ABSTRACT
This chapter turns to analyzing Jinadāsa’s other Rāma narrative, the bhāṣā Rām Rās. It first takes up the question of why Jinadāsa would feel the need to write a Rāma narrative in both Sanskrit and the vernacular, arguing that the Rās is not a mere vernacular translation of Jinadāsa’s Sanskrit work, but is, rather, best understood as an independent composition. The chapter then argues that bhāṣā literary composition must fill some social workly void, must do something different, and must speak to different audiences than the Sanskrit composition. To understand what that work is, the chapter then focuses on analyzing the structure of the Rām Rās itself. It introduces the performative nature of the rās genre and the expectation of improvisation that goes hand-in-hand with such performative texts.
