Valmiki Ramayanam
– An introduction to my Translation
By
P.R.Ramachander
“Ramayana” means
the story of Rama and according to Hindu
beliefs it was the first epic written in Sanskrit by a great sage called
Valmiki , who was a contemporary of Rama.
Valmiki was a
hunter who was transformed in to a sage by
sage Narada. The restless Valmiki wanted to write an epic and sage Narada requests him to write about Rama. He agrees and Lord
Brahma blesses him saying that he would
be by his intuition able to see every incident that took place in the
life of Rama. He was confused as to
which metere he should adopt for writing this great book. One day he sees a
hunter killing the male bird
of a bird couple and the female
bird cries for its mate .Valmiki is
moved and tells a poem
Maa Nishada Pratistham Tvam agamah sāsvati Samaa
Yat Krauncha mithunaad ekam
Avadhi Kaamamohitam
Oh hunter, you killed one of
the pair of Krouncha birds in love,
And so for years
to come you would never be
alive.
In the Anushtup metere.. And this poem (curse) born out of intense sorrow becomes the model for the entire epic of Ramayana.
Naturally the first chapter of
Ramayana , is the story of Rama in a
nutshell as told by Narada called
Samkshepa Ramayanam . The entire story of Rama is
divided in to six books
(kanda) and each Kanda is further
divided in to Sargas.
1.Bala Kanda ( Book of
Youth) [77 chapters]
2. Ayodhya Kanda (Book of 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 chapter)
2. Ayodhya Kanda (Book of 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 chapter)
The chapters in these
books have many slokas(verses) all written in Anushtup meter. The chapters
are of differing length and so too are the books. There are 24,000
slokas in the Ramayana. The
shortest book with about 2000 slokas is the Bala Kanda and the biggest book is Yudha Kanda with nearly 6000 slokas . Sage Valmiki is an
expert in use of Simile and
metaphor and almost throughout the
narrative , these are used .Valmiki also
tells every incident in
great detail as he loves to describe.
The description of the four seasons in the forest, the great description that
Sugreeva gives his monkeys about the
path that they have to follow in search
of Sita, the descriptions of the fauna and flora throughout the path of Rama are examples of these. Sage Valmiki prefers
to concentrate on the story that he is telling about and rarely relates
us stories within stories. The exceptions to this is the story of Ganges
and birth of Lord Subramanya in the Bala Kanda, stories of the lineage of
certain sages like Viswamithra , Rama
himself , Ravana etc. It is interesting also note that for valour
, Valmiki most of the times quotes Indra or the Trivikrama or Narasimha as the model. He never mentions the great wars which sage
Parasurama another incarnation of Vishnu fought. The poet rarely tells in any
part of the book about Rama being an incarnation of Vishnu or Lakshmana as an incarnation of Adhisesha etc or refer to for one chapter except in the
BalaKanda and another chapter in the Yudha Kanda. Both these
chapters do not properly merge with the
narrative and are contradicted
immediately . Valmiki prefers to cut off reference to a character which
he thinks as not important. For example , not a single word in the
entire epic is spoken by the wives of Lakshmana, Bharatha or Sathurugna and Sumithra, the mother of Lakshmana rarely speaks. Not much is
spoken by Kaikeyi after Dasaratha dies and so on. He also uses different styles
of expression for the characters of his narrative. For example even Rama and Lakshmana do not talk in the
same style. The Talk of Sita is always sharp and impetuous and so on. Valmiki is supposed to have composed this
epic in the Treta Yuga ie 869113 years ago . It is
clearly mentioned in the Ramayana that
the sage taught it to Lava and Kusha,
who were the sons of Rama who were living with him and these two lads sing it
in the assembly hall in front of Rama.
But modern scholars think that Valmiki Ramayana was written only in the
3rd or 4th century
BC. In the book itself the author claims
that it is the first epic ever written.
He has also written in
Yudha Kanda
“Whichever person of this
world reads or listens to this
first book which is endowed with
Dharma
Would be blessed with fame and longevity and it would fetch victory to the kings and this first book was written by sage Valmiki.
128.107-128.108
Any person hearing about the crowning of Rama , if he needs son he will get son , if he needs wealth he will get wealth , the king would win over earth and would become a master over his enemies.
