Seize الرامايانا الهندية Depicted By Vālmīki Digital Copy

don't even know how I first came across this title but I added it to a list of possible books to read for a classics challenge I'm participating in.
I had to read Beowulf and The Epic of Gilgamesh in high school so I wanted to read some epics from other cultures.
Somehow I found The Ramayana, Then I realized that this version is a "shortened modern prose version, " I'm not a big fan of abridgements so I looked into that a little more, The original is, as I understand it, thousands of pages long, I'll never read that much epic poetry, At least this version is adapted by an Indian author who grew up listening to his family tell these stories.


I'm glad I read it, I was familiar, at least by name, with some of the gods mentionedVishnu, Shiva, Hanuman, Brahmabut completely unfamiliar with Rama's adventures.
He defeats monsters and demons, saves those who need saving, and just sort of generally sets the world to rights.


This version feels like a "good parts" version, to appropriate a phrase from The Princess Bride, and I decided that I'm okay with that.
I felt that I got the action and pertinent bits of the story while eliminating too much unnecessary description, The author sets the scene beautifully then moves on with the plot,

I enjoyed familiarizing myself, at least a bit, with Rama and Sita, Lakshmana, Ravana, and Dasaratha, වලමක රමයනය W A සලව

සසකත භෂවන රචත රමයන කහපයක ව. ඒ සමටම පරභවය වය වලමක රමයනයය. පරග එයතහසක යගයට අයත ම අපරව කවය කරණ කලය අවනශචතය.

මනදස කමරණතග මහ හලයනන ග ඉලලමකට අනව W A සලව සසකත භෂවන රචත රමයනය සහලට පරවරතනය කරමට එකඟ වය. එම යධ කරයට W A සලව වසරපමණ ගතකලද එය මදරණය වයඔහග අභවයන පසවය.

වලමක වසන කරණ ම ආය හ යසස ගනදන ශදධ කවය ල වස යම නරයක වසන සවන කරන ලබද ඔවන පවන මදනනය, පතන කමතත පතන ලබනනය, ධනය කමතත ධනය ලබනනය, දගසර ලබනනය, කරදර වලන මදනනය, සතටන කල ගවනනය.

රමයනය මහ කවය පරවනසනග පතර වලලමක වසන කරවන ලද බව මහ බහමය වසනද පළගත සතයයක. A brilliant translation of the timeless epic, the Ramayana pervades the countrys moral and cultural consciousness, In her magnificent translation Arshia Sattar has successfully bridged both time and space to make this monumental ancient classic accessible to the presentday reader.


Arshia Sattar born, an Indian translator, facilitator, author, and director, obtained her PhD in South Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago in.
She has also worked with documentary film and theatre, Most recently, she taught Indian Studies at the Mahindra United World College of India in Pune for five years, She currently works as a freelance writer and researcher, She is also the programming director at OpenSpace, an NGO committed to promoting awareness of issues such as globalization,

Valmiki ca.BC is celebrated as the poet harbinger in Sanskrit literature, He is the author of the epic Ramayana, based on the attribution in the text of the epic itself, He is revered as the Adi Kavi, which means First Poet, for he discovered the first śloka i, e. first verse, which set the base and defined the form to Sanskrit poetry, The Yoga Vasistha is attributed to him, A religious movement called Valmikism is based on Valmiki's teachings as presented in the Ramayana and the Yoga Vasistha, At least by thest century AD, Valmiki's reputation as the father of Sanskrit classical poetry seems to have been legendary.


The Rāmāyaṇa, originally written by Valmiki, consists of,verses in seven cantos some say six i.
e. excluding the Uttara Ramayana kāṇḍas, The Ramayana tells the story of a prince, Rama of Ayodhya, whose wife Sita is abducted by the demon Rākshasa king of Lanka, Rāvana.
The Valmiki Ramayana is dated variously fromBC toBC, or about coeval with early versions of the Mahabhārata.
As with many traditional epics, it has gone through a long process of interpolations and redactions, making it impossible to date accurately.


One of the most important literary works of ancient India, the Ramayana has had a profound impact on art and culture in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.
The story ushered in the tradition of the next thousand years of massivescale works in the rich diction of regal courts and Brahminical temples.
It has also inspired much secondary literature in various languages, notably the Kambaramayanam by the Tamil poet Kambar of theth century, the Telugulanguage Molla Ramayana,th century Kannada poet Narahari's Torave Ramayan, andth century Bengali poet Krittibas Ojha's Krittivasi Ramayan, as well as theth century Awadhi version, Ramacharitamanas, written by Tulsidas.


As in many oral epics, multiple versions of the Ramayana survive, In particular, the Ramayana related in North India differs in important respects from that preserved in South India and the rest of SouthEast Asia.
There is an extensive tradition of oral storytelling based on the Ramayana in Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam, and Maldives.
Father Kamil Bulke, author of Ramakatha, has identified overvariants of Ramayana,

There was a line in the final credits background song in Ramananda Sagar's Ramayana, which I fondly watched as a child "Puni Puni Kitne hi Kahe Sunave, Jiya ki Pyaas bujhat na Bujhae", which loosely translates to" Even after repeated retellings of this beautiful story of Shree Ram, the heart does not get tired of listening to it".

