The name Rāmāyaṇa is composed of two words, Rāma and ayaṇa. Rāma, the name of the main figure of the epic, has two … See more

Scholarly estimates for the earliest stage of the available text range from the 7th to 4th centuries BCE, with later stages extending up to the 3rd century CE. According to Robert P. Goldman (1984), the oldest parts of the Ram… See more

The Ramayana belongs to the genre of Itihasa, narratives of past events (purāvṛtta), which includes the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, and the Puranas. The genre also includes teachings on … See more

The epic begins with the sage Vālmīki asking Nārada if there is a righteous man still left in the world, to which Nārada replies that such a man is Rāma. After seeing two birds being shot, Vālmīki creates a n… See more

As in many oral epics, multiple versions of the Ramayana survive. In particular, the Ramayana related in north India differs in important respects from that preserved in south India and the rest of southeast Asia. There is a… See more

It is said that there are around thirty three commentaries for Ramayana. Some of the commentaries on Ramayana include Mahesvara Tirtha's tattvadīpa (also known as tattvadīpika), Govindaraja's bhūṣaṇa (also know… See more