Introduction to Ramayana compiled by Nirmal Jee

This book consists of 24,000 verses in seven cantos and tells the story of a prince, Rama of Ayodhya, whose wife Sita is abducted by the demon (Rakshasa) king of Lanka, Ravana. In its current form, the Valmiki Ramayana is dated variously from 500 BCE to 100 BCE, or about the same time as the early versions of the Mahabharata.

As with most traditional epics, since it has gone through a long process of interpolations and revisions, it is impossible to date it accurately. The Ramayana had an important influence on later Sanskrit poetry. But, like its epic cousin Mahabharata, the Ramayana is not just an ordinary story. It contains the teachings of ancient Hindu sages and presents them through allegory in the narrative.

The characters of Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, Bharata, Hanuman and Ravana (the villain) are all fundamental to the cultural consciousness of India.

One of the most important literary works on ancient India, the Ramayana has had a profound impact on art and culture in the Indian Subcontinent. The story of Rama also inspired a large amount of later-day literature in various languages, notable among which are the works of the sixteenth century Hindi poet Tulsidas and the Tamil poet Kambar of the 13th century.

The Ramayana is not just a Hindu religious tale. Starting from the 8th century, the migration of Indian people to Southeast Asia began. Several large empires like the Khmers, the Majapahits, the Sailendras, the Champas and Sri Vijaya were established. Because of this, the Ramayana became popular in Southeast Asia and manifested itself in text, temple architecture and performance, particularly in Indonesia (Java, Sumatra and Borneo), Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Laos.

It is important to recognize that there is not one Ramayana in India. Indeed, the original composition in Sanskrit by Valmiki is seldom read these days, and the most common Ramayanas are in the ‘vernacular’ Indian languages. In south India, for instance, the Ramayana of Kamban, written in Tamil in the eleventh century, prevails; in north India, the Ramayana of Tulsidas, called the Ramacharitmanas, has become legendary.

Even among the Hindus living in far-flung places of the Indian diaspora, such as Fiji and Trinidad, the Ramacharitmanas is the devotional text of Hinduism par excellence. There are Ramayanas in virtually all the major Indian languages, and a few dozen translations, mainly abridged, and "transcreations" in English.

So, as stated above, Srimad Valmiki Ramayana is an epic poem of India which narrates the journey of virtue to annihilate vice. Hindus believe that Sri Rama lived in Treta Yug, millennia BC.

We at www.HinduTempleHouston.net are more concerned with what Srimad Valmiki Ramayana tells us, rather than when it was told.

This epic poem Ramayana is a smriti which is translated as "from memory". Given the antiquity of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana, there have been some interjected verses. Sometimes these verses can be contradicting. However, scholars, grammarians, historians have put lot of effort to standardize the original text, by verifying various manuscripts available from various parts of India, thus trying to stabilize and save the text from further contradictions.