The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic

by Vālmīki (Translator)

A sweeping tale of abduction, battle, and courtship played out in a universe of deities and demons, The Ramayana is familiar to virtually every Indian. Although the Sanskrit original was composed by Valmiki around the fourth century BC, poets have produced countless versions in different languages. Here, drawing on the work of an eleventh-century poet called Kamban, Narayan employs the skills of a master novelist to re-create the excitement he found in the original. A luminous saga made accessible to new generations of readers, The Ramayana can be enjoyed for its spiritual wisdom, or as a thrilling tale of ancient conflict.

Genres: Classics, Mythology, India, Fiction, Religion, Fantasy, Literature

191 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 29, 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

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those really entertaining but makes you want to smack someone. But at least the gods in this version agree with me.
It is nice to know that the Bible isn’t the only work that screws women over.
The amount of time that men in this epic, who keep telling you they are powerful dudes, blame women for everything is just maddening. Even Sita who couldn’t be raped because Ravena can’t force her has to prove her virtue.
Hello.

Yeah, yeah, I know it was before feminism. I get it. But I am a modern lady; I can still get upset by it.

But outside of the whole women are to blame for everything, it’s actually really good and engrossing. It’s even fun.

And if you are wondering, like the guy who commented below, where men say that here are some examples:

"Finally the King burst out, " . . . Those cherry-red lips I thought sustained me, but they have only been a source of the deadliest poison to finish me off . . ." (52). True she is a evil woman, but no one forced you to do what you did.

"The picture she [Soorpanka] conjured up was convincing . . . Soorpanaka's words had lit an all-consuming flame within him [Ravana]" (81)

"When he heard of his son's death, Ravana shed bitter tears and swore, 'This is the time to kill that woman Sita, the cause of all this misery'" (149). You did kidnap her.

As for Sita's virtue test. I know that critics, both Western and Eastern have problems with it. Even the epic seems to realize this for it says, "Rama explained that he had to adopt this trial in order to demonstrate Sita's putiry beyond a shadow of a doubt to the whole world" (163).

Look, like all great epics, the work is a product of its time. I understand that. But I am not going to respond any differently simply because of that. I have similar problems with the Bible, Homer, and so on. I cannot turn off my feminisim completely. I'm sorry, I can't. It doesn't stop me from enjoying the story. And to be frank, do you really think modern women were the first to ask these questions or notice these problems?

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[Rodney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is more of a prose novelization than a translation (and of Kamban's Tamil translation/adaptation rather than Valmiki's Sanskrit original). I can't speak to its accuracy or veracity as a representation of the original text, but it is a very entertaining read and made the story very clear, accessible, and exciting.

[JG (Introverted Reader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't even know how I first came across this title but I added it to a list of possible books to read for a classics challenge I'm participating in. I had to read Beowulf and The Epic of Gilgamesh in high school so I wanted to read some epics from other cultures. Somehow I found The Ramayana. Then I realized that this version is a "shortened modern prose version." I'm not a big fan of abridgements so I looked into that a little more. The original is, as I understand it, thousands of pages long. I'll never read that much epic poetry. At least this version is adapted by an Indian author who grew up listening to his family tell these stories.

I'm glad I read it. I was familiar, at least by name, with some of the gods mentioned--Vishnu, Shiva, Hanuman, Brahma--but completely unfamiliar with Rama's adventures. He defeats monsters and demons, saves those who need saving, and just sort of generally sets the world to rights.

This version feels like a "good parts" version, to appropriate a phrase from The Princess Bride, and I decided that I'm okay with that. I felt that I got the action and pertinent bits of the story while eliminating too much unnecessary description. The author sets the scene beautifully then moves on with the plot.

I enjoyed familiarizing myself, at least a bit, with Rama and Sita, Lakshmana, Ravana, and Dasaratha.

[Aria · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review can also be found on Snow White Hates Apples.