128.109
Like Kausalya having Rama,
Sumithra having Lakshmana , Kaikeyi
having Bharata , women would become mothers to long living sons and they would be always happy and live with sons and grandsons.
128.110-128.111
Any one hearing Ramayana
would get very long life and one
who reads about victory of Rama will never fail in any of his actions. 128.112
He who hears this epic which was composed long ago by sage Valmiki with attention and with control over
anger would be able to cross over all difficulties
with ease.
128.113
He who hears
this epic which was composed
long ago by sage Valmiki would meet all his relatives after a long
journey and would become happy with
their relatives. 128.114
By the grace of Raghava , all
the boons that they pray for would be realized
and all gods would be
pleased with those who listened to
it.
128.115
To those living in their home ,
all obstacles would be removed , a king would win over earth and a man who lives outside his home would become
comfortable.
128.116
“Menstruating women hearing this would get matchless and excellent sons and one who worships it and reads it gets relieved of all sins and would live long.
128.117
The Kshatriyas with bent
head should salute and listen to
it and the Brahmins should read it every day regularly and there is no doubt that the listener and reader of the entire Ramayana will get
immeasurable wealth and birth of
a son.
128.118-128.119
Rama is indeed Lord Vishnu who is eternal
. Rama , the chief of Raghu clan is the primeval God , the very strong Hari , the lord
Narayana and Lakshmana is
Adhisesha . Rama
would always love you on reading this. 128.120
Please narrate this great story which occurred long- long ago without any fear . You would be safe. Let the power of Lord Vishnu increase.
128.121
By analyzing and listening to this epic all Devas would become happy with you and by listening to Ramayana , your manes would
get pleased.
128.122
To those persons who write this
collection on Rama written by great sages with devotion , residence in heaven is assured. 128.123
By listening to this auspicious work of literary merit one
gets increase in family
prosperity , increase in wealth, grains , superior
women , great happiness and acquisition of wealth in this earth.
128.124
This great work should be listened to by good people seeking wisdom ,long life
, heath , fame , love from brothers , intelligence , welfare
and splendour. 128.125
This great story has been in summary form
repeated in almost all the eighteen Puranas
as well as in Mahabharatha as
well as Bhagwatha,. Only in Brahmanda Purana it is written in extenso and that
version written by sage Vyasa
is called the Adhyathma Ramayana
or the spiritual Ramayana. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adhyatma_Ramayana.
I had the good fortune of translating it
from Malayalam to English
Sage Vyasa from the beginning assumes that
Rama is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu and there
are large number of prayers addressed to God Rama by various
characters in the book as against no
prayer addressed to Rama in Valmiki
Ramayana. In this version Rama who knew
Sita would be abducted asks to her to
live in fire for that year and the Sita whom Ravana
abducted was a mere image .
Possibly at this very time another book
called Adbutha Ramayana (Wonderful Ramayana )
also came out .People believe that
it was written by Valmiki himself . It is much smaller and has only 27 chapters. It is supposed to be narrated
by Valmiki to sage Bharadwaja. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adbhuta_Ramayana)
Another version of Ramayana called Ananda Ramayana
is also credited to be written by sage Valmiki.
Unlike the usual names
of books it has a different
names to the books of the narrative.
Here also Rama is considered as God and there
are several prayers addressed to
him.
I do not know
when the translation of this very great
epic was started. In almost all the
Indian languages there is a translation available. One reason
possibly is that people already assumed
that Rama was an incarnation of Lord
Vishnu and he lived the life of an ideal
man(Maryadha Purushothama.). Here is a
partial list of all those great translations. Most of the translations did
not agree with Valmiki , that Rama was a human being. They also could not tolerate a Rakshasa
carrying away Sita, physically touching her , as she was a goddess.
Tamil Nadu -
The Tamil Kambaramayanam, a
popular version, written by poet Kamban in
the 12th century.
Karnataka -
The Kannada versions
of the Ramayana – the Kumudendu Ramayana(a Jain version),
written in 13th century and the Kumara-Valmiki Torave Ramayana,
written in the 16th century. There is another version titled Ramachandra
Charita Purana written by Nagachandra during the 13th century. Two
prose works by Nanadalike Lakshminarayana ('Muddanna') entitled Adbhuta
Ramayana (1895) and Ramaswamedham (1898).[14]
Assam - Saptakanda
Ramayana,
The Assamese Katha Ramayana or Kotha Ramayana in
14th century by Madhava Kandali.
