Ramáyana V: Súndara

The Valmiki Ramayana #5

by Vālmīki, Sally Sutherland Goldman

The fifth and most popular book of the Ramáyana of Valmíki, Súndara recounts the adventures of the monkey hero Hánuman leaping across the ocean to the island citadel of Lanka. Once there, he scours the city for the abducted Princess Sita. The poet vividly describes the opulence of the court of the demon king, Rávana, the beauty of his harem, and the hideous deformity of Sita's wardresses. After witnessing Sita’s stern rejection of Rávana's blandishments, Hánuman reveals himself to the princess, shows her Rama's signet ring as proof of identity, and offers to carry her back to Rama.
Co-published by New York University Press and the JJC Foundation
For more on this title and other titles in the Clay Sanskrit series, please visit

Genres: Poetry, Religion

538 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2006

About the author

Valmiki is celebrated as the poet harbinger in Sanskrit literature. He is the author of the epic Ramayana, based on the attribution in the text of the epic itself.He is revered as the Adi Kavi, which means First Poet, for he discovered the first śloka i.e. first verse, which set the base and defined the form to Sanskrit poetry. The Yoga Vasistha is attributed to him. A religious movement called Valmikism is based on Valmiki's teachings as presented in the Ramayana and the Yoga Vasistha.
At least by the 1st century AD, Valmiki's reputation as the father of Sanskrit classical poetry seems to have been legendary. Ashvagosha writes in the Buddhacarita,
"The voice of Valmiki uttered poetry which the great seer Chyavana could not compose."
This particular verse has been speculated to indicate a familial relationship between Valmiki and Chyavana, as implied by the previous and subsequent verses.

Reviews

[Reece]

Perhaps my least favorite of the 5 volumes I’ve read to this point, now. All the same, it was enjoyable and offered points of interest. Much of this felt as though some repetition bore through too often, and in epics where logic is not necessarily paramount but instead is a sort of authorial glue to ensure the symbology is going to work, the insignificance of repeated passages and potentially irrelevant ones hurt the experience. Some aspects of it also felt questionable, such as Hanumat’s decision to ransack Lanka before leaving. I suppose it captured his anger at the enslavement and censure of Sita, and showed how even the mighty can resort to the impulse of their emotions. It was also an example of not taking away from the glory or valor of others who are deserving of it, whereby Hanumat still restrained himself from attacking Ravana so that Rama may, in the long-term, have his head. This felt as though it had much to do with trials and temptation.

[Samarth Sharma]

The best out of all seven books. The similes and imagery is so powerful. The way Valmiki compares Sita with intangible abstract concepts like 'a reputation now lost by rumours' is so powerful and justifies why this epic has been central to people's hearts for centuries. Sad to see how a story has become so heavily politicized and how it has become the face of Hindu nationalism and Hindutva fascism in India, especially when it is believed that in the original Valmiki text (the first and last books are generally considered to be later additions), Rama is a mere mortal and not an avatara. If only people could distinguish between admiration of a character and literal god-worship!