After I’ve finished reading this book, I’m certain that mythology, fairy tales, folklore, legends and such all share common notions no matter which culture they are part of. In The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic (which I will shorten to ‘ The Ramayana ' from here onward), is a tale both familiar and unknown to me. Although the Indians are ‘one of the three main races’ in my country, I’ve never really ventured into their culture, beliefs, traditions and such—a huge error on my part. Even so, as mentioned earlier, there are common notions that can be found in this tale and due to this, I felt like I already knew the tale.

This ‘modern’ retelling of The Ramayana is a very easy read. There is a glossary for terms I know not of, and a list of characters which is very helpful since there are many in this tale. However, despite finding this an easy read, I found the narrative disjointed at some parts. The short stories within this tale threw me slightly off course since I was expecting this tale to focus on Rama and his journey only. The breaking of the fourth wall—which is common in tales like this—isn’t as smooth as I’d like it to be as well. I don’t know how else to put this except that it didn’t seem like part of the story to me. In a way, it was like breaking the fourth wall’s fourth wall.

Other than that, I unfortunately found R.K. Narayan’s translation of this epic is too simple. I do like that it made reading this text easier, but I also think that the words used are mostly common and somehow, that just took away the beauty and complexity of this story. I’ve read a few versions of translations for Grimm’s Fairy Tales and although simple words are also used, there are still some complex/big words which then, gave them a lovely balance between simplicity and complexity. In this version of The Ramayana , I felt that it is overall, more simple than complex. Due to this, I also got bored reading this epic after a while and even though my interest did revive, getting bored at any point is still a negative.

The Ramayana is a patriarchal text. Like the fairy tales we all know and love, the women’s journey is also the question of the man’s desire here. While Rama develops throughout this epic, Sita remains flat and acts as a source for plot points. Had Rama not desired Sita in the beginning, she would’ve never had a ‘journey’ in this text. Nevertheless, The Ramayana is still an enjoyable read. I probably wouldn’t reread this translation but it’s worth the first read.

[Derek · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly pleasant read, with some interesting additional apologetic work by the translator that adds value to the criticism and understanding of the "original" text (such as Sita's immolation and his murder of Vali).

This version is barebones, but with enough meat to really provide a great framework for diving into a deeper, lengthier version of the text, provided an English reader such as myself can find one. If anything, this text reminds me how absurdly complex and rich this culture is and, compared to staples of Western civilization, it is humbling to see an ocean when all you have seen before are ponds and lakes.

If anything, through this story and the Mahabharata, I have developed a genuine (and unexpected) love and respect for Hinduism; it has profoundly impacted the way I live -- especially the way I think about storytelling and folklore.

[Sanum · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book so far, The 4 stories told in the first chapter are really good stories! I think a good proverb for all 4 stories can be "We do sins to realize we are right in the end”, or "Everyone has a good and a bad side, people just see one side of the story”. I think this because the stories have a bad guy, that was a good guy before, but they had a reason to do what they did, for example in Ahalya’s story, Indra can be taken as the bad guy since he cloned himself to make love to Ahalya, and he was cursed with female parts, and then with a thousand eyes. Indra couldn’t be blamed for it because he couldn’t stop himself from doing so, since he was in love with her. He had a good side, but his bad side was shown.


Sita and Rama love each other so much, I love their story, and how Rama would do anything to protect her. For example when Thataka, Ravana's sister came and fell in love with Rama , and tried to trap Sita, Rama was furious! Sita and Rama are perfect for each other, and as people say are perfect humans, with good looks. Another example of their love is when Sita decided to go with Rama on his exile( as well as Lakshmana), Sita didn't want Rama to leave and wouldn't agree unless she went with him, this shows the love she has for him and how much she cares, she wasn't willing for him to leave her alone.


This whole mission of Rama was for him to kill Ravana and destroy all evil. Rama’s mission was really to win Sita back from Ravana, and with that he also did what he was born to do which was kill all evil, especially Ravana. on page 162 Rama surprised me and I felt so bad when he told Sita that he freed her to do whatever she wanted. I felt like there was no point to the book when I read that paragraph but after I read the whole page I realized it was just a test. I was relieved after that.

