Introduction

Abstract The Introduction to The Radheshyam Ramayan in Text and Performance presents the subject of the book, Pandit Radheshyam Kathavachak and his early twentieth-century Ramayan, a retelling of Tulsidas’s sixteenth-century Rāmcaritmānas. It summarizes Kathavachak’s contributions to Indian devotional poetry, the vernacular theatre of Ramlila, the urban Parsi theatre, and book publishing, and notes connections between the Radheshyam Ramayan and the performance genres of kathā and Ramlila. The Introduction also lays out the author’s theoretical framework, situating the Radheshyam Ramayan and Ramlila in particular in India’s “epic modernity,” and discusses the author’s main interventions in the field of Ramayan studies. It concludes by outlining the chapters of the book.