The Ramayana (Sanskrit: रामायणम्।, Rāmāyaṇam, pronounced [rɑːˈmɑːjəɳəm]) is one of the great Hindu epics. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu literature (smṛti), considered to be itihāasa.[1] The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of Hinduism, the other being the Mahabharata.[2] It depicts the duties of relationships, portraying ideal characters like the ideal father, the ideal servant, the ideal brother, the ideal wife, and the ideal king. The name Ramayana is a tatpurusha compound of Rāma and ayana ("going, advancing"), translating to "Rama's Journey". The Ramayana consists of 24,000 verses in seven books (kāṇḍas) and 500 cantos (sargas),[3] and tells the story of Rama (an avatar of the Hindu supreme-god Vishnu), whose wife Sita is abducted by Ravana, the king of Lanka (current day Sri Lanka). Incidentally the first letter of every 1000 verses (total 24) make the Gayatri mantra. Thematically, the Ramayana explores human values and the concept of dharma.[4] Verses in the Ramayana are written in a 32-syllable meter called anuṣṭubh. The Ramayana was an important influence on later Sanskrit poetry and Hindu life and culture. Like the Mahabharata, the Ramayana is not just a story: it presents the teachings of ancient Hindu sages (Vedas) in narrative allegory, interspersing philosophical and devotional elements. The characters Rama, Sita, Lakshman, Bharata, Hanuman, and Ravana are all fundamental to the cultural consciousness of India, Nepal, and many south-east Asian countries such as Thailand and Indonesia. There are other versions of the Ramayana, notably the Tamil Ramavataram; the Telugu Sri Ranganatha Ramayanam; Buddhist (Dasaratha Jataka No. 461) and Jain adaptations; and also Cambodian, Indonesian, Filipino, Thai, Lao, Burmese, and Malaysian versions of the tale. Traditionally, the Ramayana is attributed to Valmiki.[5] The Hindu tradition is unanimous in its agreement that the poem is the work of a single poet; the sage Valmiki, a contemporary of Rama and a peripheral actor in the drama.[6] The story's original version in Sanskrit is known as Valmiki Ramayana, dating to approximately the 5th to 4th century BCE.[7][8] While it is often viewed as a primarily devotional text, the Vaishnava elements appear to be later accretions, possibly dating to the 2nd century BCE or later. The main body of the narrative lacks statements of Rama's divinity, and identifications of Rama with Vishnu are rare and subdued even in the later parts of the text.[9] According to Hindu tradition—and according to the Ramayana itself—the Ramayana belongs to the genre of itihāasa, like the Mahabharata. The definition of itihāasa has varied over time, with one definition being that itihāsa is a narrative of past events (purāvṛtta) which includes teachings on the goals of human life.[1] According to Hindu tradition, the Ramayana takes place during a period of time known as Treta Yuga.[10] In its extant form, Valmiki's Ramayana is an epic poem of some 50,000 lines. The text survives in several thousand partial and complete manuscripts, the oldest of which is a palm-leaf manuscript found in Nepal and dated to the 11th century CE.[11] The text has several regional renderings,[12] recensions, and subrecensions. Textual scholar Robert P. Goldman differentiates two major regional recensions: the northern (n) and the southern (s).[13] Scholar Romesh Chunder Dutt writes that "the Ramayana, like the Mahabharata, is a growth of centuries, but the main story is more distinctly the creation of one mind."[14] There has been discussion as to whether the first and the last chapters of Valmiki's Ramayana were composed by the original author. Most Hindus still believe they are integral parts of the book, in spite of some style differences and narrative contradictions between these two chapters and the rest of the book.[15][16] Famous retellings include Gona Budda Reddy's Ramayanam in Telugu, Kamban's Ramavataram in Tamil (c. 11th--12th century), Madhava Kandali's Saptakanda Ramayana in Assamese (c. 14th century), Krittibas Ojha's Krittivasi Ramayan (also known as Shri Rama panchali) in Bengali (c. 15th century), sant Eknath's Bhavarth Ramayan (c. 16th century) in Marathi (which is spoken in Maharashtra), Balaram Das' Dandi Ramayana (also known as the Jagamohan Ramayana) (c. 16th century) in Oriya, Tulsidas' Ramcharitamanas (c. 16th century) in Awadhi (which is an eastern form of Hindi),[12] and Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan's Adhyathmaramayanam in Malayalam. For More Movies Please Subscribe http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVgAX4cKkI3VhYtVmHUBASg?sub_confirmation=1 Join us : https://www.facebook.com/musiczonemoviez

• published: 27 May 2014
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