The Ramayana of Valmiki: An Epic of Ancient India, vol. 4, Kiskindhakanda.

• Author: Lariviere, Richard W.

This is the fourth in the superb series of translations of the books of the Ramayana of Valmiki. The previous three volumes have been uniformly significant contributions to our knowledge of this important epic. This one maintains that standard.

The Kiskindhakanda is, it must be said, less inherently interesting than other books of the Ramayana; nevertheless, Rosalind Lefeber has done a good job extracting the central issue of the kanda in her introductory matter. That issue, of course, is the recruitment of Sugriva's monkey army to the task of finding the abducted Sita. In the process, Rama commits what looks for all the world like an act of treachery, when he kills from ambush the rightful king of the monkeys, Valin, in order to clear the way for his ally Sugriva to assume the throne. This act of perfidy is clearly beneath the likes of Rama, but, as we are told by Lefeber, Rama's promise of friendship to Sugriva was justification enough. Her discussion of this problem and its treatment in the commentaries, other Sanskrit literature, and in secondary literature is thorough but concise.

Lefeber continues the pattern of this series, which gives voice to the commentators. She provides us with a discussion of the attitudes and purposes they brought to bear on their work. The few pages she devotes to the commentators serve as an excellent brief introduction to their importance for our understanding of the Ramayana tradition. The discussion would have benefited, I think, had Lefeber referred to the various commentators by their names instead of by the abbreviations that this series has come to use for the commentators. Even though she pays us the courtesy of explaining the abbreviations at the beginning of her exposition, it becomes tiresome trying to figure out who is being referred to by "Cv," "Cg," "Ct," etc. These commentators are important, and at least here they deserve to be discussed under their names - but this is a small point.

As is only right, the critical edition of the Ramayana comes in for careful scrutiny. As Lefeber says, it is easier to criticize a critical edition than to make one (p. 11), but that is what critical editions allow us to do. Without the compilation of manuscript evidence, we would perpetually be in the dark about the nature and history of a text. We must always recognize that Sanskrit texts - especially ancient texts such as the epics - will never be finally settled. The best we can ever hope for is...