Questions about Ramayana
Short answers, pulled from the story.
Who wrote the Ramayana and when was it composed?
The Ramayana is traditionally attributed to the sage Valmiki. Scholarly estimates place the oldest parts of the text in the early 7th century BCE, with the core portions completed no later than the 5th century BCE, and later additions extending to the 3rd century CE. Robert P. Goldman, working from this dating evidence, argues that the poem could not have been composed after the 6th or 5th century BCE because it makes no mention of Buddhism, which was founded in the 5th century BCE.
How long is the Ramayana and how is it structured?
The Ramayana contains nearly 24,000 couplet verses divided into seven books (kandas) and approximately 500 chapters (sargas). It is regarded as one of the longest epic poems ever written. Scholars consider books two through six to be the oldest portion; the first book (Bala Kanda) and the last book (Uttara Kanda) are widely viewed as later additions not composed by the original author.
What is the main story of the Ramayana?
The Ramayana follows Rama, a prince of Ayodhya and seventh avatar of Vishnu, through a fourteen-year exile caused by his stepmother Kaikeyi's demands. During the exile, his wife Sita is kidnapped by Ravana, king of Lanka. Rama allies with the forest-dwelling Vanaras, particularly Hanuman and their king Sugriva, crosses a bridge to Lanka, defeats Ravana in war, and returns to Ayodhya to be crowned king.
What role does Hanuman play in the Ramayana?
Hanuman is Rama's most devoted ally and the hero of the Sundara Kanda, the fifth and central book of the epic. He leaps across the sea to Lanka, locates Sita in the Ashoka grove, delivers Rama's signet ring as proof of life, and burns Ravana's citadel before returning with news of Sita's location. During the war, he flies to the Himalayas to retrieve the sanjeevani herb to save the mortally wounded Lakshmana, and when he cannot identify the herb, he carries the entire mountain back to Lanka.
How do Buddhist and Jain versions of the Ramayana differ from the Hindu original?
The Buddhist Dasaratha Jataka sets the story in Benares, reduces the exile to twelve years, and omits Ravana and the abduction of Sita entirely; its commentary identifies Rama as a previous birth of the Buddha. In the Jain Paumachariyam by Vimalsuri, the earliest work written in Maharashtri Prakrit, it is Lakshmana who kills Ravana because Rama, as a liberated Jain soul, refuses to kill; Rama then becomes a Jain monk and attains moksha, while Ravana is predicted to become a future Tirthankara.
What Southeast Asian versions of the Ramayana exist?
Major Southeast Asian versions include the Javanese Kakawin Ramayana, written around 870 CE and based not on Valmiki but on the 6th-7th century Indian poem Ravanavadha; Thailand's national epic Ramakien, in which Sita is the daughter of Ravana; the Malay Hikayat Seri Rama; and the Philippine Maharadia Lawana of the Maranao people, documented by Professor Juan R. Francisco and Nagasura Madale in 1968. The Balinese kecak dance retells the story with a chorus of over fifty performers chanting "cak", and Ramayana scenes are carved on the 9th century Prambanan temple in Yogyakarta.