is celebrated as the poet harbinger in

sanskrit literature
valmiki is said to be a forest brigand, till the
day narada enlightens him.
valmiki moved by narada's teachings,
renounces his family to perform a penance.
later, valmiki becomes a highly
knowledgeable man and starts scripting the
story of rama.
 is the hero of the tale.
 Portrayed as the seventh incarnation of the
God Vishnu,
 he is the eldest and favorite son of the King of
Ayodhya, Dasharatha, and his wife Kousalya.
 He is portrayed as the epitome of virtue.
Dasharatha is forced by Kaikeyi, one of his
wives, to command Rama to relinquish his
right to the throne for fourteen years and go
into exile.
 is the beloved wife of Rama and the
daughter of king Janaka.
 She is the incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi,
the consort of Vishnu.
 Sita is portrayed as the epitome of female
purity and virtue.
 is a vanara belonging to the kingdom of
Kishkindha.
 He is portrayed as an incarnation of the
God Shiva (the Eleventh Rudra) and an
ideal bhakta of Rama.
 He is born as the son of Kesari, a vanara
king, and the Goddess Anjana.
 He plays an important part in locating Sita
and in the ensuing battle.
 the younger brother of Rama, who chose to
go into exile with him.
 He is portrayed as an incarnation of
the Shesha, the nāga associated with the God
Vishnu.
 He spends his time protecting Sita and Rama.
 He is forced to leave Sita, who was deceived
by the demon Maricha into believing that
Rama was in trouble.
 a rakshasa, is the king of Lanka.
 After performing severe penance for ten
thousand years he received a boon from the
creator-God Brahma that he could not be
killed by Gods, demons or spirits.
 He is portrayed as a powerful demon king,
who disturbs the penances of Rishis.
 is the king of Ayodhya and the father of
Rama.
 He has three queens, Kousalya, Sumitra
and Kaikeyi, and three other sons: Bharata,
Lakshmana and Shatrughna. Kaikeyi,
Dasharatha's favourite queen, forces him to
make his son Bharata crown prince and
send Rama into exile.
 Dasharatha dies heartbroken after Rama
goes into exile.
 One of the 3 wives of king Dashratha
 Mother of Rama.
is an ancient Sanskrit epic.
consists of 24,000 verses in seven books
THE TEXT: The Valmiki or Sanskrit
Ramayana contains nearly 50,000 lines of
verse, and is much longer than both the
Iliad and the Odyssey. The narrative is
broken up into seven books, as follows:
Bala-kanda: the boyhood and adolescence
of Rama;
Ayodhya-kanda: the court of Dasaratha,
and the scenes that set the stage for the
unfolding of the story, including the
exchange between Dasaratha and Kaikeyi,
and the exile of Rama;
Aranya-kanda: life in the forest and the
abduction of Sita by Ravana;
Kishkindhya-kanda: Rama’s residence in
Kishkindhya, the quest for Sita, and the
slaying of Bali;
Sundara-kanda: description of the
landscapes over which Rama roams, and
the arrival of Rama and his allies in Lanka;
sundara means beautiful, and this portion
of the book has passages of lyrical beauty;
Yuddha-kanda, also known as the Lanka-
kanda: the book of war: the defeat of
Ravana, the recovery of Sita, the return to
Ayodhya, and the coronation of Rama; and
Uttara-kanda: the "later section", detailing
Rama’s life in Ayodhya, the banishment of
Sita, the birth of Lava and Kusa, the
reconciliation of Rama and Sita, her death
or return to the earth, and Rama’s ascent
into heaven.