Shri Ramcharitmanas is an epic poem in Awadhi, part of the Eastern Hindi language family, composed by Goswami Tulsidas (c.1532–1623). Its title means “The Lake of the Deeds of Rama,” reflecting its bhakti-oriented retelling of Valmiki’s Ramayana.

Tulsidas compared the seven Kandas of the poem to seven steps descending into the sacred Himalayan Lake Mansarovar (Manasa), believed to purify both body and soul. He began writing the scripture in 1574 CE in Ayodhya on Ram Navami—a date noted within the poem itself—and later composed much of it in Varanasi, where he spent most of his life.

Today, Ramcharitmanas is regarded as one of the greatest works of Hindu literature. Tulsidas made the Ramakatha accessible to the common person, a legacy visible in North India’s Ramlila enactments during Dussehra, which largely draw from his works. Tulsidas also authored the Hanuman Chalisa, one of the most widely recited prayers among Hindus in northern India.

Source: http://www.ramcharitmanas.org/about-ramcharitmanas.html

Tulsidas Temple at Rajapur, near Chitrakoot. Picture Credit – Twitter Aman Chaurasiya.

Kavichakravarthi (Emperor of Poets) Kamban’s Ramavataram is a landmark of Tamil literature, celebrated for its expressive beauty, rich imagery, and ethical grandeur. Written in the 12th century CE, Kamban chose to retell the Ramayana rather than translate Valmiki’s version, giving it a unique identity. Notably, his work omits the Uttarakanda.

As Rajaji observed, “Kamban sang the story of Rama as of a god come down on earth to suffer, chasten, uplift, help, and guide men. Kamban’s Ramayana is a lyric, while Valmiki’s is an epic.” Kamban’s work profoundly influenced later Ramayanas in South India and Southeast Asia.

While he wrote during the Chola period, the Ramakatha was already familiar in Tamil Nadu, mentioned in Sangam literature and popularized by the Alvar bhakti saints.

Source: https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2024/Jan/21/rama-belongs-as-much-to-tamils-as-to-the-world

The Mandapa where Kamban recited the Ramayana first, at the grand Srirangam temple. Picture Credit – Flickr Monfred Sommer.

Sant Eknath composed the Marathi Ramayana toward the end of the 16th century CE. He created one of the most significant texts for the Varkari community. The community is associated with Lord Vitthal and the renowned Pandharpur Yatra, as well as the well-known dabba (tiffin) service in Mumbai.

The Bhavartha Ramayana highlights Eknath Maharaj’s diverse literary talents. He authored the first forty-four chapters up to the Yuddhakanda, with the remaining sections completed by Gavoba. Eknath mentions in his work that it was Sri Rama who inspired him to write the Ramayana.

In Maharashtra, the Bhavartha Ramayana enjoys a status similar to that of Tulsidas’s Ramayana in North India. The text also served as an inspiration for the Marathas to rise against the Mughals, drawing a parallel between themselves and Rama’s vanara sena (monkey army) in their dedication and valor.

Source: https://santeknath.org/english/vaadmayvishayi.html

The 15th-century CE Krittivasa Ramayana is a foundational work for Bengalis, capturing the social ethos of its time. This work inspired many subsequent Bengali Ramayanas, including a unique composition by Chandrabati in the 16th century, rediscovered in the 20th century.

Chandrabati’s Ramayana “centralizes Sita’s agony, and the public doom that falls upon Lanka, where she is incarcerated, and upon Ayodhya, of which she is the queen.”

Born into an impoverished Brahmin family in Mymensingh, Bangladesh, Chandrabati was abandoned by her fiancé, Jayanand, on their wedding day. Heartbroken, she turned to devotion to Lord Shiva for solace. When Jayanand later returned repentant and asked to see her, she secluded herself in her Shiva temple, refusing to respond. He committed suicide, and upon learning of his death, she channeled her intense grief into writing about Sita’s suffering. Scholars consider her work a feminist interpretation of the Ramayana.

