What is the Ramayana?

Valmiki's Ramayana (the first poem)

The epic tells its own birth. Walking by a river, Valmiki sees a hunter kill one of a pair of curlews, and the hen's grief moves him to a curse that comes out in measured verse. He says: “The measured form of words I spoke In shock of grief be termed a śloke.” Brahma then comes and bids him tell the whole story of Rama in that metre. So grief became the shloka, the verse form of the epic.

Sources for this reading

• Valmiki, Ramayana, Book I, Canto II “Brahmá's Visit”, in R. T. H. Griffith (tr.), The Rámáyan of Válmíki (London: Trübner; Benares: E. J. Lazarus, 1870–74), Project Gutenberg transcription. Griffith died 1906: public domain. Quoted verbatim. (Book I, Canto II)
• The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Ralph T. H. Griffith, vol. I: Book I (London: Trübner; Benares: E. J. Lazarus, 1870) (Book I, Canto II, p. 20 (leaf n55); the quoted lines checked on the page image)

Vaishnava

For Vaishnava traditions the Ramayana is the story of an avatar. In the first book, Vishnu agrees to be born on earth to end Ravana's power and divides himself into the four sons of King Dasharatha. The battle in Lanka, Ravana's death and Rama's homecoming are remembered at Dussehra and, in many families, at Diwali.

Sources for this reading

• Valmiki, Ramayana, Book I, Canto XV “The Nectar”, and Book VI, Cantos CX and CXXIV–CXXX, in Griffith (tr.), Project Gutenberg transcription. Public domain. Summarised in our words. (Book I, Cantos XIV, XV and XIX; Book VI, Canto CX (“Rávan’s Death”) and Cantos CXXIV–CXXX)
• The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Ralph T. H. Griffith, vol. I: Book I (London: Trübner; Benares: E. J. Lazarus, 1870) (Book I, Canto XV, p. 88 (leaf n123), and Canto XIX, p. 106 (leaf n141))
• The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Ralph T. H. Griffith, vol. V: Book VI and an outline of Book VII (London: Trübner; Benares: E. J. Lazarus, 1874) (Book VI, cantos CXXIV–CXXX (pp. 290–314))

Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas

In the sixteenth century Tulsidas retold the story in Awadhi as the Ramcharitmanas, “the lake of Rama's acts”. In his telling, Shiva narrates the story to Parvati, and Rama is the supreme Lord whose name is the heart of devotion. Recited in homes and temples, it is for many North Indian families the Ramayana they know.

Sources for this reading

• Tulsidas, Ramcharitmanas, Bal Kand, in F. S. Growse (tr.), The Rámáyana of Tulsi Dás, Book 1 (Allahabad: North-Western Provinces Government Press, 1877; title page, leaf n5). Growse died 1893: public domain. Summarised in our words: Tulsidas began the poem at Ayodhya in Sambat 1631, which Growse gives as 1575 A.D.; Shiva first composed the story and revealed it to Uma (Parvati); the title means the “lake of Ráma’s acts” (or the soul of them); Rama is “the lord Hari; supreme over all causes”, and the name “transcends the supreme”. The title page quotes Griffith on the poem's place among the people of the North-Western Provinces. (Introduction, p. xii (leaf n22); Sanskrit invocation, p. 1 (leaf n27); pp. 18–19 (leaves n44–n45); p. 23 (leaf n49); p. 27 and note 1 (leaf n53); read on the page images)

Regional Ramayanas

The story lives in many languages and forms, and families from different regions know different details. In Bengal the Ramayana is read in Bengali versions under the poet Krittibas's name; they add an episode that is not in Valmiki: Rama worships Durga before his last battle. The Chandogya Upanishad already counts epic and ancient lore (itihasa and purana) as a fifth Veda beside the four.

Sources for this reading

• Dinesh Chandra Sen, The Bengali Ramayanas (Calcutta: University of Calcutta, 1920; title page, leaf n1). Sen died 1939. Summarised in our words: the Chandi Puja by Rama “forms no part of the original epic” and grew in the Bengali Ramayanas. (pp. 115–118 (leaves n130–n133))
• Dinesh Chandra Sen, History of Bengali Language and Literature (Calcutta: University of Calcutta, 1911). Summarised in our words: Krittivasa's Ramayana is the most popular book in Bengal, and the printed poem has been much changed and added to since he wrote it. (pp. 177–179)
• Festival guide “Durga Puja” in this library, which records Krittibas's telling as tradition.
• Chandogya Upanishad 7.1.2, in F. Max Müller (tr.), The Upanishads, Part I (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 1, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1879). Müller died 1900: public domain. Summarised in our words. (VII Prapathaka, 1 Khanda, 2 (pp. 109–110))

Sources

• The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Ralph T. H. Griffith, vol. I: Book I (London: Trübner; Benares: E. J. Lazarus, 1870) (Introduction, first page and note 1 (leaf n16): the name is “From Ráma and ayana, Ráma’s Adventures”)
• The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Ralph T. H. Griffith, vol. V: Book VI and an outline of Book VII (London: Trübner; Benares: E. J. Lazarus, 1874) (p. 314, note 1 (leaf n325): the Bengal recension calls it “the great first poem … which Válmíki made”; Appendix, p. 315 (leaf n326): Indian scholars ascribe the seventh book, the Uttarakanda, to Valmiki, while Griffith takes it as a later supplement)
• The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Ralph T. H. Griffith, vol. IV: Books IV and V (London: Trübner; Benares: E. J. Lazarus, 1873) (Books IV and V (Hanuman's leap and the finding of Sita))
• Learn pages who-is-rama and who-is-hanuman; festival guides Ram Navami, Dussehra and Diwali; children's stories rama-comes-home and hanuman-finds-sita.

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