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The Ramayana is one of the two great epic poems of India, the other being the Mahabharata. The
Ramayana was written in Sanskrit by Maharishi Valmiki sometime in the fifth century bce. It
consists of nearly 24,000 verses (mostly set in the shlokas), divided into seven kāṇḍa (chapters). The
Ramayana belongs to the genre of Itihasa, traditional accounts of past events, which also includes the
Mahabharata and the Puranas.
The Ramayana is composed of two words, Rama and ayana. The word ayana means ‘travel’ or
‘journey’. Thus Ramayana means ‘Rama’s journey’. The epic narrates the life of Rama, the prince of
Ayodhya in the kingdom of Kosala, his tutelage under the sage Viswamitra, his winning Sita for his
wife and his fourteen-year exile to the forest from the kingdom by his father King Dasaratha, on his
second wife Kaikeyi’s request. The epic follows his travels across the forests in India with his wife Sita
and brother Lakshmana, the kidnapping of his wife by Ravana, the demon king of Lanka, resulting in
a war with him, and Rama’s eventual return to Ayodhya to be crowned king.

The Ramayana has been translated into the many vernacular languages, which includes, the Tamil
version by Kamban, the Bengali version by Krittibas Ojha, and the Hindi version, Ramcharitmanas,
by Tulsidas. The story also spread in various forms throughout Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia,
Cambodia, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam and Maldives.

Let’s read the beginning of the story of Rama.

King Dasaratha ruled the kingdom of Kosala Dasaratha’s four sons were given all the
from the capital Ayodhya. The people of training prescribed for princes. Rama and
Kosala were happy, contented and virtuous. Lakshmana were especially devoted to each
The land was protected by a mighty army, other and so were Bharata and Satrughna.
and no enemy could come anywhere near.

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