Source: Shruti Chakraborti, Journal of International Woman Studies

The Pampa Ramayana is an 11th-century CE work by Nagachandra, also known as Abhinava Pampa—a worthy successor to the Kannada Adikavi, Pampa. Prior to this, all Ramayanas were written in Sanskrit, various Prakrits, or Apabhramsa.

The Pampa Ramayana belongs to the tradition of Jain Ramayanas and draws heavily from Vimalasuri’s Maharashtri Prakrit work from the 1st-2nd century CE, later translated into Sanskrit as the Padmapuran. In this tradition, Jains referred to Rama as Padma to differentiate him from Balarama (Krishna’s brother), who is also venerated. Nagachandra portrays Ravana as a tragic hero, initiating a trend of humanizing epic villains. In alignment with Jain principles of non-violence, Lakshmana, rather than Rama, is depicted as the one who slays Ravana.

The Pampa Ramayana is celebrated for its nuanced use of Kannada. The first full Hindu version of the Ramayana in Kannada was composed around 1500 CE by Narahari of Torave village near Bijapur, known as the Toraveya Ramayana. Since then, Kannada literature has produced several exquisite works in the epic tradition, including contributions by modern masters like D.V. Gundappa and S.L. Bhyrappa.

Source: shastriyakannada.org

The British used indentured labor from India as a replacement for slavery, referring to these laborers as girmitiyas, derived from the term girmit, meaning “agreement” in local dialects.

In 1884, when a boat carrying migrants capsized, many perished, but they managed to save a Ramayana wrapped in red cloth (laal kapde mein liptee Ramayana). For these girmitiyas, the Ramacharitmanas held deeper significance than it might for many Indian Hindus. In their Ramlila, when a husband lamented British duplicity, his wife would remind him to draw strength from Ram and Sita’s trials in exile.

To them, the Ramayana symbolized a protective force. In Fiji, the British slogan “Rani ki jai ho” (“Long Live the Queen [Victoria]”) was met with the girmitiyas’ reply, Maharani Ramayana ki jai—”Victory to the great queen, the Ramayana.” This became a rallying cry of resistance, affirming the Ramayana as their ultimate authority over the British.

Source: https://swarajyamag.com/culture/when-the-british-said-hail-the-queen-hindus-in-fiji-replied-ramayana-maharani-ki-jai

Picture Credit – Girmityas of Fiji, Global Indian Network

Balaramdas’s Jagamohan Ramayana is the most popular Ramayana in Odiya and is also referred to as the Balaramdas Ramayana or Dandi Ramayana (named for its meter).

Composed in the 16th century CE, Balaramdas—one of the five major Odiya poets and a devotee of Lord Jagannatha—was also a disciple of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and a member of his “Pancha-Sakha.”

The Jagamohan Ramayana opens with Shiva reuniting with Sati in her form as Parvati, who then narrates the story of Rama and Sita’s tribulations. This unique twist offers the tale of Sita and Rama through a dialogue between Shiva and Parvati, as told by a devotee of Jagannatha.

Another prominent epic poet from Odisha, Saraladas, is believed to have been the first to retell the Ramayana in Odiya in the 15th century CE, though his work is now lost. A later poet, also named Saraladas and often confused with the earlier one, composed an Odiya Ramayana in the 17th century titled Vilanka Ramayana.

Source: https://magazines.odisha.gov.in/Orissareview/2015/May-June/engpdf/110-114.pdf

Shankardeva, the most renowned saint of Assam, was instrumental in popularizing Vaishnavism in the 16th century CE. To spread his teachings, he composed dramatic street plays, known as nataka, nat, or yatra (called jatra in Bengal), a style that became widely popular in Assam and was eventually termed Ankia-nat.  His play based on the Ramayana, titled Ramavijoy, inspired a surge of Ramayana-themed plays in the following centuries.

