Valmiki is also quoted as being the contemporary of Rama. As with many traditional epics, it has gone through a process of interpolations and redactions, making it impossible to date accurately.īritish satirist Aubrey Menen says that Valmiki was 'recognized as a literary genius,' and thus was considered, 'an outlaw,' presumably because of his ' philosophic scepticism,' as part of an 'Indian Enlightenment' period. The scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages extending up to the 3rd century CE, although original date of composition is unknown.
The Ramayana tells the story of a prince, Rama of the city of Ayodhya in the Kingdom of Kosala, whose wife Sita is abducted by Ravana, the demon-king ( Rakshasa) of Lanka. The Ramayana is composed of about 480,002 words, being a quarter of the length of the full text of the Mahabharata or about four times the length of the Iliad. The Ramayana, originally written by Valmiki, consists of 24,000 shlokas and seven cantos (kaṇḍas). He is revered as Ādi Kavi, the first poet, author of Ramayana, the first epic poem. Valmiki ( / v ɑː l ˈ m iː k i/ Sanskrit: वाल्मीकि, Vālmīki ) was a legendary poet who is celebrated as the traditional author of the epic Ramayana, based on the attribution in the text itself.