[Ratika Khandoker · Rating 3 out of 5]

স্বল্প পরিসরের মধ্যে কেউ রামায়ণ,বিশেষত রাম-সীতা-রাবণের অধ্যায় সম্পর্কে জানতে চাইলে এই বইটি মন্দ নয়।
বইখানা পড়া শুরু করেছিলাম এক/দেড় বছর আগে।অন্যান্য বইয়ের ভীড়ে এ বইয়ের কথা মনেই ছিলোনা।
সম্প্রতি ভারতীয় নতুন সিনেমা "রামায়ণ" এর একটি ঝলক প্রকাশিত হয়েছে,যেখানে রানবীর কাপুর কে "রাম" এর চরিত্রে দেখার পর থেকে বেশ সমালোচনার ঝড় শুরু হয়েছে।এসব দেখে শুনে,ফেলে রাখা বইখানার কথা মনে পড়ে গেলো আর কি,তাই শেষ করে ফেললাম অবশেষে।
বাল্মিকীর এই মহান সৃষ্টি আরো বিস্তারিত পড়ার আগ্রহ রইলো।

[Susan Chow-Dukhan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Ramayana is one of the largest ancient epics in world literature. Originally written in Sanskrit, it consists of nearly 24,000 verses, divided into approx. 500 chapters, it covers the life of Prince Rama and his travels in the forest during his 14 year exile. As this was originally an oral epic, multiple versions of the Ramayana can be found in India and other eastern countries such as Indonesia, Cambodia, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam and Maldives.
R.K. Narayan has written a condensed version of the Ramayana in modern prose, based on the Tamil version of the epic, written by a poet called Kamban. Kamban's version of epic is approx. 6,000 pages long. R.K Narayan's version of the epic is less than 200 pages long. While there are advantages to the reader to read a condensed version of an epic, when the original story becomes too condensed, the quality of the final result lacks the depth of description from a more detailed translation. Reading this novel was similar to reading a one page synopsis of a book or movie. All the important events have been described, but we wind up reading of two-dimensional characters living in a two-dimensional world. Descriptive prose adds colour to the world you're reading about and characters are brought to life.
R.K. Narayan has written a decent translation of the life of Prince Rama. Most of his other books are usually the same size, running under 200 pages. It's unfortunate that he didn't produce a book that was twice the size of his other publications, due to the scope of the source material.

[Chris Linehan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This shortened version of the Ramayana was fascinating to read. It was like getting The Iliad or The Odyssey in prose form without too much of the repetitive nature that sometimes bogs you down. Some of the repetition might have a deeper resonance when it is heard spoken rather than being read, but I don’t speak Ancient Greek. I wouldn’t know what to do with the full Sanskrit version of The Ramayana either so this was a perfect read. The only thing that I found lacking is some descriptions of the demons and gods that both Rama and Sita encounter on their epic. But, that sacrifice probably had to be made to make the work accessible to a non-scholarly reader like myself.

The act of hubris is what drives the stories of Homer. His characters offend the gods by some act of pride and then the story flows with the consequences. In the Ramayana and other Hindu myths (I have only just waded into this deep and seemingly bottomless ocean and currently stand ankle deep) seem to operate in a similar fashion, but from a vastly different starting point. In the Ramayana it is not hubris that brings about the adventures and misadventures of the characters, but a lack of foresight. The gods grant Ravana boons until he becomes all powerful and overcomes them. Dasharatha grants Kaikeyi a boon that leads to Rama’s fourteen year exile and his own death. It seems that rashness, often praised in the heroic Greek sense (even and sometimes especially if it leads to death) is the sin most despised by the early Hindu writers. If I’m wrong, forgive me. Remember that I am only ankle deep.

[Addysen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay first things first, I think I liked the hero’s in this story way better than the other myths I’ve read so far.

