Exeter Fellow Nandini Das presents new BBC Radio 3 documentary On Rama’s Bridge

Professor Nandini Das, Tutorial Fellow in English at Exeter College, has written and presented a new BBC Radio 3 documentary, On Rama’s Bridge, for the Between the Ears series. 

Set at the south-eastern tip of India, near the storm-ruined town of Dhanushkodi, the programme explores Arichal Murai – a shifting limestone shoal that marks the liminal space between India and Sri Lanka. Sometimes described as a semi-mythical land bridge and associated with the Ramayana’s account of Rama’s bridge to Lanka, this fragile borderland becomes the starting point for a meditation on memory, myth and nationhood. 

Against a backdrop of wind and waves, Professor Das reflects on how stories shape collective and individual identities. The documentary weaves together the epic of the Ramayana; the layered histories of Buddhism across South Asia; the legend of Queen Padmavati, remembered in India as a symbol of resistance yet linked to Sri Lanka; and the experiences of the Sri Lankan diaspora, particularly in the years following the end of the civil war 15 years ago. 

In conversation with Indian writer Pradeep Damodaran, Professor Das considers how myth, migration and memory continue to shape relationships between neighbouring nations and communities in the UK, India and Sri Lanka today. 

On Rama’s Bridge is an Overcoat Media production for BBC Radio 3, produced by Steven Rajam and Chhavi Sachdev, with sound by Mike Woolley. 

Listen to On Rama’s Bridge on BBC Radio 3’s Between the Ears series here.