About The Ramayana

By Valmiki, translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith · first published in 1870 · Poetry

The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India, traditionally credited to the sage Valmiki and often called the Adi Kavya, the first poem. In seven books it tells the story of Rama, the eldest prince of Ayodhya, who gives up his throne to keep his father’s word and goes into exile in the forest with his wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana, until Sita is carried off by Ravana, the demon king of Lanka.

This English verse translation by Ralph T. H. Griffith, principal of the Government College at Benares, was published in five volumes between 1870 and 1874. Griffith died in 1906, so the translation is in the public domain in India, the United States and elsewhere.

The preview opens with the first canto, in which Valmiki asks the wandering sage Nárad whether there lives a man who is truly good, heroic and wise, and Nárad answers with the story of Rama in brief.