1) Rama is kind and not arrogant. He cares for his people and not for his own needs which not many other protagonists in myths do

Not to mention Rama has a wife whom he is actually loyal and caring toward. I will admit it made me really mad when he didn’t believe that she had stayed loyal to him when she was kidnapped.


2) the loyalty between the brothers. You could see how they would truly do anything for one another unlike Ravana and his brothers where they probably would be better off if the other one was dead. I mean Rama’s one brother literally refuses to take the throne in their fathers kingdom until it’s okay with Rama.


Overall I really love the message that this book carries throughout it and I like their aspect on what happens after death. As Rama was a god in his afterlife, they believe that everyone has a certain place to be. All they truly want is good things for one another.

[Lotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise narration of the Ramayana by a venerated Indian writer of modern fiction.

Narayan did a good job of balancing out descriptions, a good flow of what was happening and cultural and/or spiritual background.

Interestingly, he bases his story on the Tamil version instead of the classic Valmiki version, but prefers Valmiki's version of Rama's rejection of Sita, because the other was too harsh. This episode and his killing of the monkey king are two morally very grey zones in Rama's otherwise virtuous behaviour. Narayan gives his take, but I feel like there's a lot to unpack.

The introduction pointed out the influence of the television series on the rise of Hindu nationalism. Might be interesting to delve deeper into that.

Lastly, I expected a bigger role from Hanuman, but I appreciated the fact that whenever the Ramayana is told, an invisible Hanuman is believed to be present and is honoured. It's little insights in other cities that do it for me.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so interesting, it gave me a real sense of the Hindu religion. The one thing that did confuse me about this book was the over dose of characters, it was a little bit overwhelming. While reading this book i found it helpful to make a story chart for the characters so i could keep track of who's who. As in most old stories women are not as shown as intellegent as the men or even as import. The reason i thought this was at the very beginning when Rama was a god in the heavens who wanted to be sent down to earth in order to whipe out all evil. He was born as a baby to a very wealthy king, his wife on the other hand was just dropped in the woods and was found when someone was passing through the woods and found her. Over all though this book is very rememberable and is worth reading even though it's a challenge.

[Deepti Chandna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the epic novels that we always heard stories about, watched the shows. In recent times it lead to more questions on how they portrayed women. But I could never get myself to read the full book.
This condensed version made it easier to finally read Ramayana. It is the from the Kamban’s version and not Valmiki’s- the original version. The big difference is how it ends with both Ram and Sita returning to Ayodha.
While the story line is simple, throughout the book, the author ensures that he explains the actions and whys that help you get the perspective on why Ram did what he did! You may not completely agree to it always like on why Vali had to be killed or treatment of Surpankha! Enjoyable read and now I look forward to reading his version of Mahabharat.

[Evie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have no context to comment on the authenticity of this or how the author chose to adapt it for a modern telling. However, considering the difficult task of condensing a huge epic into a short format, Narayan has made a very accessible version for his readers. It does feel a bit like swimming in the deep end, where there are references made to characters and many back stories that are alluded to. However, this a readable introduction to the characters and story.

[L.J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent introduction to this epic Indian mythological tale. I read this in college while taking a class on Indian history and culture. Narayan's own stories are very good and he is the right author to present this great story to those not familiar with these tales.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this story. It's one of the great Indian epics - something that I think everyone should read. This version is very easy to understand and is a quick read.

[deanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

need all of the ‘evil’ women in this to know that they have my heart

[Pgao · Rating 3 out of 5]

