The Valmiki Ramayana

First, a story

On the bank of the river Tamasa sat a rishi, Valmiki by name. On a tree some way off, a pair of krauncha birds, male and female, lost in love. In that instant a nishada hunter shot the male down with an arrow. Hearing the female’s lament, a pain rose within the rishi, and that very pain broke out, unbidden, into words.

This anushtubh meter of thirty-two syllables came out of the rishi’s mouth without any prior design. It is held to be the first true shloka (verse) of Sanskrit. This is why Valmiki is called the adi-kavi, the first poet, and the Ramayana the adi-kavya, the first poem.

A little later Brahma appeared and said, Valmiki, this was no accident; the shloka rose out of your grief. Now tell Rama’s whole story in this very meter. The Ramayana was born of that compassion.

Which Ramayana this is

This is, specifically, Valmiki’s Ramayana. Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas and the Adhyatma Ramayana are both treasures in their own place, but Valmiki’s work is the original, the base from which all the later Rama stories flowed.

Tulsidas composed the Ramcharitmanas in Awadhi in the sixteenth century, in the key of bhakti (devotion). When Valmiki composed the Ramayana in Sanskrit is not settled; the estimate is the fifth to fourth century BCE, that is, about two thousand years before Tulsi.

This is why, here and there, the story you heard in childhood will differ a little from Valmiki. The Lakshmana rekha, for instance, belongs to Tulsi’s tradition, not to Valmiki. This continuous telling follows Valmiki’s original throughout.

Seven kandas, thirty-four chapters

Valmiki’s Ramayana is in seven kandas (books). Each kanda has its own color, its own weight. Below, the chapters of each kanda, in order.

Kanda 1 · Bala Kanda

Rama’s birth, guarding Vishvamitra’s yajna, the slaying of Tadaka, Ahalya’s deliverance, Mithila, and Sita’s svayamvara. The beginning of a prince becoming Rama.

Kanda 2 · Ayodhya Kanda

Preparations for the coronation, Kaikeyi’s two boons, fourteen years of exile, Dasharatha’s death, Bharata’s coming to Chitrakuta, and the sandals. Love and duty face to face.

Kanda 3 · Aranya Kanda

Panchavati, Shurpanakha, the slaying of Khara and Dushana, Maricha’s golden deer, Sita’s abduction, and Jatayu. Here the story turns.

Kanda 4 · Kishkindha Kanda

The meeting with Hanuman, the friendship with Sugriva, the dharma knot of Vali’s killing, Tara’s grief, and the vanaras setting out in search of Sita.

Kanda 5 · Sundara Kanda

Hanuman’s leap across the sea, the entry into Lanka, the sight of Sita in the Ashoka grove, the ring, the slaying of Aksha, and the burning of Lanka. The best-loved kanda.

Kanda 6 · Yuddha Kanda

Vibhishana’s refuge, the building of the bridge, the siege of Lanka, the deaths of Kumbhakarna and Indrajit, the slaying of Ravana, and the fire as witness.

Kanda 7 · Uttara Kanda

Ravana’s earlier story, Rama’s reign, Sita’s exile, Lava and Kusha, the ashvamedha, and Rama’s great departure into the Sarayu.

How to read

One way: a kanda a week; the whole Ramayana in seven weeks, with no hurry at all. Another way: only the Sundara Kanda, Hanuman’s journey, complete in itself, which many people recite daily. A third way: with children, twenty minutes in the evening, one episode. This is how it has come down through the generations.