This line broadly sums up my review for this book, which I wanted to write in detail, It is a long read and took me a while to complete, As most of the Indians, I was aware of most of the events and narratives that build up this epic tale but novelty is not what I sought when I decided to take up this as my next read.

The excellent style of C, Rajagopalachari in presenting this story is the pudding on the cake, The book takes direct cues from Valmiki Ramayana, which focused more on the human side of Rama than the divine side, which is the focus in the versions of Tulasidas and Kamban.
It takes you on the emotional journey and connects

you to the human sides of the characters like Kaikeyi, Dasaratha, Bharata, Sita, Hanuman amp Kumbhakarana.
The flow of the book is bit on the slower side, which helps the reader to get absorbed and empathize with the emotions that the characters are going through at a point of time.
One of the most elaborate sections that deserve a special mention are Dasaratha's longing for Rama at the time of his going on exile, Rama's pain after the abdustion of Sita and Kumbhakarana's dialogue with Ravana before the ultimate battle which addresses the moral dilemma that he faces.

One of the points that this book touches upon is the comparison of Vibhishana and Kumbhakarana and their relative stance on the principle of dharma.
Both are correct in their own stances but, the author Rajaji treats the Dharma of Vibhishana to be the better choice in such a situations and rightly absolves Vibhishana of being called a traitor to the Rakhshasa family.

Overall, this book is a great read, For people who are well versed with the story of Ramayana, there is nothing new as far as the content is concerned, but the treatment of the epic by Rajaji, who himself was one of the most intellectually distinguished personalities of his time is commendable.

I will rate this book as five, Go pick up your copy or download it on your kindle for justbucks, I used to study this epic in the Thai poem called "Ramakian" when I was in my teens, so it's my sheer delight to read this immortal Indian epic finely translated by a Sanskrit scholar.
رامایانا یا رامایانه به معنای سرگذشت راما از حماسه های بزرگ هندی به زبان سانسکریت است. این داستان از وفاداری های بزرگ که خاص مردم هند است سخن می گوید.
داستان از آنجا شروع می شود که پادشاه آیودهیا که سلطانی درستکار است احساس می کند که دوران پیری وی نزدیک می شود و اعلام می کند که می خواهد پسر خود راما را به تخت بنشاند و خود کناره گیری کند اما ملکه جوان کشور از این خبر خشمگین می شود و می خواهد پسر او بهاراتا بر تخت بنشیند وچون پادشاه زمانی به او وعده داده بود که هر چه او بخواهد انجام دهد به نزد شوهر می رود و از او می خواهد که راما را برای ۱۴ سال در جنگلی به ریاضت و آوارگی روانه سازد و بهاراتا را به جای برادر بر تخت نشاند.
پادشاه از شنیدن این خبر اندوهگین می شود و از ملکه می خواهد از این تصمیم صرف نظر کند اما ملکه می گوید یک پادشاه نباید عهد خود را فراموش کند. وقتی راا از ماوقع باخبر می شود اعلام می کند که در کمال رضایت از فرمان پدر اطاعت می کند و از همسرش سیتا می خواهد که تا بازگشت او بهاراتا را پادشاه بداند اما سیتا حاضر به ماندن نمی شود و همراه شوهرش به جنگل می رود. در این سفر لاکشمن ـبرادر دیگر راما ـنیز باوی همسفر می شود از سوی دیگر بهاراتا نیز اعلام می کند که هیچگاه به جای راما بر تخت نمی شیند و فقط از جانب او بر کشور سلطنت خواهد کرد.
مدت ۱۰سال راما به اتفاق همسر و برادر خود در جنگل به سر می بردو با مشکلات دست و پنجه نرم می کنند. در این میان غولی غارتگر به نام راوانا تصمیم می گیرد با ربودن سیتا شوهرش را آزار دهد. وی خود را به صورت غزالی در می آورد و سیتا را فریب می دهد و وی را با خود به آسمان ها می برد.
راما و لاکشمن به دنبال سیتا همه جا را زیر پا می گذارند و در نهایت پادشاه میمون ها آنها را یاری می دهد تا سیتا را بیابند و در نهایت پس از جنگی خونین که بین سپاه راما میمون ها و سپاه راوانا اتفاق می افتد سیتا نجات می یابد. سیتا پس از نجات به دلیل شایعاتی که درباره ی او بر سر زبان ها افتاده است که وی به راما خیانت کرده و همسر راوانا شده است از آتش می گذرد و بی گناهی خود را به اثبات می رساند.
بالاخره مدت تبعید آنها به سر می رسد و آنها به سرزمین خود باز می گردند و راما برتخت سلطنت می نشیند. مردم راما را چنان دوست می داشتند که اکنون نیز به هنگام درود فرستادن کف دستها را به هم می گذارند و می گویند: "رام. رام "
گفتنی است که در دوران های بعد راما در دل مردم به صورت خدایی که به سیمای آدمی درآمده بود جای می گیرد. .