Ramayana

The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics of Hinduism known as the ''Itihasas'', the other being the ''Mahabharata''. The epic narrates the life of Rama, the seventh ''avatar'' of the Hindu deity Vishnu, who is a prince of Ayodhya in the kingdom of Kosala. The epic follows his fourteen-year exile to the forest urged by his father King Dasharatha, on the request of Rama's stepmother Kaikeyi; his travels across the forests in the Indian subcontinent with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana; the kidnapping of Sita by Ravana, the king of Lanka, that resulted in bloodbath; and Rama's eventual return to Ayodhya along with Sita to be crowned as a king amidst jubilation and celebration.

Scholarly estimates for the earliest stage of the text range from the 7th–5th to 5th–4th century BCE, and later stages extend up to the 3rd century CE, although the original date of composition is unknown. It is one of the largest ancient epics in world literature and consists of nearly 24,000 verses (mostly set in the Shloka/Anuṣṭubh metre), divided into seven (chapters). It belongs to the genre of ''Itihasa'', narratives of past events (), interspersed with teachings on the goals of human life.

There are many versions of the ''Ramayana'' in Indian languages, including Buddhist and Jain adaptations. There are also Cambodian (''Reamker''), Indonesian, Filipino, Thai (''Ramakien''), Lao, Burmese, Nepali, Maldivian, Vietnamese, Tibeto-Chinese, and Malay versions of the Ramayana.–12th century) * Champu Ramayanam of Bhoja ( century) *Kumudendu Muni' s ''Kumudendu Ramayana'' (a Jain version) () and Narahari's Torave Ramayana in Kannada (c. 16th-century) * Gona Budda Reddy's ''Ranganatha Ramayanam'' in Telugu () * Madhava Kandali's Saptakhanda Ramayana in Assamese (c. 14th century) * Krittibas Ojha's Krittivasi Ramayan (also known as ''Shri Ram Panchali'') in Bengali (c. 15th century) * Sarala Das' Vilanka Ramayana (c. 15th century) and Balarama Dasa's ''Jagamohana Ramayana'' (also known as the ''Dandi Ramayana'') (c. 16th century) both in Odia * sant Eknath's Bhavarth Ramayan (c. 16th century) in Marathi * Tulsidas' Ramcharitamanas (c. 16th century) in Awadhi (which is an eastern form of Hindi) * Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan's Adhyathmaramayanam (Kilippattu) in Malayalam () * Raghuveer Narayan's Vijay Nāyak Rāmāyana in Bhojpuri () }}

The ''Ramayana'' was an important influence on later Sanskrit poetry and the Hindu life and culture, and its main figures were fundamental to the cultural consciousness of a number of nations, both Hindu and Buddhist. Its most important moral influence was the importance of virtue, in the life of a citizen and in the ideals of the formation of a state (from , a utopian state where Rama is king) or of a functioning society/realm. Provided by Wikipedia