The first Assamese translation of the Ramayana was done by Madhav Kandali in the 14th century CE. Known as the Saptakanda Ramayana, Kandali is credited with composing five kandas (books), with the remaining two added later. He explicitly stated his intention to portray Rama as a human rather than as a deity, which is why his work did not gain popularity as a devotional text. A century later, Shankardeva infused the epic with bhakti, adding a devotional dimension that resonated deeply with the people.

Source: Kabita Konch, “Ramayana based dramas of medieval Assamese literature”

Picture Credit – Wikimedia Commons

“Atukuri Molla, one of the greats of Telugu literature, famously said, ‘The Ramayana has been written many times. But does someone stop taking food because it has been taken every day? So is the story of Rama, and one can write, read, and love it as many times as possible.’

Molla abridged and adapted Valmiki’s Ramayana into Telugu with exceptional skill. Born in 1440 in Nellore to Atukuri Kesana Setty, a potter by caste, she is also known as Kumhaara Molla. Her father, a devotee of Lord Malleswara of Srisailam, named her Molla after the jasmine flower dear to Lord Shiva.

Although a lifelong devotee of Lord Shiva, Molla once experienced a vision of Sri Rama during meditation, inspiring her to compose her own Ramayana. Scholars highly regard her work for its poetic quality. Her fame eventually reached King Krishnadeva Raya of the Vijayanagara Empire, who invited her to his court to recite her Ramayana. It is said that the king, a scholar himself, was deeply impressed by the beauty of Molla’s verses.

Source: https://www.hinduamerican.org/blog/all-about-atukuri-molla-poet

Picture Credit – India Post

The earliest and perhaps most significant retelling of the Ramayana in Telugu dates back to the 14th century CE and is attributed to Gonabuddha Reddy. Known as the Ranganatha Ramayana, historians suggest it may have actually been authored by Ranganath, who was in Gonabuddha’s service.

This version, written in the simple Dwipad meter, is also referred to as the Dwipad Ramayana. It mainly follows the first six kandas of Valmiki’s Ramayana but includes additional stories.

One notable story describes how a squirrel contributed to the construction of the Ramasetu by dipping itself in the sea, rolling in sand, and depositing sand between the rocks. Sri Rama blessed the squirrel by stroking its back, resulting in the stripes on its body.

Picture Credit – Wikimedia Commons

Ramayana Masam is observed during the month of Karkidakam in the Malayalam calendar, which corresponds to July and August.

Throughout this month, a ritual known as Ramayana Parayanam—the reading of the Ramayana—is observed daily in most Hindu households. Hindu organizations also conduct this ritual in nearly all temples dedicated to Lord Vishnu.

The version of the Ramayana commonly read during this period is the Adhyatma Ramayana Kilippattu, translated into Malayalam by Thunchath Ezhuthachan between 1575–1650 CE. However, the first known work on the Ramayana in Malayalam dates back to the 14th century CE with Iramcharit, attributed to a poet also named Ram, which is one of the earliest literary works in the language.

In the 15th century CE, Kanash Panikkar translated Valmiki’s Ramayana, while Poonam Nampootiri retold the epic as Ramayana Champu in a Sanskritized Malayalam. Later, one of the princes of Kerala produced a translation known as the Keralavarma Ramayana.

Source: prokerala.com

Picture Credit – Organiser

Known as Rajaji, he was one of the most influential leaders of India’s freedom movement. He served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Governor General of India, and Governor of West Bengal.

Rajaji also founded the Swatantra Party, which became a prominent opposition party during the 1950s and 60s. A multifaceted personality, he was awarded the Bharat Ratna. Rajaji’s Ramayana was first published in 1957 by K. M. Munshi’s Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

This abridged English retelling of the Valmiki Ramayana followed an earlier version he had published of the Kamba Ramayanam. Rajaji regarded both this book and his Mahabharata as his greatest contributions to his countrymen.

In December 2001, then-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee released the one-millionth copy of each epic—Ramayana and Mahabharata—authored by Rajaji, underscoring the enduring appeal of his works. Vajpayee shares his birthday with Rajaji’s death anniversary.

Source: Various

The picture is of Rajaji National Park near Haridwar