X

the Timeless* into the time-frame. Rama, the hero of the epic, is an incarnation of God,
but he remains human at all times. He weeps, he worries, is often bewildered. Thus,
suffering sorrowing man finds it easy to identify with him.

It was compassion that brought Rama down to earth and therefore his story,
Ramayana, too, had to sprout from the seed of compassion. How did this happen?
Soon after hearing Narada's story of Rama in brief, Valmeeki finds a lovely spot to
bathe in, the sparkling waters of the Tamasa River. With Rama's character in mind, he
tells his disciple, "Look, revered Bharadwaja, the water is as limpid as a good man's
mind " Even as the serene sage drinks in the scenic beauty, a mortally-wounded
Krauncha bird, brought down by the arrow of a hunter, falls at his feet. Hovering
around the dying, bleeding male bird, is his piteously shrieking mate who a moment
ago was with her beloved. Compassion instantly wells up in the heart of the sage, and
finds expression in the famous sloka "Maa Nishaada..." "O fowler, may you know no
rest tor endless years, since you killed one of this pair of Krauncha birds w hile it
was under the spell of love." It was a perfect sloka born out of soka (sorrow). Yes.
/ f
It was sorrow taking the form of a song, soka embodying itself in sloka. Using this
0 _
^loka as a model, Valmeeki composed his Ramayana for all mankind to recite and
transcend sorrow.

The Ramayana has been, is and will ever be, the living legacy of India because it
unfolds the story of RXMA and SEETA who are purer than purity itself and whose
scrupulous adherence to the majesty of the moral law, dharma, is an abiding example
to be emulated by all who have higher aspirations. Rama has been venerated by
millions, for thousands of years, age after age, as the highest of the high, the Ideal Man
Maryada Purushottama, the effulgent embodiment o f dharma. And o f Seeta, the
puru\i*n of virtue, grace, purity and beauty, Swami Vivekananda says, "You may
exhaust the literature of the world that is past and I may assure you that you will have
to exhaust the literature o f the world of the future, before finding another Seeta. Seeta
i> unique; that character was depicted once and for all. There may have been several
Ramas perhaps, but never more than one Seeta. Mark my words. Seeta has gone into
 XI

the very vitals o f our race."

Adikdvya Valmeeki Rdmdyana is the first ever kavya in Sanskrit literature. Inspired
by V alm eeki's ddikdvya, poet-saints from all over India have authored different
versions of the epic in their respective tongues. We have A ssam ese, Bengali, G ujarati,
H indi, K annada, K ashm iri, M anipuri, M alayalam , O dissi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and
Sanskrit versions, too, to nam e a few (see page 753). All of these are m ore than m ere
translations. The m ystic revolutionary and patriot, Shri V V S Aiyar, a contem porary
of M ahayogi Sri A urobindo, m akes the follow ing incisive observations in his
Introduction to, the Bhavan's Book U niversity series title, Kamba Ram ayana A
Study*: "Indian poets even of the second rank have w ith unerring good sense
abstained from translating the Sanskrit classics, but instead have re-w ritten them in
their ow n w ay for their countrym en. Thus w hile Europe has but one Iliad and one
A eneid and a host of translations of these epics, India has not one Ram ayana and one
M ahdbhdrata but at least a score of Ramayanas and M ahabharatas." A m ong these the
m ost w ell-know n by far are the Ramcharitmanas of Tulasidas in H indi and K am ban's
Ramdyanam in Tamil.

This is Shri V V S A iy ar's penetrating assessm ent of Kavicakravarti K am ban's

w ondrous Tamil w ork Ramdyanam:

"When a m ahakavya o f an earlier poet is taken up fo r the theme o f an epic by a later

one, the influence o f the original writer becomes a leaden weight and a shackle to the poet
who attempts a 're-do' o f it. But Kamban, while follow ing Valmeeki, has the breadth and
power ofA disesha who bears the entire weight 0/ the world on his single head. The poetic
atmosphere, the significant structure, the psychological fram e, in short the entire weight o f
the poetic inspiration and mystic intuitions o f Valmeeki, became handmaids to Kamban;
and with his singular skill and sense o f beauty, he makes Valmeeki's key ideas, key images

* First published in 1950 by the Delhi Tamil Sangham. The Bhavan published it in 1965 in the
Book University series.
Xil

and key symbols, adornments to his own form and vision o f the epic . "

In hi** Foreword to the first edition of Justice N Chandrasekhara A iy er's

Valmeeki Ramayana*, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru says, "Ramayana, the great epic of
our race, has moulded the thoughts and emotions of uncounted generations of people
of India during past ages. From the peasant in the field and the worker in the factory
to the highbrow and the scholar, the story of Rama and Seeta has become a living one."

