Complete English Translation of Valmiki Ramayanam
Complete English Translation of Valmiki Ramayana
"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) 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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
Please narrate this great story which occurred long- long ago without any fear.
You would be safe. Let the power of Lord Vishnu increase.
By analyzing and listening to this epic all Devas would become happy with you
and by listening to Ramayana, your manes would get pleased.
To those persons who write this collection on Rama written by great sages
with devotion,residence in heaven is assured.
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.
This great work should be listened to by good people seeking wisdom,long life,
health,fame, love from brothers,intelligence,welfare and splendor.
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.
of translating it from Malayalam to English http://rajathathas.blogspot.
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/
Another version of Ramayana called Ananda Ramayana is also credited
to be written by sage Valmiki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 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
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.
Bengal - The Bengali Krittivasi Ramayan written by Krittibas Ojha in
15th century.
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
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. Jammu and Kashmir - The Kashmiri Ramavatara Charita was written in 19th
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:-
http://www.valmikiramayan.net/ www.ramayanabook.com/.../ http://archive.org/details/
Translati
http://valmiki.iitk.ac.in/ http://ancientvoice.wikidot. 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.
http://stotraratna.
Apart from there are very many other great prayers giving Ramayana
in a nutshell. Some of them are
1.Ragothamashtakam http:// 2.Sri Rama Mangala Sasanamhttp://
/
3.Rama Narayana Sthuthi (Malayalam)http://stotraratna.
hood.org/
4.Raghu Veera Gadhyam http://stotraratna. 5.Pasurappadi Ramayanam (Tamil)http://stotraratna.
.org/
6.Sri Ramodantham http:// 7,Spatharishi Ramayanam http://www.
_Ramayanam
8.Gayathri Ramayanam http://stotraratna.
/
My deep sense of gratitude to all those great people who have done this
labor of love . I acknowledge all of them.I might have used some words and
also some whole sentences 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
(AS SENT BY Mr.Muralidhar.S.J. in his e-mail to this blogger).
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JAATH CHODH - DESH JODH!!
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