Introduction

Like the Mahabharata, the Ramayana too has influenced the Indian cultural and literary scene through translations, and retellings. The Ramayana is believed to be older than the Mahabharata, and is believed to have been composed by Valmiki between 5th and 4th century BC. It was composed in Sanskrit and is much shorter than the Mahabharata, consisting of 24,000 verses in seven kandas. Valmiki is believed to be the adikavi (First Poet) as he was the first to write such a huge kavya of mammoth proportions. The epic does not have the complexity or range of characters like the Mahabharata, and the story is recounted in a much more focused manner. We do not have the multitudes of stories branching off in various directions, providing a story within a story. The major attraction of the Ramayana is its strong philosophical content and moral message on the duties expected of a human being. It raises ethical and moral issues regarding existence on earth. Rama is depicted as the ideal to which all human beings should aspire. If the Mahabharata gives us a lot of morally ambiguous characters in shades of grey, the moral message of Ramayana is clearer with its upright and virtuous people ranged against the evil ones.

The Ramayana also was initially an oral epic, to be written down only years later. The oral tradition meant that much got added and much got lost in the process, with the result that we really cannot be sure if the text that we today know as Valmiki Ramayana was actually completely composed by Valmiki. In fact, there are speculations about the identity of Valmiki himself. But this did not prevent the epic from becoming part of the common man’s heritage in India. Paula Richman says: “Throughout Indian history many authors and performers have produced, and many patrons have supported, diverse tellings of the Ramayana in numerous media” (Many Ramayanas). In fact, she argues that it is wrong to assume that Valmiki’s Ramayana is the definitive text, and that other versions are derivatives of this: “We need [instead] to consider the “many Ramayanas”, of which “Valmiki’s telling is one, Tulsi’s another, Kampan’s another, the Buddhist jataka yet another, and so forth. Like other authors, Valmiki is rooted in a particular social and ideological context. His text represents an intriguing telling, but it is one among many”.