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Vedas and Puranas dominated the ancient religious scenerio of Hinduism. Vedas are great storehouses of knowledge and deal in a very sacred holy form as to how to lead a normal life, giving stress to the ideal method of living. Side by side the history of the religion and the spiritual quest to methods to attain God, also form a part of Vedas. But Puranas (ancient stories) are epic stories rivaling in greatness to any ancient literature produced any where in the world. As the only fore runner of the eighteen great Puranas compiled by Veda Vyasa (literally an essay writer), there is one great Purana which has not been compiled by him and this is Ramayana, which deals with the story of Rama. Ramayana is written by Valmiki - the sage who lived inside an anthill. Unlike Vyasa, who is a great reporter, Valmiki was a very great poet. He had written the story of Ramayana with utmost poetic frenzy and eloquence. There is not a single stanza in Ramayana, where he has not used a figure of speech. His descriptions touch the chord deep in the mind. Hindus believed that it was the first epic ever written and they called it the Adhi Kavya (The first epic) and called Valmiki the Adhi Kavi (The first poet). Unlike the other great Puranas, Ramayana deals with the story of Rama, who is possibly the most ideal human being who ever lived in India. In spite of several thousand years old, his story provides a guide to every individual human being as to how to live an ideal life. The entire story of Ramayana is about him and him only. This story is divided in to six chapters viz. Baala Kaanda (Chapter on childhood), AyOdhya Kaanda (The chapter on Ayodhya), AraNya Kanda (Chapter of the forest), Kishkindhaa Kanda (Chapter on Kishkinda), Sundara Kanda (Beautiful chapter) and Yuddha kanda (Chapter on War). There is also another chapter Uthara Kanda (after chapter) which is supposed to have been written by some other poet.

Valmiki was a hunter by birth, who was earning bread to his family by hunting animals. One day Sage Narada, who met him, enquired from him, whether his family members who shared the food that he took home, were willing to share his sin of hunting and killing the animals. Valmiki thought they would but none of them were willing to do so. This upset Valmiki and he wanted to give up his sinful ways and search for a better life. Narada requested him to keep on repeating the name of Rama, endlessly and ceaselessly. After some time, in his absorption of meditation, he did not notice that an anthill was built round him. His name comes from this story. Valmiki became a sage and a poet. He was searching for a suitable hero whose story he wanted to write in a poetic form. In his pursuits, one day he saw a hunter killing one among the bird couple, which resulted in the heartrending cry of the other. This touched his heart and soon he met Sage Narada again. Narada requested him to write the story of Rama which revolves round the marital separation. This suited the poignant mood of Valmiki whose mind was crying ever since he witnessed the death of the bird. An epic poem was born.

Extracted from ‘Introduction to Ramayana’ originally published at IndiaDivine.org on August 10, 2005. Full article is available at http://www.indiadivine.org/hinduism/articles/216/1/Introduction-to-Ramayana

an audio book By Dr. A. P. Sukumar
sukumarcanada@yahoo.com

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Chapter	Duration	File	File Size
Chapter 1 – Baala Kaanda	2 hours	Baalakandam 01	12.32 MB
		Baalakandam 02	9.18 MB
		Baalakandam 03	9.69 MB
		Baalakandam 04	18.55 MB
		Baalakandam 05	12.61 MB
		Baalakandam 06	6.58 MB
Chapter 2 - AyOdhya Kaanda	3h 25 min	AyOdhya Kaanda 07	14.18 MB
		AyOdhya Kaanda 08	13.48 MB
		AyOdhya Kaanda 09	14.24 MB
		AyOdhya Kaanda 10	13.97 MB
		AyOdhya Kaanda 11	17.94 MB
		AyOdhya Kaanda 12	14.65 MB
		AyOdhya Kaanda 13	17.59 MB
		AyOdhya Kaanda 14	12.09 MB
Chapter 3 - AraNya Kaandam	2h 28 min	AraNya Kanda 15	15.3 MB
		AraNya Kanda 16	15.94 MB
		AraNya Kanda 17	12.75 MB
		AraNya Kanda 18	18.26 MB
		AraNya Kanda 19	22.92 MB
Chapter 4 - Kishkindhaa Kaandam	2h 34 min	Kishkindhaa Kanda 20	16.52 MB
		Kishkindhaa Kanda 21	18.15 MB
		Kishkindhaa Kanda 22	18.41 MB
		Kishkindhaa Kanda 23	15.48 MB
		Kishkindhaa Kanda 24	20.38 MB
Chapter 5 - Sundara Kaandam	1h 50 min	Sundara Kanda 25	14.04 MB
		Sundara Kanda 26	17.62 MB
		Sundara Kanda 27	16.11 MB
		Sundara Kanda 28	22.36 MB
Chapter 6 – Yudha Kandam	4h 26 min	Yuddha Kanda 29	15.08 MB
		Yuddha Kanda 30	16.18 MB
		Yuddha Kanda 31	16.64 MB
		Yuddha Kanda 32	16.7 MB
		Yuddha Kanda 33	17.1 MB
		Yuddha Kanda 34	12.43 MB
		Yuddha Kanda 35	14.16 MB
		Yuddha Kanda 36	25.94 MB
		Yuddha Kanda 37	16.24 MB
		Yuddha Kanda 38	27.56 MB
Chapter 7 – Uttara Kandam	4h 32 min	Uttara Kaanda 39	14.06 MB
		Uttara Kaanda 40	20.81 MB
		Uttara Kaanda 41	18.88 MB
		Uttara Kaanda 42	25.53 MB
		Uttara Kaanda 43	20.67 MB
		Uttara Kaanda 44	23.48 MB
		Uttara Kaanda 45	26.9 MB