The great epic poem translated by R.K. Rarayan. Hanuman and Lakshmana are my favorite characters. Hanuman devoted himself into helping Rama, he worried about things bother Rama, he gave Rama advices, and he even got angry because the “fake” Sita he saw. One thing I don’t get is that why Hanuman hid his gigantic physical feature, when he sneaked into Lanka, it was rational to hide his gigantic physical feature. But when he informed Bharata about Rama’s return, why did he transform to a young Brahmin? It was not helpful and Bharata would not listen to a Brahmin. If Hanuman came slightly late, Bharata probably saw a young Brahmin, but disappointed at the fact that the person was not Rama and then ended his life.
Lakshmana was a great, powerful being. Rama and many other had admired Lakshmana’s strength. His loyalty and love towards Rama was sort of blind. He unconditionally loves and totally devoted himself for Rama. During the fight in Lanka, Lakshmana was injured, but he continued to fight for Rama. He never left Rama, he was always near Rama and obeys Rama’s order. When Rama ignored Lakshmana’s warning and lost Sita, Lakshmana was there with Rama and accompanied with Rama to seek for Sita. Hanuman’s and Lakshmana’s loyalty would be remembered throughout ages.
It might be strange that Ramayana, the main character was one of my least favorite characters. I found Rama so implausible. Rama was supposed to be as perfect as Kamban described. But in the edition of Ramayana, I saw a volatile Rama, who constantly shift between human and God. The kind Rama who had sympathy for Ravana couldn’t avoid using harsh words against his wife; an intelligent, omniscience Rama couldn’t even identify a trick and lost his wife; a generous, righteous Rama couldn’t make peace between ill-fated brothers. If Rama was supposed to be a god and enlighten humans, then let him be the omnipotent one, don’t give him so many human mistakes. I couldn’t find Rama attractive.

[Jenevieve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review first published on My Blog.

Originally written in Sanskrit in the 4th century by Valmiki, there have been countless versions written since. Narayan drew on the work of the 11th century version written by Kamban to write a piece that was shorter and more accessible since the original is over 1000 verses long. The Ramayana is an epic tale known to almost everyone in India.

Rama was a prince and when his father felt it was time to retire and enjoy what remained of his life, he chose Rama to succeed him but one of his other wives called in a favor he had given her for saving his life and insisted that her son be named as his successor instead and that Rama be banished to the woods for 14 years. Rama as a dutiful son will not hear of his father going back on his word and departs immediately accompanied by his wife, Sita, and another brother, Lakshmana. While they live in the woods, a demon falls in love with Sita and steals her away. Rama is completely distraught and searches high and low for her. Eventually, she is found and Rama dispatches the demon with honor just in time for him to return home and claim his throne from his brother who would only accept being temporary ruler during Rama's absence because of his own mother's wickedness.

I really enjoyed the tale but I will state that I'm glad this version apparently glossed over the tests that Sita was put through to prove her purity and loyalness to Rama while she was held captive. Just hearing about it briefly in the forward bugged me a lot. I found some of the morals that Rama was upholding to be an interesting look at what was important during that time in that place and I find it fascinating that the whole epic is still given so much life today. I'm actually planning to try and find a tv or movie version and see it performed live.

[Jared Pechacek · Rating 2 out of 5]

I do not know the Ramayana. I am not familiar with R.K. Narayan. They may be two great flavors, but they don't go great together.

Please note that the low rating applies solely to this version; I'm not passing judgment on the original poem, which I would still like to read. Since the Ramayana itself is a daunting undertaking. I thought an abridged prose version would be a good introduction. That might be true—of another book.

Here, Narayan retells gigantic, complex events in an overly simple, repetitive style, as if he's explaining it to a very small child. He tells us what he's going to tell us, he tells us, then he tells us what he told us. Which is an odd way to write a summary, and turns an epic poem of immeasurable cultural importance into the ramblings of a party guest you can't wait to escape.

Narayan also removes so much connective tissue that individual moments stop making sense. Or maybe the original plays fast and loose with causality too. I don't know. Whether it does or not, cramming the narrative into so few pages shoves it all out of joint, and Narayan, who explains Rama's divine nature seemingly every paragraph, cannot be bothered to explain anything else, like the passage of time or basic geography. In his introduction, he mentions that everyone in India knows the story. But. Since this edition seems aimed at Western audiences, who are likely unfamiliar with even the bare plot, I would appreciate some handholding in that area.

I suppose this is the part where I say something good. Umm—it made me want to read the original instead? Which I'm sure would please R.K. Narayan at least a little. But as for this book itself: eminently skippable.

