Cover
Halftitle Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
List of figures
Acknowledgments
Foreword: Śambūka's Story across Time and India's Regions
A Note on Transliteration
Abbreviations
1. Introduction: Śambūka's Death Toll
The Traditions of the Rāmāyaṇa and Śambūka
The Plan for This Book
2. Śambūka's Earliest Death
Understanding the Uttarakāṇḍa
The Development of Varṇadharma in Texts Composed between the Empires
Varṇadharma, tapas, and Śūdra exclusion
The Mānava Dharmaśāstra
The Arthaśāstra

Śambūka in the Vālmı̄ki Rāmāyaṇa
Why Is the Śambūka Story in the Rāmāyaṇa Narrative?
How to Read Vālmı̄ki's Śambūka
3. First Responders
Kālidāsa's Śambūka Attains the Course of Virtuous Men
Setting the Record Straight in the Paümacariya
Forming the Foundations of Śambūka's Future
4. The Uttararāmacarita and Śambūka's Purpose in Death
Connections and Divergences between Kālidāsa and Bhavabhūti
Pity in Bhavabhūti's Uttararāmacarita
The Hand that Swings the Sword
Śambūka Speaks ... in Sanskrit

Śambūka's Death, It's All a Part of the Plan
Śambūka's New Importance
5. The Accident or the Execution
Placing Bhakti
The Vernacular Rāmāyaṇas of Kampan1 and Tulsı̄dās
Bringing Vālmı̄ki into a New Era
Śivasahāya's commentary on the Vālmı̄ki Rāmāyaṇa
The Padma Purāṇa
The Kaṇṇaśśa Rāmāyaṇa
Kṣemendra's Rāmāyaṇamañjarı̄
The Salvation of Śambūka
Kṣemendra's Daśāvatāracarita
The Adhyātma Rāmāyaṇa
El1utacchan's Malayalam Adhyātma Rāmāyaṇam
The Rāmcaritmānas' Afterword
It Was an Accident!

Nāgacandra's Pampa Rāmāyaṇa
The Raṅganātha Rāmāyaṇa
Eknāth's Bhāvārtha Rāmāyaṇa
Kerala shadow puppetry: tolpāvakūttu
Raviṣeṇa's Padma Purāṇa
Svayambhūdeva's Paümacariu
Hemacandra's Triṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruṣacarita
Who is narrating Śambūka's accidental death?
The Curious Case of the Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa
Borrowing Śambūka's Death: Narrative Exchange between Jains and Hindus
6. Śambūka Lives on Ramtek Hill
Ramtek and the Vākāṭakas
Ramtek and the Yādavas
Ramtek and the Marāṭhās
Ramtek Today

Śambūka's Layered History on Ramtek Hill
7. The Anti-Caste Revolutionary
The Politics of Caste
Tripuraneni Ramaswami Chaudari's Śambuka Vadha
Comparing Śambūka's Crimes: Swami Achhutanand's Rām-Rājya-Nyāy and Santram B.A.'s Niraparādh kı̄ Hatyā
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar on Śambūka
Two Periyars Censure the Rāmāyaṇa
A Battle over the Details: Śambūka in the Twentieth Century
8. Śambūka in the Twenty-First Century
The Aadi Dharm Samaaj and The Martyrdom Day of the Great Sage Śambūka
Śambūka in The Last Letter