The ancient Indian story of the legendary prince Rama has been told again and again through the millenia in countless forms and languages, making it one of the most popular and enduring stories in the world. For at least the last two and a half thousand years, it has held the imagination of millions across the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and beyond. More than any other hero, Rama has been upheld as dharma personified, the epitome of righteousness, and his doings as the guide for right action. Throughout history, poets, writers, folk performers, and religious and social reformers have drawn upon the legend of Ram as a source of inspiration. In recent times, the Ram story has provided inspiration for films, novels, and in the late 1980s, a weekly television series watched by more than eighty million viewers.

The oldest and most influential surviving literary telling of the story of Ram is the Sanskrit epic called the Ramayana. Composed sometime during the first millennium BCE, and consisting of some 50,000 lines in verse set in seven kands or books, it is attributed to the poet Valmiki, and is widely regarded as the ‘original’. The influence of Valmiki’s Ramayana has been so profound that the title of his epic has come to denote the entire tradition, from oral and folk performances to literary texts and translations. Within this rich and varied Ramayana tradition also lie the Ramayana songs from Telengana, the folk performances of the Ram Lila in northern India, the 11th century Tamil epic Iramavataram (‘The Incarnation of Ram’) by Kamban, and the 16th century Ramcharitmanas in Avadhi by Tulsidas.

The story of Rama is a powerful tale of love and intrigue, betrayal and redemption. The tale, as told by Valmiki, is as follows:

Rama is the eldest and most beloved son of Dasaratha, the king of Kosala. The king’s youngest queen, the beautiful Kaikeyi, wants her own son Bharata to be appointed the heir to the throne, and demands that Dasaratha makes Bharata his heir and banishes Rama to the forest for fourteen years. Dasaratha, bound by a promise he had made years ago, is unable to deny Kaikeyi, and Rama, ever his father’s obedient son, leaves for the forest with Sita. his wife, and Lakshmana, his devoted younger brother.  In the forest, Sita is abducted by Ravana, the powerful Rakshasa king of the island kingdom of Lanka. Sita refuses Ravana’s advances, and remains his prisoner in Lanka. Meanwhile, Rama and Lakshmana prepare to rescue Sita and gather together an army; they form an alliance with Sugriva, the king of the monkeys, and with the assistance of Hanuman, the monkey-general, and Vibhishana, Ravana’s own brother, they attack Lanka. After a furious battle that lasts ten days, Rama kills Ravana, and rescues Sita. Sita is then made to undergo the agni pariksha, an ordeal by fire, to prove her chastity. Rama and Sita return to Kosala, where they are welcomed with great joy by Bharata, and Rama is crowned king. However, despite her trial by fire, the people still suspect Sita’s chastity, with the result that Rama orders Lakshmana to abandon her in the forest. Sita, who is pregnant at the time, is taken in by the sage Valmiki, and there, in his hermitage, Sita gives birth to twin sons, Lav and Kush. She brings them up till they are fifteen, when they are reunited with their father Rama. Rama begs Sita to return to the palace with him, but Sita refuses, and asks the earth, her mother, to take her back again. At Sita’s words, the earth opens, and swallows her.

Today, Rama is revered by Hindus everywhere as an incarnation of the god Vishnu (the second of the Hindu triad of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva). Scholars of the Ramayan tradition hold the view that Rama was originally a human hero and was only later raised to the status of avatar of Vishnu. In the five central books of Valmiki’s epic, Rama is portrayed as an earthly prince: though endowed with godlike qualities, his exploits are those of a human being. It is only in the first and last books of the poem – which are considered to be later additions to Valmiki’s epic – that Ram is explicitly declared to be an incarnation of Vishnu upon earth. Rama began to be increasingly regarded as an avatar of Vishnu at the beginning of the Common Era, and with the advent soon after of the religious movement known as ‘bhakti’ (or intense, emotional devotion to a chosen god) his transformation from hero to god became complete. Today, Rama is one of the most important of the gods in the Hindu pantheon. He is worshipped across India and Southeast Asia, where his story continues to inform and inspire.

Read on to experience some of the magic of Valmiki’s great poem.