A Close Analysis of Ramayana Using Biographical Context

 A Close Analysis of Ramayana

Using Biographical Context

Ramayana, (Sanskrit: “Rama’s Journey”) shorter of the two great epic poems of India, the other

being the Mahabharata (“Great Epic of the Bharata Dynasty”). The Ramayana was composed in

Sanskrit, probably not before 300 bce, by the poet Valmiki and in its present form consists of

some 24,000 couplets divided into seven books..

The poem describes the royal birth of the god Rama in the kingdom of Ayodhya (Oudh), his

tutelage under the sage Vishvamitra, and his success in bending Shiva’s mighty bow at the

bridegroom tournament of Sita, the daughter of King Janaka, thus winning her for his wife. After

Rama is banished from his position as heir to the kingdom through a palace intrigue, he retreats

to the forest with his wife and his favourite half brother, Lakshmana, to spend 14 years in exile.

There Ravana, the demon-king of Lanka, carries off Sita to his capital while her two protectors

are busy pursuing a golden deer sent to the forest to mislead them. Sita resolutely rejects

Ravana’s attentions, and Rama and his brother set out to rescue her. After numerous

adventures, they enter into alliance with Sugriva, king of the monkeys, and, with the assistance

of the monkey-general Hanuman and Ravana’s own brother, Vibhishana, they attack Lanka.

Rama slays Ravana and rescues Sita, who undergoes an ordeal by fire in order to clear herself

of suspicions of infidelity. When they return to Ayodhya, however, Rama learns that the people

still question the queen’s chastity, and he banishes her to the forest. There she meets the sage

Valmiki (the reputed author of the Ramayana) and at his hermitage gives birth to Rama’s two

sons. The family is reunited when the sons come of age, but Sita, after again protesting her

innocence, plunges into the earth, her mother, who receives her and swallows her up.

The poem enjoys immense popularity in India, where its recitation is considered an act of great

merit. Little is known of Valmiki as a historical figure, though he is described as having been a

thief named Ratnakara prior to becoming a sage. Many translations of the Ramayana into the

vernacular languages are themselves works of great literary artistry, including the Tamil version

of Kampan, the Bengali version of Krittibas, and the Hindi version, Ramcharitmanas, of

Tulsidas. Throughout North India the events of the poem are enacted in an annual pageant, the

Ram Lila, and in South India the two epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, make up the

story repertoire of the kathakali dance-drama of Malabar. The Ramayana was popular during

the Mughal period (16th century), and it was a favourite subject of Rajasthani and Pahari

painters of the 17th and 18th centuries.

The story also spread in various forms throughout Southeast Asia (especially Cambodia,

Indonesia, and Thailand), and its heroes, together with the Pandava brothers of the

Mahabharata, were also the heroes of traditional Javanese-Balinese theatre, dance, and

shadow plays. Incidents from the Ramayana are carved in bas-relief on many Indonesian

monuments—for example, at Panataran in eastern Java.

Description: 

21st century subj.

Second Quarter (1st Semester)