Valmiki Ramayana has always been an inspiration for all other descriptions about lord Rama. For further information about the topic, Please read on:
http://www.valmikiramayan.net/
Srimad Valmiki Ramayana is an epic poem of India which narrates the journey of Virtue to annihilate vice. Sri Rama is the Hero and aayana His journey. We in India believe that Sri Rama lived in Treta Yug, millennia BC and we are presently concerned with what Srimad Valmiki Ramayana tells us, rather than when it was told.
This epic poem Ramayana is a smriti which is translated as "from memory". Given the antiquity of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana, there have been some interjected verses. Sometimes these verses can be contradicting. However, scholars, grammarians, historians have put lot of effort to standardize the original text, by verifying various manuscripts available from various parts of India, thus trying to stabilize and save the text from further contradictions. An example of this effort is the critical edition of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana. This site aims to study various versions of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana and arrive at a version of Ramayana that is most relevant to modern times.
Srimad Valmiki Ramayana is composed of verses called Sloka, in Sanskrit language, which is an ancient language from India and a complex meter called Anustup. These verses are grouped into individual chapters called Sargas, wherein a specific event or intent is told. These chapters or sargas are grouped into books called Kaandas where Kaanda means the inter-node stem of sugar cane, or also a particular phase of the story or an event in the course of story telling.
Thus the structure of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana is arranged into six Kaandas or Books, and they are:
Bala Kanda ( Book of Youth) [77 chapters]
Ayodhya Kanda (Book of Ayodhya) [119 chapters]
Aranya Kanda (Book of Forest ) [75 chapters]
Kishkindha Kanda (The Empire of Holy Monkeys) [67 chapters]
Sundara Kanda ( Book of Beauty ) [68 chapters]
Yuddha Kanda ( Book of War ) [128 chapters]
While stabilizing the original text of Ramayana, historians surmised that portions of two Books [Kaandas], namely Book I, Bala Kaanda and Book VII, Uttara Ramayana (not listed above) are later additions - "The first and the last Books of the Ramayana are later additions. The bulk, consisting of Books II--VI, represents Rama as an ideal hero. In Books I and VII, however Rama is made an avatara or incarnation of Vishnu, and the epic poem is transformed into a Vaishnava text. The reference to the Greeks, Parthians, and Sakas show that these Books cannot be earlier than the second century B.C......"[ The cultural Heritage of India, Vol. IV, The Religions, The Ramakrishna Mission, Institute of Culture ].
However Book I, Balakanda is considered to be an original version except for some injected stories. Story starts from the fifth chapter of Book I, and tradition demands it to be read with the others. This stipulation is not obligatory to Uttara Kaanda, a later kaanda, wherein Sita's expulsion to forest takes place. Theologists worship Sri Rama as a God incarnate, philosophers make him the philosophical Absolute, while at the same time, materialists, condemning the above, appreciate the lyrical values of Ramayana, but as a great devotee-singer said "Whoever calls you in whatever way, you are that One".
http://www.valmikiramayan.net/
3 comments:
Friend: I greatly appreciate your love for music. In fact , it is music which sustains our unsustainable epics like Ramayana:
Valuable quotes from Valmiki Ramayana.
Ramayana just tried to create a God of an ordinary king like Rama. Rama and Krishna were ancestors of the Rajput and Malva area kings. They asked balladeers to tour villages narrating the stories of their ancestors, presenting them as incarnations of Gods. It is like : Today's media praising Rajiv Gandhi , Rahul GAndhi and Sonia day in and day out in exchange for advertisements and official favors.
The ballad singers had great voices and mastery over folk raagas like piilu , pahaadi and misr shiv ranjan. They made the epics linger in the minds of innocent villagers who didn't bother to verify whether Rama and Krishna were really great.
Now the commercial world of bhakti turned towards Shirdi Sai Baba. You get some new tunes in the place of the folk tunes in praise of Sai who lived in 20th Century. Music, howsoever, badly tuned by the song makers, can make Gods out of humans.
You may like to know what type of ghastly fellow was Vasishta , who had 'mad`amad`aaya' the calf by name 'kalyani kapila' in Valmiki Ashram. You can also know why Janaka stopped eating beef. Bhavabhuti's Uttara rama charitra of 8c circa proves it. You can find this at my blog.
Anyway hail music which had some interesting subject to sing on. Yet I always feel that St. Tyagaraja and Tulasi das were great creators maddened by ordinary Rama's story.
Well, this is the paradox of history.
Since you have enabled comment moderation out of fear of criticism, you may hide my comment from public view. Yet it will linger and lurk from behind you, because I have written facts. Someday people may know facts about Ramayana, that Kausalya stabbed the sacrificial horse three times joyfully, to get children. That the three queens were gifted by Dasaratha to priests performing the putra kameshti. That Kausalya spent one night with the horse . It may not be for the purpose of sex with horse. But then for what bizarre purpose did she sleep with a horse?
I am also a fan of Jasraj.
After some exhaustive research, I have reached to a conclusion that versions of Ramayana exists in many languages, including Annamese, Balinese, Bengali, Cambodian, Chinese, Gujarati, Javanese, Kannada, Kashmiri, Khotanese, Laotian, Malaysian, Marathi, Oriya, Prakrit, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sinhalese, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, etc. In Sanskrit itself there are 25 different versions. According to A. K. Ramanujam, more than 300 tellings of Ramayana exist.
Each has newer dimensions, more fascinating than the other.
Read them in reverse order here- http://souravroy.com/?s=too+many+ramayanas
Of course, Ramayana is a big ocean. many sociocultural traditions can be observed in the epic. it has been told/recited in a variety of forms and tones by a variety of story-tellers/authors. That is why, better enjoy/appreciate it than to think of its authentisity or historical relevance. the movie-makers as well as the team which produced the story as a TV Serial, should also be given credit. Those who present the story in the theatrical form in "RaamLeelas" also contributing to spread the story. "the beauty lies in the eyes of the beholders". it is the viewer and not the presenters who make the epic great.
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