Orissa -
The Oriya Dandi Ramayana or Jagamohan Ramayana was
adapted by Balaram Das in the 16th century.
Maharashtra -
The Marathi Bhavartha
Ramayana written by Eknath in
the 16th century. There is also reference of a Ramayana being translated into
old Marathi during the 12th or 13th century.
Goa - Ramayanu written by Krishnadasa
Shama in 15th century in Kardalipura, Goa in Konkani,
manuscripts found in Portugal.[11][12]
Awadh -
The Ramcharitmanas written
by Goswami Tulsidas in the 16th century is the Ramayana version popular in
North India.
Kerala -
The Malayalam language Adhyatma
Ramayanam Kilipattu written by Thunchaththu
Ezhuthachan in
the 16th century and "Mappila Ramayanam." among the Muslims.
There is also a Kannassa Ramayanam
which is much earlier to these.
Gujarat -
The Tulsi-Krta Ramayana is a Gujarati adaptation of
Tulsidas' Ramcharitamanas in 17th century, by the poet Premanand Swami.
Urdu version
called the Pothi Ramayana was written in 17th century.
Andhra Pradesh -
The Sri Ranganatha Ramayanamu was adapted by Buddha Reddy and
is the Telugu version of the Ramayana. The Molla Ramayanamu was
adapted by poetess Molla.
Nepal -
The Nepali language Bhanubhakta
Ramayana written by Bhanubhakta
Acharya in
the 19th century. The Nepal Bhasa Siddhi
Ramayana was written by Siddhidas Mahaju in
the 20th century.
I was requested to do this
translation by Sri Lakshmanan , who is
running a commercial firm called Celextel specializing in supplying Hindu religious items and , also maintains a great web site of the spiritual library of
Hindu religious works. I was little reluctant because of my age (at that time 73) but he
assured me that God would take care of
it . I who believe that all my
works are done by God , using me
as an instrument started with the job
about a year back. I found that already
several translations of this great book was available in the web. I decided to read them and do my own translations based on my
understanding of those great
translations. Here are the translations that I used:-
Since the people of India were charmed by the story of Rama , there are very large number of prayers where Ramayana is given in a nutshell. The most famous is
the Eka Sloka Ramayana
Aadho Rama thapo vananu gamanam, Hathwa mrugam kanchanam,
Vaidehi haranam, jatayu maranam, Sugreeva sambhashanam,
Bali nigrahanam, samudhra tharanam, Lanka pureem dahanam,
Paschad Ravana Kumbha karna madanam, Ethat ithi Ramayanam
Once Rama went to forest,
He chased the deer,
Sitha was kidnapped,
Jatayu was killed, There were talks with Sugreeva,
Bali was killed,
The sea was crossed,
Lanka was burnt,
And later Ravana and Kumbha karna,
Were also killed.
This in short is the story of
Ramayanam.
The next
well known prayer containing the Ramayana is the very famous
Nama Ramayana.
Apart from
there are very many other great prayers giving Ramayana in a nutshell. Some of them are
1.Ragothamashtakam http://stotraratna.sathyasaibababrotherhood.org/ra2.htm
2.Sri Rama Mangala
Sasanam http://stotraratna.sathyasaibababrotherhood.org/ra14.htm
3.Rama Narayana Sthuthi (Malayalam) http://stotraratna.sathyasaibababrotherhood.org/ra19.htm
4.Raghu Veera Gadhyam http://stotraratna.sathyasaibababrotherhood.org/ra31.htm
5.Pasurappadi Ramayanam (Tamil) http://stotraratna.sathyasaibababrotherhood.org/pm5.htm
6.Sri Ramodantham http://stotraratna.sathyasaibababrotherhood.org/pm3.htm
7,Spatharishi Ramayanam http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Saptha_rishi_Ramayanam
8.Gayathri Ramayanam http://stotraratna.sathyasaibababrotherhood.org/pm32.htm
My deep sense
of gratitude to all those great people
who have done this labour of love . I acknowledge all of them.I might
have used some words and also some whole sentances from these great works. My translation totally depends only
on their translations.
My God, you dictated me to do it and you did it and I have been an instrument
in your hand. How can I ever repay this
great blessing from you. You all can now read
my translation in to English of
Valmiki Ramayana in my blog
