The
Ramayana

Sometime around 300 BC, an ancient Indian poet called Valmiki was sitting in his hut. In front of him was a stack of pages covered in 24,000 lines of Sanskrit writing—his poem. His hand was probably cramping from writing so much, but even still, he started planning how he would teach it to the people who looked up to him. When he shared his poem, his audience listened eagerly and then told it to others. Slowly but surely, Valmiki’s poem became so popular that almost everybody in India today still knows of it. His poem is called the Ramayana.

The Sanskrit language was said to have been revealed by the gods. The Ramayana, one of the most important Sanskrit poems, is no different. In the beginning of the poem, Valmiki tells how he got the idea to write it. Brahma, the Hindu god of creation, appeared to him and used the death of a bird to inspire him to tell the story of the gods in a new form of poetry called shloka. Valmiki used his poetic invention throughout all of the Ramayana. It worked so well that it became the most popular way to write poetry in India for hundreds of years.

Valmiki’s Ramayana tells the story of Rama, the perfect man, the ideal warrior, and a physical incarnation of Vishnu, the Hindu god of protection. He wins the love of the beautiful and virtuous princess, Sita, but they are banished from their kingdom by his mother-in-law, who wants her own son to be king. They live in the forest until Sita is kidnapped by the evil king, Ravana, and Rama and his half-brother, Lakshmana, go on a quest to rescue her. However, they don’t know where to start. They have no idea where Ravana lives. That is where a fascinating character enters the story. His name is Lord Hanuman. He is a god (the wind god is his father), and he looks a little different from Rama and Lakshmana. He is a monkey and the leader of a monkey army.

Once Rama, Lakshmana, and Hanuman become a team, Hanuman makes it possible for Rama to find Sita and defeat Ravana. Hanuman is the one who finds out that Ravana lives across the ocean on an island, and he brings an entire monkey army to help Rama fight. Hanuman fights alongside Rama and the army, but even the monkey god is thwarted by Ravana’s poisoned arrows. Eventually, Rama’s army lies around his feet, injured and unable to keep fighting. Rama cries that all hope is lost.

But all hope is not lost—not if some special medicinal herbs can be brought to the battlefield.

Who did Rama choose to search for the herbs? Hanuman, the
monkey who once searched for his wife and found her. As the
wind god’s son, Hanuman soars through the world and finds what
he is looking for: a hill covered with beautiful plants. Some of
these could heal his friends—but which ones? Was there time to
decide? Would he be too late?

Hanuman cannot risk it. He does not know which plants to take, but he cannot wait any longer. There is one last thing he can try. It seems impossible, but he digs his fingers into the earth and uproots the entire hill of medical herbs, flying it back to heal his injured friends. Because of those herbs, Rama can overthrow Ravana and save his wife.

From here, the story of Rama and Sita continues, but this is just a glimpse into the many adventures and characters found in Valmiki’s poem.

The Ramayana has been translated into many languages and is carved into temples outside of India. In fact, a whole ballet was formed to tell the story of Rama and Sita. The poem has even made it onto the silver screen. Two separate TV shows called Ramayan have been produced in India in the past 50 years. Valmiki had no idea that his epic story would inspire so many people. Today, the Ramayana is not only one of the most influential pieces of Indian literature, but one of the building blocks of Hindu culture.