Ramayana
The Ramayana (Sanskrit: vehicle of Rama) is part of the Hindu smriti, written by Valmiki (c.250 BC). This epic of 24,000 verses tells of a Raghuvamsa prince, Rama of Ayodhya, whose wife Sita is abducted by the rakshasa, or demon, Ravana. The Ramayana had an important influence on later Sanskrit poetry, primarily through its establishment of the Sloka meter.
The Ramayana contains seven chapters, or kandas.
The Cultural heritage of India, Vol. IV , The Religions, The Ramakrishna Mission, Institute of Culture, says:
- "The first and the last Books of the Ramayana are later additions. The bulk, consisting of Books II--VI, represents Rama as an ideal hero. In Books I and VII, however Rama is made an avatara or incarnation of Vishnu, and the epic poem is transformed into a Vaishnava text. The reference to the Greeks, Parthians, and Sakas show that these Books cannot be earlier than the second century B.C...."
Timeline
The Ramayana is set in the Treta Yuga. Many interpret this as 8000 BC (based on astronomical data in the Ramayana). There are some who believe that it's even older.
Synopsis
According to Hindu mythology, Rama is an avatara, an incarnation of the god Vishnu. The main purpose of his incarnation is to demonstrate the ideal human life on earth. Ultimately, Rama slays the rakshasa king Ravana and reestablishes the rule of religious and moral law on earth known in Hinduism as dharma.
Bala Kanda or The Book of the Youth
When King Dasaratha of Ayodhya performs a Putrakameshti Yajna, the sacrifice for progeny, a divine being, purusha, emerges from the holy fire and offers a pot of payasam milk sweet. Dasharatha distributes the dessert to his three wives, the Queens Kaushalya, Sumitra and Kaikeyi, in accordance with the status of each, and each wife conceives. As a result, Queen Kaushalya gives birth to the oldest son, Rama. Bharatha is born to Queen Kaikeyi and Lakshmana, and Shatrughna are born to Queen Sumitra. When the princes are young boys, the sage Vishwamitra visits King Dasharatha and asks him to send Rama and Lakshmana to protect him from demons who have been disturbing his sacrifice ritual. Reluctantly, King Dashrath agrees, and Rama and Lakshmana are sent to live with Vishvamitra for the latter's protection. The brothers meet with a many adventures, and the sage trains them in the dharma, or path, of the prince-warrior. As the brothers fulfill their duties, the sage is pleased with them and bestows upon them various heavenly weapons.
Toward the end of their stay with Vishvamitra, they receive an invitation to King Janaka's kingdom of Mithila on the occasion of his daughterSita's Swayamvara, in which she will choose her future husband. A competition is held in which princes and heroes from numerous kingdoms vie to display their prowess and win her hand. For many years, the unwieldy divine bow Ekapatnivrata, the vow to practice unassailable loyalty to one's wife, is unresponsive. But Rama's brother Lakshmana, infuriated by Surpanaka's act of willful lasciviousness, cuts off her nose. Surpanakha runs home crying to her brother Ravana. To avenge his sister's loss of nose, Ravana uses the demon Maricha to lure Rama and Lakshmana away, leaving Sita unguarded. At her moment of vulnerability, Ravana abducts Sita in his airborne vehicle, the Pushpaka Vimana.
Kishkindha Kanda or The book on the empire of holy monkeys
The disconsolate Rama, with Lakshmana, wanders the forests in search of Sita, and obtains clues to the direction of their flight from the vulture king Jatayu who lies dying after having valiantly fought Ravana. He reaches the Rishyamukha mountain range, and meets the Vanara (monkey) king Sugriva. He helps Sugriva kill his violent brother King Vali, and installs him to the throne.
Sundara Kanda or The book of the beauty
Sugriva sends his loyal follower Hanuman on a reconnaissance mission to discover the whereabouts of Sita. Hanuman flies to the island of Lanka, finds her, and returns to Rama with the news.
Yudhdha Kanda or The book of the War
Rama, overjoyed at the news of the welfare of Sita, sends a peacekeeping mission, which Ravana rejects. Rama prepares for war and, ably helped by his Vanara army, builds a bridge across the Palk Strait, somewhere in the area surrounding Rameshwaram in modern day Tamil Nadu. Having reached Lanka, Rama is left with the only choice of slaying Ravana, which he does to get back his wife Sita. Rama, in an act which is often debated for the ethical aspects, asks Sita to prove her celibacy through a test by fire. Sita passes the test successfully and is reunited with Rama. Rama, having finished the fourteen years in exile, gets back to Ayodhya and assumes the throne from Bharata and rules his kingdom with rigor and ensures justice for all his subjects. This period is often called Ram Rajya (The reign of Rama), a phrase often used in modern Indian society, as a metaphor for the ideal rule of law.
Uttara Kanda - (literally The Book Beyond (Ramayana)) The epilogue
Lessons from Ramayana
Ramayana illustrates
- Dharma in the form of Rama, who is the personification of this Hindu concept of duty and harmony
- an ideal son, an ideal king and ideal husband through Rama.
- an ideal wife through Sita.
- an ideal brother through Lakshmana and Bharata (another half-brother of Rama).
- an ideal unassuming and loving devotee through Hanuman
- The dangers of lust and ego as seen in Ravana
Thus Ramayana has established a code of conduct which is widely considered by Hindus to be the benchmark for posterity.
Literary Masterpieces Inspired By the Ramayana
Valmiki's Ramayana inspired the Sri Ramacharit Manas by Tulasidas, an epic Hindi version with a slant more grounded in a different realm of Hindu literature, that of bhakti. It is an acknowledged masterpiece of India. A similar work was done by Kamban as Kambaramayanam in Tamil.
Interesting slants on the epic have been created that view the Ramayana from the eyes of the asura king of Sri Lanka, Ravana, and his clan. Dravidian Tamil books such as the Ravanakaviyam and Kambarasam are the oldest of this genre. A more recent reprisal of this theme, curiously analogous to Virgil's Aeneid in relation to the Iliad and Odyssey, was created by the famed Bengali writer Michael Madhusudan Dutta, who rendered what he appelled the Meghnadh Bodh Kobbo (Tale of the Death of Meghnadh) in Bengali epic poetic form. Of course, all these texts share a similar opposition to the traditional hero-role of Lord Rama.
Many other Asian cultures have adapted the Ramayana, resulting in other national epics. These include the Kakawin Ramayana of Java, Indonesia, Ramakien of Thailand, and the Ream Ker of Cambodia.
See also: Mahabharata, epic poetry, Golden age, millennialism