	Introduction to Ramayana
	Vedas and Puranas dominated the ancient religious scenerio of Hinduism. Vedas are great storehouses of knowledge and deal in a very sacred holy form as to how to lead a normal life, giving stress to the ideal method of living. Side by side the history of the religion and the spiritual quest to methods to attain God, also form a part of Vedas. But Puranas (ancient stories) are epic stories rivaling in greatness to any ancient literature produced any where in the world. As the only fore runner of the eighteen great Puranas compiled by Veda Vyasa (literally an essay writer), there is one great Purana which has not been compiled by him and this is Ramayana, which deals with the story of Rama. Ramayana is written by Valmiki - the sage who lived inside an anthill. Unlike Vyasa, who is a great reporter, Valmiki was a very great poet. He had written the story of Ramayana with utmost poetic frenzy and eloquence. There is not a single stanza in Ramayana, where he has not used a figure of speech. His descriptions touch the chord deep in the mind. Hindus believed that it was the first epic ever written and they called it the Adhi Kavya (The first epic) and called Valmiki the Adhi Kavi (The first poet). Unlike the other great Puranas, Ramayana deals with the story of Rama, who is possibly the most ideal human being who ever lived in India. In spite of several thousand years old, his story provides a guide to every individual human being as to how to live an ideal life. The entire story of Ramayana is about him and him only. This story is divided in to six chapters viz. Baala Kaanda (Chapter on childhood), AyOdhya Kaanda (The chapter on Ayodhya), AraNya Kanda (Chapter of the forest), Kishkindhaa Kanda (Chapter on Kishkinda), Sundara Kanda (Beautiful chapter) and Yuddha kanda (Chapter on War). There is also another chapter Uthara Kanda (after chapter) which is supposed to have been written by some other poet.
Valmiki was a hunter by birth, who was earning bread to his family by hunting animals. One day Sage Narada, who met him, enquired from him, whether his family members who shared the food that he took home, were willing to share his sin of hunting and killing the animals. Valmiki thought they would but none of them were willing to do so. This upset Valmiki and he wanted to give up his sinful ways and search for a better life. Narada requested him to keep on repeating the name of Rama, endlessly and ceaselessly. After some time, in his absorption of meditation, he did not notice that an anthill was built round him. His name comes from this story. Valmiki became a sage and a poet. He was searching for a suitable hero whose story he wanted to write in a poetic form. In his pursuits, one day he saw a hunter killing one among the bird couple, which resulted in the heartrending cry of the other. This touched his heart and soon he met Sage Narada again. Narada requested him to write the story of Rama which revolves round the marital separation. This suited the poignant mood of Valmiki whose mind was crying ever since he witnessed the death of the bird. An epic poem was born.

Extracted from ‘Introduction to Ramayana’ originally published at IndiaDivine.org on August 10, 2005. Full article is available at http://www.indiadivine.org/hinduism/articles/216/1/Introduction-to-Ramayana


Complete Adhyatma Ramayanam of Thunchathu Ramanujan Ezhutthassan Originally published at www.guruvayoor.com	an audio book By Dr. A. P. Sukumar sukumarcanada@yahoo.com