[Francisco · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extremely brief (~170 pages) retelling of the Tamil version, by Kamban, of the Ramayana epic. I recommend as a first acquaintance with Indian mythology, an to anyone interested in knowing the basic plot and characters of the original epic by Valmiki. The original version is too long and inaccessible, especially to Western readers.

I felt this version was a little too short. I often felt the author was sweeping through entire chapters of the original work in just a couple of sentences or paragraphs, and probably omitting vast parts of it. Something a little longer and more detailed, while retaining the accessible style, would have been ideal.

Occasionally we hear the voice of the re-teller:

-"In keeping with the classical tradition, Kamban begins his epic with a description of the land..."; -"This is one of the most controversial chapters of the Ramayana";
-"The story of Rama actually concludes with the enthronement of Rama, but in a traditional narration the story-teller would show great reluctance to reach the end".

I didn't like that. Still, I think Narayan did a good job writing a self-contained story that most of the time didn't read like a Cliff Notes summary. The book, before the main text, provides a list of all the relevant characters, which I used often as I find it difficult to keep track of the numerous names.

I enjoyed the book very much. I often felt transported to the world of Indian gods, demons, and heros, to which I am a newcomer.

[Xing · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this epic poem, the Rama was the main character. Rama’s mission was to destroy Ravana. Rama was well known by his greatness and powerful strength. He was my favor character because even thought he was powerful, but he wasn’t full of hubris. Also when he made mistake, he didn’t feel ashamed to let other people know. When he noticed his mistake, he corrected himself. He gave advice to other people which came from the mistake he made.
“Even when you realize that the one before you is an enemy and must be treated sternly, do not hurt with words. Even in jest, do not hurt anyone’s feelings, not even the lowliest.” This quote was what Rama said to Sugreeva as an advice for him. I like this quote very much, and I totally agree with that.
In this epic poem, there were many evil characters, some of them were women. Women played an important role in this poem, some of them were good, and some were evil. There were two beautiful women; Sita and Soorpanaka. Their beauty was incapable express in words. Soorpanaka was very evil, even thought she had an extremely beautiful face, but her heart was ugly and dark. Sita was a positive character in this poem, but she was the cause of Ravana’s failing. Sometime, a women’s beauty can lead one to death, the most harmful weapon of women is their beauty!

[Ling · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is impressive.
To be honest, Rama is not my favorite character in the book, even though he was perfect. He had the respect of people, loyalty of brothers, the apple of his father and mothers' eye, and the good physical appearence; he was the symbol of justice, kind, forgiveness, well-temper, caring, and humanity. However, somehow his perfect personality was his shortcoming.
Rama was filial that made him accepted to exile without considering his relatives who loved him and people. This was not a wise attitude. Furthermore, during the battle agaist Ravana, he insisted to wait and gave time to Ravana to recover. This was a battle that someone wanted to kill him. If he thought that he would win anyway, he was arrogant. If he still had no much chance to win, but let Ravana go, he was treating soldiers with levels. What? His believe was important, but other soliders and monkeys' lives were not that important? Did he know once Ravana recovered, the destruction would continue?
Well, the character like Rama only appears in the epic story and the book over all is good.

[Svitlana · Rating 4 out of 5]

GREAT EPIC POEM!!!!!!! This book contained so much insights on what Hindu religion and customs are all about. We can trace back its origins thousands of years ago. This poem has showed me that even the most powerful Gods have weaknesses which may cause major distractions within their and human worlds. Rama is considered one of the strongest Gods, yet his heart is fragile. Love can be the best thing that has ever happened to you. This book made me realize that love can make us suffer, do crazy things, and suffer once more because of its loss and rage to regain it. Sita and Rama are inseparable. Read this book to find out what happened to their lives, what made one suffer and the other fight endlessly against their peace destroyer..... Self- sacrifice plays an important role in this poem, which contains many turns and twists, so unpredictable that you will never figure out what Rama almost accused Sita of, doubting her of something she has never committed....

