Santosh N. “Ramayana— An Instrument of Historical Contact and Cultural Transmission between India and Asia.” Journal of Asian Studies 30, no. 1 (November 1970): 5-20.

In the following essay, Desai surveys a number of versions of the Ramayana in order to trace the spread and transmission of the tale between India and Asia.

This paper examines the role of the Hindu epic Rāmāyana in the historical and cultural contact between Asia and Hindu India. In the process of this analysis, an attempt will be made to determine and evaluate the nature of the Hindu culture diffused in Asia through Rāma story.

Historians generally have drawn more attention to the spread of Buddhism from India to Asia. The movement and diffusion of Hindu¹ elements from India to Asian countries is also an equally spectacular phenomenon. The Rāmāyana has played the most significant role in this...