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 inTreta 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:
1.Bala Kanda (Book Of
Youth) – 77 Chapters
2.Ayodhya Kanda (Book )f
Ayodhya) – 119 Chapters
3.Aranya Kanda (Book Of
Forest) – 75 Chapters
4.Kishkindha Kanda (The
Empire Of Holy Monkeys – 67 Chapters
5.Sundara Kanda (Book Of
Beauty) – 68 Chapters
6.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".
aapadaam apahartaaram
daataaram sarvasaMpadaam.h .
lokaabhiraamam shriiraamam bhuuyo bhuuyo namaamyaham.h ..
" I bow again and
again to Sree Rama who removes (all) obstacles and grants all wealth and
pleases all. "
This is a salutation
offered at the start of reading any scripture as per tradition. This prayer is
for removing all obstacles encountered. The prefix Sri to Rama indicates that
Rama is always accompanied by Sri, His consort Seetha in the form of goddess
Sri Maha Lakshmi.
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