Culture and civilisation, however, do not recognise man-made national boundaries

and itnngent immigration regulations. The influence and impact of this master epic
broke the confines of India long, long ago. Several versions of the Kdmdyana and
episodic narratives culled from this akshaya patra (inexhaustible reservoir) have
become a part of the cultural milieu of many countries of Asia, particularly M yanm ar
(Burma), Japan, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia and Laos (see page 757 ff.). The Ramayana
has also entered the consciousness of the West in the last two centuries, through the
inspired labour of Indologists.

That the Ramayana and the ideals enshrined therein, inspire and enthral the
people of many lands, is evidenced by the well-patronised yearly International
Ramayana Conferences held in different parts of the world. The first International
Ramayana Conference was held on November 27, 1984, on the banks of the Sarayu in
Avodhva on the auspicious Rdma-Seeta Vivdha Panchami day of that year. Since then
such conferences were held in Bangkok, Thailand (June, 1986); Toronto (July, 1987);
hhnngverpur, Chitrakoot, Naimisharanya and Kanpur (December, 1988); with seminars at
Delhi, Avodhya, Nandigram, Prayag, Janakpur and Nepal (November-December, 1989);
Mauritius (August, 1990); Surinam (October 1990); Leuven, Belgium (July, 1991); Bali,
Indonesia (July 1992); Chitrakoot, Mahuwa and Kanpur (December 1993); Thammasat,
Thailand (December 1994); Leiden, Holland (1995); and Shenzhen, China (1996).

Preparations are afoot for the next International Ramayana Conference in

PuHahed Fy the Bhaivn in 1953

 x iii

H ouston, U SA , in M ay 1997. This Great A dventure in Faith, of global cultural

dissem ination, w as initiated and sustained by the selfless devotion and dedication of
the renow ned Ram ayana scholar, Shri Lallan Prasad Vyas of Delhi, an intimate friend
and well-wisher of the Bhavan.

Shri C R ajagopalachari's English version of the Ramayana (first published in

1951) is one of the earliest titles in the Bhavan's Book U niversity series. In 1956, w hen
the sales of this literary gem, bequeathed to the Bhavan by Rajaji, crossed the 100,000th
m ark, Prim e M inister N ehru, enthusiastically releasing the latest edition at the
Bhavan's New Delhi K endra, feelingly hailed it as "a landm ark in the history of
publishing in India." It has now run into 30 editions, and the sales have crossed over
five hundred thousand copies, unaided by any prom otional cam paign! It still is one of
our best-selling titles. Rajaji's book has been translated into G ujarati, H indi, K annada,
M alayalam , M arathi, Oriya, Telugu, French, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Polish. Audio
cassettes of the book will soon be released in the USA. A list of books on the Ram ayana
by different distinguished w riters, published by the Bhavan, is given on page 758. A
list of Ramayana-related studies published in India is given on page 760 ff.

Eight years ago, Dr H Venkataram ana H ande who has had the privilege of a close
association w ith Rajaji, took up the stupendous task of rendering K am ban's divine
Tamil classic into English prose. Dr H ande, a m edical practitioner w ho w as a M inister
for H ealth in Tamil N adu, is a long-standing janasevak. In the third edition o f the
Ram ayana, Rajaji in his Preface averred, "Once again I repeat my confession that in the
evening of my life during a great and eventful period of Indian history, the w riting of
the books w herein I have retold the M ahabharata and the Ramayana is, in m y opinion,
the best service I have rendered to my people. At any rate, they em body the best joy
I have experienced; for, in these two books, I helped our great sages to speak to our
dear men and w om en again, elevating their m inds. The real need of the hour is a
re-com munion between us and the sages o f our land, so that the fu tu re is built on rock
and not on sa n d ." We are sure that Dr Hande's ecstatic exhilaration, creative
satisfaction and sense o f fulfilm ent at the happy culm ination o f his dedicated labour,