The Story Of Rama Are Creation Based On Valmiki Ramayana

About the Book The Ramayana is said to have been composed by Valmiki centuries before Jesus Christ was born. It presents a universal message of an ideal man, as much human as a divine being, which goes through all kinds of suffering and trials in life, and fights valiantly for upholding Truth against Evil.

The story of Rama has been sung and retold by scores of poets throughout our great country. But none has excelled in recomposing the great epic poem more than the Tamil poet Kambana in the south, and the Hindi poet Tulsidasa in the north.

The same story of Rama is retold here for the modem reader, particularly of the young gene- ration, as sung by these immortal poets of India.

Introduction Scholars are generally agreed that Valmiki Ramayana was written several centuries before the beginning of the Christian era (BCE). In fact, the story of Rama was in popular circulation as early as 5th century BCE. But Valmiki's Ramayana is believed to have been written down sometime during the four centuries between 200 BCE to 200 CEO A renowned scholar; R.P. Goldman has observed that "it has long been known that the poem in its present form cannot be the work of a single author, or even the product of a single period of time." He also points out that during the span of the centuries, the transmission of the text through memory ('smriti') or manuscripts may have undergone interpolations, changes or additions to the original text. The present version available in Hindi translations, however, is based on this original text expanded and modified by interpolations or additions by many other writers, over the centuries. The other major epic Mahabharata by Vyasa is believed to have preceded Valmiki's Ramayana by about a century (Doniger:212), and is a similar compendium of semi- historical and mythological stories authored and interpolated by various sages across centuries. As Swami Shivanand says: "The Ramayana and Mahabharata together comprise the whole of the epic literature of ancient India, and they present a most graphic and life-like picture of the civilization and culture, customs and tradition, and social and political life, the religious and spiritual though ancient India."(p.vi)

In order to view the content and process of composition of such epics, more or less similar in nature in most ( great epics of the West - like Iliad, Odyssey, Adenoid, etc (representing the ancient Western cultural tradition) must envisage a continuous process of transmission of cultural artifacts across centuries in a society, much 1 river flowing ahead, continually augmented by tribute on its way - a natural process for the composition of an epics that represent a particular cultural ethos. It is a process of the amalgamation of popular folk history and mythology across time, a literary alchemy that creates its own verisimilitude. Also, thereby, it gains a richness and scriptural authenticity which serves as seminal in further literary regeneration. It thus acquires a sanctity that rises beyond rational analysis and argumentation. The reader refrains from the whys or hows about its content, and submits to its own spiritual veracity with a 'willing suspension of disbelief'.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages