Introduction to श्री रामायणम् - Śrī Rāmāyaṇam

 

श्री रामायणम् - Śrī Rāmāyaṇam

Introduction

I started studying Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa seriously from 2010 onwards, and had started blogging,  expresssing my views on the same from 2014.

In order to understand Rāmāyaṇa clearly, I read it repeatedly.  It was during this study that I realised that there were many interpolations incorporated by many authors, for one reason or the another. 

At that point of time, a desire to read the original version of Rāmāyaṇa, sans the interpolations, arose.  However, I could not find any scholarly work on the original version of Rāmāyaṇa, though many critics observed that there were interpolations in the presently available Rāmāyaṇa.

A few days back (December 2025), I had stumbled upon K. Watanabe’s observations, included in his work - The Oldest Record of the Ramayana in a Chinese Buddhist Writing", (nearly 2,000 years old version of Rāmāyaṇa), containing around 12,000 shlokas.

The Oldest Record of the Ramayana in a Chinese Buddhist Writing" (K. Watanabe)

The Mahāvibhāṣa, the well-known commentary on the Jñānaprasthāna   of Kātyāyanīputra (~127 CE), there is a short passage which is of importance in the history of Sanskrit epic literature. The great commentary mentions, as an example of the contrast between Buddhist and non-Buddhist books, the size and contents of the Ramayana.

The following is a literal English translation from the Chinese version by Yuan Chwiing: "As a book called the Ramayana, there are 12,000 slokas. They explain only two topics, namely : (1) Ravana carries Slta off by violence, and (2) Rama recovers Slta and returns. The Buddhist scriptures are not so simple. Their forms of composition and meanings are respectively immeasurable and infinite."

-------

------

The Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune, India (BORI) undertook a massive project, collating dozens of manuscripts from across India and Nepal to create a standardized, scholarly version of the Valmiki Rāmāyaṇa, renowned for its monumental, scholarly "Critical Edition" of the Valmiki Ramayana.

In the Critical Edition of Rāmāyaṇa, the BORI removed some interpolations and delivered a standardized version, containing 18,670 shlokas, compared to 24,000 shlokas version. 

Still, it contains some more interpolations such as inclusion of Putra Kameshti Yagna in Bala Kanda, entire Uttara Kanda, etc. And according to my study, it needs further pruning.

My observations on interpolations in Ramayana can found in my Blog titled My understanding of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana.

-----

I am not a Sanskrit scholar.  And, hence, I do not know whether I am right person to compile Ramayana, sans the interpolations.

Still, keeping all these issues in mind, I thought of compiling Rāmāyaṇa, sans the interpolations, on my own, keeping the BORI’s version as the basis. 

----

The following major interpolations that are present in the currently available Ramayana, were removed in my work.

 

 

Bala Kanda:

·       The first 4 Sargas, wherein Brahma and sage Narada provides guidance to Sage Valmiki

·       Sargas 15 to 17, wherein Putrakamesthi Yagna was performed

·       Sargas unrelated main story, viz., story of Sage Rishyasringa, story of Vamana, story of Brahmadatta, Descent of Ganga from Heaven, birth of Kartikeya, story of Ahalya and Gautama, story of sage Vishvamitra

·       Fight between Shri Rama and Parashurama

Ayodhya Kanda

·       Arguments with Jabali

·       Sage Vasishta narrating details of the creation of the world to Shri Rama.

Aranya Kanda

·       Shri Rama killing Mareecha

·       Sita finding fault with Lakshmana, as the latter refuses to go after Shri Rama

Kishkinda Kanda

·       Sugreeva’s excessive narration of 4 directions, while sending troops in search of Sita

Sundara Kanda

·       Excess narration of Pushpaka Vimana

·       Excess narration of Ravana’s wives

·       Additional narration of Sita’s wailing, after Ravana’s warning

Yuddha Kanda

·       Sage Agasthya coming to battle field and narrating the greatness of Aditya Hridayam

·       Disowning of Sita by Shri Rama, after the war and Sita’s Agni Pravesha.

Uttara Kanda

The entire Kanda is an interpolation and hence not included in my work.

----

I have kept the title to my work as श्री रामायणम् - Śrī Rāmāyaṇam. 

No. of verses in the Ramayana (presently available form) vis-à-vis my work, is as follows:

Sl.No.	Name of the Kanda	No. of Sargas	No. of shlokas	No. of shlokas as per my work
1	Bala Kanda	77	2280	678
2	Ayodhya Kanda	119	4415	2392
3	Aranya Kanda	75	2732	1681
4	Kishkindha Kanda	67	2620	1784
5	Sundara Kanda	68	3006	2195
6	Yuddha Kanda	131	5990	3603
7	Uttara Kanda	110	3277	0
	Total		24320	12333

 

------

Please note that:

·       Sarga-wise and shloka-wise English translations are already available ONLINE at SITE-1 and SITE-2. Interested persons may go through those sites.

·       I have provided translation of the story in brief, wherever found necessary.

·       Hyperlinks to preceding and succeeding posts were provided to each post, for easy navigation purpose.

 

 

Introduction to Bālakāṇḍa