Necropolitics and the Legitimacy of Violence: A Political Rereading of Tataka, Bali, and Ravana in the Adhyatma Ramayanam Kilippaattu

Abstract

This study re-examines the episodes of Thatakavadha, Balivadha, and Ravanavadha in Thunchath Ezhuthachan's Adhyatmaramayanam Kilippattu through the theoretical frameworks of power, violence, and moral legitimation. Traditional explanations have encountered these episodes mainly in the binary opposition between dharma and adharma, resolving them into winner vs. When viewed through the lens of modern political theory especially Achille Mbembe's concept of necropolitics, this study argues that these killings become not merely acts capable of being read as moral victories but rather political actions whereby sovereign power decides which lives are worthy and may be protected, versus those who can legitimately kill or destroy. Using Michel Foucault's theory of power/knowledge, the paper first investigates how systems of power produce categories of knowledge to label certain beings as dangerous. The short-finger construction of a dangerous and inhuman Other likewise shows how violence is legitimized discursively; the scene builds the perverse moral, if not legal, basis for its own erasure prior to carrying out the violent act. In a similar way, the death of Bali illustrates how sovereign power uses exceptional violence to render its victim outside the realm of lawful justice. Moreover, Ravanavadha then signifies the culmination of a political order that legitimises violence by way of cosmic justice or moral compulsion. The resulting conclusion of the study will M suggest that Thatakavadha, Balivadha and Ravanavadha's episodes are not merely stories exemplifying dharma vanquishing adharma. Instead, they expose the way sovereignty produces an ethics of moral justification for violence as a regeneration between life and death. A necropolitical interpretation thus provides a new perspective on the intricate interplay of power, violence, justice and dharma in Adhyatmaramayanam Kilippattu.