Ramayana – The legend of prince Rama

Who wrote Ramayana

Ramayana was first written by great sage Valmiki. This is the story of Prince Rama, who is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. There is an interesting story behind this. Valmiki was earlier a robber known as Angulimaal. After meeting Sage Narada, he became a sage known Valmiki. He wrote this great epic. Later, many great poets have penned this great epic, Tulsidas, Kamban are few of them.

When was Ramayana written?

Valmiki wrote The Ramayana around 7000 years ago. The language of this epic is Sanskrit. It has about 24 thousand shlokas. The entire epic of Ramayana consists of about 480,002 words.

Ramayana katha or Ramayana story

Ramayana story revolves around its main character, Lord Rama. He is seventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Ramayana story is often told in seven chapters, this chapters are namely Bal Kand, Ayodhya Kand, Aranya Kanda, Kishkindha Kand, Sunder Kanda, Yuddha Kanda and Uttar Kanda.

Rama born to King Dashratha, he was eldest among the four sons. His brothers were Lakhsman, Bharat and Shatrughana. Sage Vasistha taught all the four brothers. Lord Rama and his brothers shown lot of talent in their formative years and they helped Sage Vasistha later on.

Marriage of Prince Rama and his brothers

Raja Janak organized a swayamvara to find a suitable groom for his daughter Sita. He put forth a difficult condition. Rama easily satisfied this condition and married Devi Sita. His brothers also found their respective life partners as a result of swayamvara.

Exile of Prince Rama

As luck would have it, Rama left Ayodha and went to forest with his wife Sita and brother Lakshman. Due to a boon to Kaikeyi by Dashratha, this incident happened.

Adduction of Sita

While in forest, Ravana, the demon king abducted Sita. Rama found his wife with help of Sugriva and Lord Hanuma, an ardent devotee of Lord. Hanumana searched Sita by going to Lanka and in the process, he destroyed Lanka.