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Rama Trail: Narrative Geography from Ayodhya to Rameshwaram

Rama Trail: Narrative Geography from Ayodhya to Rameshwaram

Overview

This immersive journey traces the Ramayana across major pilgrimage and cultural nodes, examining how the epic narrative translates into sacred city planning, devotional movement, landscape interpretation, and performance traditions.

Students engage with Ayodhya and Chitrakoot as sacred civic centers, explore the Hampi region through a Kishkinda narrative lens, and conclude in Rameshwaram, where the epic intersects with coastal sacred geography.

The program integrates literature, anthropology, performance studies, and governance analysis to understand how a shared narrative produces regional variation while sustaining national cultural continuity.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Students will:

  • Analyze epic narrative as lived public culture and pilgrimage infrastructure.
  • Compare regional reinterpretations of the Ramayana.
  • Examine sacred cities as governance and tourism systems.
  • Practice narrative ethics in balancing tradition, belief, and academic inquiry.
  • Produce a “Rama Trail” narrative geography dossier.
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IDEAL DISCIPLINES

Religious Studies

Anthropology

Literature

Performance Studies

Cultural Studies

History

Geography

Political Science

South Asian Studies

Key Locations

Delhi
Ayodhya
Chitrakoot
Hampi
Rameshwaram
Chennai

Itinerary Table

Day Location Academic Focus & Activities Learning Emphasis
1
 Delhi Arrival; orientation; introduction to epic as lived system Establishing an interpretive framework
2–3
 Delhi Seminar: Ramlila and living epic performance; narrative ethics and documentation workshop Building an analytical and ethical toolkit
4–6
 Ayodhya & Chitrakoot Pilgrimage circuit mapping; sacred city infrastructure study; governance and tourism systems lens Exploring how sacred narrative shapes civic space
7–9
 Hampi Region (Kishkinda Lens) Landscape reading through epic geography; community perspectives on heritage and tourism Comparing narrative memory with material landscape
10–12
 Rameshwaram → Chennai Coastal sacred geography study; “toward Lanka” interpretive dialogue; North–South synthesis studio Integrating regional variation within a shared epic frame
13
 Chennai Departure Closure