Ramayana: Valmiki's Ancient Epic and Its History Across Asia

The Ramayana is one of the two great Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the story of Prince Rama of Ayodhya, the abduction of his wife Sita and the war to win her back from Ravana, king of Lanka. Attributed to the sage Valmiki, it took shape over several centuries, roughly from the 5th century BC to the 3rd century AD. Few works in world literature have travelled so widely: its story is still told, painted and performed from India and Nepal to Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia.

The story in brief

Rama is the eldest son of King Dasharatha of Kosala, whose capital is Ayodhya. On the eve of his coronation, his stepmother Kaikeyi calls in two boons the king once promised her: that her own son Bharata should rule, and that Rama should be exiled to the forest for 14 years. Rama accepts without protest and leaves with his wife Sita and his devoted brother Lakshmana.

In the forest, Ravana, the ten-headed king of the rakshasas (demons) of Lanka, carries Sita away. Searching for her, Rama allies with Sugriva, a king of the vanaras (monkey people), and his minister Hanuman, who leaps across the sea, finds Sita and burns part of Lanka. The vanara army builds a causeway to the island, and in the great battle that follows Rama kills Ravana.

Sita proves her purity in an ordeal by fire, and the exiles return to Ayodhya, where Rama is crowned. In the final book, Rama banishes Sita because of gossip among his subjects. She gives birth to twin sons, Lava and Kusha, in Valmiki’s hermitage, and at the end returns to the earth from which she was born.

Valmiki and the making of the epic

Indian tradition calls Valmiki the adikavi, the “first poet”. According to the opening book, he invented the shloka, the two-line verse form of the epic, when grief at seeing a hunter kill one of a pair of mating cranes overflowed into metre. He then composed the poem and taught it to Lava and Kusha, who recited it before Rama himself.

Modern scholars see a longer process. The Ramayana was transmitted orally by professional reciters for generations before it was fixed in writing, and the text grew as it was performed. The standard Valmiki version contains about 24,000 verses in seven books, or kandas: Bala, Ayodhya, Aranya, Kishkindha, Sundara, Yuddha and Uttara.

Most specialists, following scholars such as John Brockington and Robert Goldman, regard Books 2 to 6 as the oldest core, perhaps composed around the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Books 1 and 7, which present Rama more strongly as an incarnation of the god Vishnu and add the story of Sita’s banishment, are generally thought to be later additions. The text probably reached its final form somewhere between the 2nd century BC and the 3rd century AD, although some scholars date the core later.

The world of the Ramayana

The epic reflects the culture of the middle Ganges plain, where the historical kingdom of Kosala flourished in the first millennium BC. It assumes a society of kings, Brahmin priests and forest-dwelling ascetics, and it draws on the ritual world of the Vedic period, including the great horse sacrifice.

At its heart is dharma, the idea of right conduct and duty. Rama is shown as the ideal son, husband, brother and king, who keeps his father’s word even at great cost. Sita became the model of the devoted wife, Lakshmana of brotherly loyalty and Hanuman of selfless devotion.

There is no archaeological evidence for the events of the story. The identification of Lanka with Sri Lanka is traditional but not certain, and the chain of shoals between India and Sri Lanka, known as Adam’s Bridge or Rama Setu, is a natural formation.

Many Ramayanas in India

Valmiki’s poem was only the beginning. Buddhist tradition preserves a short version in the Dasaratha Jataka, in which Sita is not abducted at all. Jain authors produced their own retellings, starting with Vimalasuri’s Paumacariya in Prakrit, probably in the early centuries AD, in which Ravana is a tragic hero rather than a demon.

Regional languages created their own classics. The Tamil poet Kamban wrote his Ramavataram, usually dated to the 12th century. Krittibas Ojha’s Bengali version dates from around the 15th century. Most influential of all in northern India is the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas, written in the Awadhi dialect of Hindi from 1574, which made Rama devotion accessible to ordinary people.

The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are often studied together as India’s two itihasas, a word usually translated as “so it happened”. The Ramayana is much shorter and more unified in style, and Indian critics have long called it the first kavya, or work of polished poetry.

Spread through Southeast Asia

From the early first millennium AD, Indian religion, Sanskrit learning and court culture spread to mainland and island Southeast Asia, and the Ramayana travelled with them. Local rulers adopted Rama as a model of kingship, and the story was adapted to local languages, landscapes and values.

In Java, the Old Javanese Kakawin Ramayana was probably composed in the 9th or 10th century, and Rama reliefs were carved on the Hindu temple complex of Prambanan in the 9th century. In Cambodia, scenes from the epic decorate temples including Angkor Wat, whose galleries show the battle of Lanka. The Khmer version is known as the Reamker.

In Thailand, the Ramakien became a national epic. The best-known version was compiled under King Rama I in the late 18th century, and its scenes are painted along the galleries of the Temple of the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok. Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia and the Philippines have their own versions, and in Indonesia and Malaysia the story is still performed in shadow puppet theatre and dance, even in largely Muslim communities.

Legacy

The Ramayana remains a living text. The Ramlila, a dramatic re-enactment staged each autumn in towns across northern India, culminates at the festival of Dussehra with the burning of effigies of Ravana, and was recognised by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage. The festival of Diwali is linked in much of India with Rama’s return to Ayodhya.

Scholars at the Oriental Institute of Baroda, working from 1951, published a critical edition of Valmiki’s text between 1960 and 1975. In 1987–88, Ramanand Sagar’s television serial Ramayan drew enormous audiences on India’s state broadcaster, Doordarshan. The epic has also been the subject of debate, for example over the treatment of Sita and the depiction of southern peoples, which shows how central it still is.

Timeline

• c. 5th–4th century BC: Probable composition of the oldest core of Valmiki’s Ramayana.
• c. 2nd century BC – 3rd century AD: The Sanskrit text reaches its final form with Books 1 and 7.
• Early centuries AD: Jain retelling by Vimalasuri, the Paumacariya.
• 9th century: Ramayana reliefs carved at Prambanan in Central Java.
• c. 12th century: Kamban composes his Tamil Ramavataram; Angkor Wat’s battle reliefs carved.
• 1574: Tulsidas begins the Ramcharitmanas.
• Late 18th century: The Thai Ramakien is compiled under King Rama I.
• 1960–1975: Critical edition of the Valmiki Ramayana published in Baroda.

Why it matters

The Ramayana shaped ideas of kingship, duty and devotion across a vast area of Asia for more than two thousand years. It is a key source for the values of ancient India and a rare example of a single story becoming the shared heritage of many nations, languages and religions.