India: Hanuman, who has allowed himself to be bound, is brought before Ravana, the demon-king of Lanka. Miniature from the Rana Jagat Singh Ramayana or 'Mewar Ramayana', 17th century

The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon, considered to be based on historical events.

The Ramayana depicts the duties of relationships, portraying ideal characters like the ideal servant, the ideal brother, the ideal wife and the ideal king. The name Ramayana is a tatpurusha compound of Rāma and ayana (going, advancing), translating to ‘Rama's Journey’. The Ramayana consists of 24,000 verses in seven books (kāṇḍas) and 500 cantos (sargas), and tells the story of Rama (an Avatar of the Hindu preserver-God Vishnu), whose wife Sita is abducted by the demon king of Lanka, Ravana.

The epic was an important influence on later Sanskrit poetry and Indian life and culture. The characters Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, Bharata, Hanuman and Ravana are all fundamental to the cultural consciousness of India.

There are other versions of the Ramayana, notably Buddhist and Jain in India, as well as Indonesian, Philippine, Thai, Lao, Burmese, Cambodian and Malay versions of the tale.

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RAMAYANA