Ramayana << rah MAH yuh nuh >> is one of the two great epic poems of India. The other is the Mahabharata. Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, is a human form of the god Vishnu. In the Ramayana, he is the son and heir of an Indian king. Rama serves as a model for Hindu men. He is handsome and brave and a devoted husband. Sita, his beautiful wife, represents the Hindu ideal of devotion to duty and husband.
In the story, Rama lives in the kingdom of Ayodhya in northern India. His father exiles him for 14 years because of a dispute over the throne. The main plot concerns the conflict between Rama and Ravana, a demon-king. Ravana kidnaps Sita and takes her to his kingdom on the island of Lanka, now known as Sri Lanka. Rama rescues his wife and kills Ravana with an arrow. At the end of Rama’s exile, Rama and Sita return home in triumph and Rama becomes king.
The poet Valmiki supposedly wrote the first version of the Ramayana in Sanskrit about 500 B.C. or earlier. It has 24,000 couplets. Translated or rewritten versions appear in other Indian languages. The Hindi version, written by the poet Tulsidas (also spelled Tulsi Das) in the late 1500’s, became the most popular. The Ramayana remains popular today because of its characters, who set high standards for human behavior and inspire devotion to God. Readers also enjoy the beautiful language and exciting plot of the Ramayana.