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually like this book after I read furthur into it. In this book, I found many hubris moments and peoples, and of course mandy vioce of reasons. There are also filial love. An example in the story of hubris is Ravana, the demon god. He is always full of hubris all the time even before he was beaten by Rama. Ravana acts like he could beat Rama after his uncle and his sister is disqualified in life. He is even full of hubris when Vibishana told him that he might be beaten by a human, taken over by monkeys because of the women's curse. He pay no attention to them, which led him to be beaten by Rama. Vibishana was one of the vioce of reasons. He treid to convinced Ravana, his brother that Ramam might be difficult to deal with, but Ravana was too full of himself that he ignore him and sent him away.
I like reading myths, they seem real but are mythical. I'm attracted to magic and fantasy. Myths are kind of like them are some people believe that myths are ture.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this epic poem, mainly because it had many obstacles for Rama, to reach to his true love, Sita and the fact that Rama was really Vishnu all along. I really liked how the author made the relationship between Rama and Sita seem so true and so loyal, because of how they always stick together no matter what happens, and how even in reincarnation, they somehow found each other and fell in love again. The fact that Rama went through many obstacles to try to get Sita such as cutting the huge bow and fighting Ravana when he captured Sita, in general represents their true love which is my favorite understanding in the epic poem. Overall, some lessons that I recieved from this poem is one, you can never trust anyone or anything completely, and two, many people in the world will use hubris as a mask to cover up their own inner fears or their low self esteem, which is true for Ravana in this poem.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

"The Ramayana" is a book that revolves mainly around the gods of Hinduism, Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu. Rama is the physical incarnation of Vishnu, however, in his human form, he is not aware for the majority of the book. Being a demigod, he is bestowed majestic beauty as well as strength and elegance. He smites all demons and evildoers that cross him, and helps those who need him. However, this epic was extremely lacking in detail and logic. Although many of the characters in this book were above human, it is quite difficult to envision certain things in this poem, especially the things that seem impossible beyond imagination. This is caused by the very little detail that this books contains. It may just be because of my young age, but I often found myself confused as to what was occurring in the story and had to return to previous pages to recap on what was going on. I would not recommend this book for those reasons.

[Roxanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Ramayana book was very intriguing. At first i didn't understand it, or maybe just wasn't giving the book a chance because it was boring and lacked entertainment at the moment, but later on that l changed. I never became so interested in a religion like that before bushido. Bushido means the way of the samurai, and is still praticed till this day, but mostly in Japan. It just made me feel like I was in the book, I could visulaize the images and the chracters, like it was all happening at that moment. The book just made it very realistic, and the culture, faith, filial love, vilifcation of women, hubris, voice of reason, etc, made the book even more enteratining. I hope i get the chnace to read more books like this one.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Ramayana was a wonderful epic. The main character, Rama, goes on many adventures with his brother to fulfill his destiny and destroy evil. Rama finally settles down and marries Sita by winning her hand of marriage by a test. Just like King Arthur’s test of pulling out the sword, Rama had to break Shiva’s bow. He succeeds and Sita turns out to be his soul mate. The Ramayana was a great story that keep me on the edge. However, I was very surprised at the ending when Rama wins Sita back but was very cold towards her afterwards. He then states that he doesn’t want her back and releases her. Sita was very upset by this and calls on fire to cleanse and purify her. After being cleansed, Rama accepts her back and loves her just as he did before.

[Yomiuri · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Ramayana by R.K Narayan is epic story about the first fourteen years of Rama's life. It shows how and why he was exiled and all the obstacles he had before becoming king. The majority of Hindu's use The Ramayana as a spiritual guide through their lives. This book also shows how good won over evil. My favorite character in the book was Sita, even though she is thought to be the cause of all of Rama's problems. Sita was taken by Ravana but she was Rama's wife, and so this was the cause of the war Ravana and Rama had, the part where they talked about the war in my opinion was boring, because I'm not really into action.