Ramayana

The Ramayana (/rɑːˈmɑːjənə/; Sanskrit: रामायणम्, romanized: Rāmāyaṇam), also known as the Valmiki Ramayana, as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics of Hinduism known as the Itihasas, the other being the Mahabharata. The epic narrates the life of Rama, the seventh avatar of the Hindu deity Vishnu, who is a prince of Ayodhya in the kingdom of Kosala. The epic follows his fourteen-year exile to the forest urged by his father King Dasharatha, on the request of Rama's stepmother Kaikeyi; his travels across the forests in the Indian subcontinent with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana; the kidnapping of Sita by Ravana, the king of Lanka, that resulted in bloodbath; and Rama's eventual return to Ayodhya along with Sita to be crowned as a king amidst jubilation and celebration.

Scholarly estimates for the earliest stage of the text range from the 7th–5th to 5th–4th century BCE, and later stages extend up to the 3rd century CE, although the original date of composition is unknown. It is one of the largest ancient epics in world literature and consists of nearly 24,000 shlokas (verses), divided into seven kāṇḍa (chapters). Each shloka is a couplet (two individual lines). The Ramayana belongs to the genre of Itihasa, narratives of past events (purāvṛtta), interspersed with teachings on the goals of human life.

There are many versions of the Ramayana in Indian languages, including Buddhist and Jain adaptations. There are also Cambodian (Reamker), Malay (Hikayat Seri Rama), Filipino, Thai (Ramakien), Lao, Burmese, Nepali, Maldivian, Vietnamese, and Tibeto-Chinese versions of the Ramayana.

The Ramayana was an important influence on later Sanskrit poetry and the Hindu life and culture, and its main figures were fundamental to the cultural consciousness of a number of nations, both Hindu and Buddhist. Its most important moral influence was the importance of virtue, in the life of a citizen and in the ideals of the formation of a state (from Sanskrit: रामराज्य, romanized: Rāmarājya, a utopian state where Rama is king) or of a functioning society .

The name Rāmāyaṇa is composed of two words, Rāma and ayana "travel, journey", with the grammatical internal sandhi "joining" of the final short a in Rāma and the initial short a in ayana to the longer form ā. Rāma, the name of the main figure of the epic, has two contextual meanings. In the Atharvaveda, it means "dark-coloured or black" and is related to the word rātri "the darkness or stillness of night". The other meaning, which can be found in the Mahabharata, is "pleasing, pleasant, charming, lovely, beautiful". Thus, Rāmāyaṇa means "Rama's journey".

Scholarly estimates of the earliest stage of the available text range from the 7th–5th to 5th-4th centuries BCE, with later stages extending to the 3rd century CE. According to Robert P. Goldman (1984), the oldest parts of the Ramayana date to the early 7th century BCE. Goldman states that the core portions could not have been composed later than the 6th or 5th century BCE, as the narrative neither mentions Buddhism (founded in the 5th century BCE) nor reflects the later prominence of Magadha (which rose to power in the 7th century BCE). The text also mentions Ayodhya as the capital of Kosala, rather than its later name of Saketa or its successor capital of Shravasti. In terms of narrative time, the action of the Ramayana predates the Mahabharata. Goldman & Sutherland Goldman (2022) consider the Ramayana's oldest surviving version was composed around 500 BCE.

Books two to six are the oldest portion of the epic, while the first and last books (Balakanda and Uttara Kanda, respectively) are considered to be later additions. Style differences and narrative contradictions between these two volumes and the rest of the epic have led scholars including Hermann Jacobi toward this consensus.

The Ramayana belongs to the genre of Itihasa, narratives of past events (purāvṛtta), which includes the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, and the Puranas. The genre also includes teachings on the goals of human life. It depicts the duties of relationships, portraying ideal characters like the ideal son, servant, brother, husband, wife, and king. Like the Mahabharata, Ramayana presents the teachings of ancient Hindu sages in the narrative allegory, interspersing philosophical and ethical elements.