Ramayana
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The Ramayana, that is, the career or story of Rama, is one of the two most important ancient epics of India, the other being the Mahabharata. The epic was originally written by sage (rishi) Valmiki of Ancient India. The book has about 96,000 verses and is divided into seven parts.
Different versions of the book are available. It has been translated into all the major languages of the world.
The different parts of the Ramayana are also called books. These seven parts or books are noted below:
- Name of the first book is Balakand, meaning the book of the childhood.
- Name of the second book is Ayodhyakanda, meaning the book of Ayodhya.
- Name of the third book is Aranyakanda, meaning the book of the forests.
- Name of the fourth book is Kishkindhakanda, meaning the book of Kishkindha.
- Name of the fifth book is Sundarakanda, meaning the book beautiful.
- Name of the sixth book is Yuddhakanda, meaning the book of the war.
- Name of the seventh book is Uttarkanda, meaning the last book.
There are different views about the time of writing of the Ramayana. Some people believe that it was written 2,500 years before. Some others think that it was written only around 1,800 years before. All agree that the book is very old and was written before the Mahabharata.
A Tamil version of the book was written between the 9th and 10th century. The writer of this book was Kamban, and the Tamil Ramayana is known as Iramavataram, meaning coming of Rama. In the 16th century, Tulasidas wrote a Hindi version of Ramayamna. This was named Ramacharitmanasa. Over many centuries, the story of Rama reached places in other countries like Indonesia and Malaysia. The Ramayana has been translated into most of the major languages of the world.
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