The Sacred Books Of The East Described And Examined Epics Poems And Puranas The Ramayana The Mahabharata The Vishnu Purana 1st Ed 1896

Excerpt from The Sacred Books of the East Described and Examined, Vol. 3: Hindu Series; Epic Poems and Puranas; The Ramayana; The Mahabharata; The Vishnu Purana The title Ramayana, made up of Rama and ayana, means 'the Adventures of Rama.' The poem is said to have been composed by Valmiki, at the command of Brahma, by whom all the details would be revealed to him. Authorship and Date. - Valmiki is said to have begun life as a highway robber, but repenting of his misdeeds, he betook himself to a hermitage on a hill near the junction of the Ganges and Jumna. The Adhyatma Ramayana has the following notice of him: "The sage, although a Brahman by birth, associated with foresters and robbers. Attacking on one occasion the seven Rishis, they expostulated with him successfully, and taught him the mantra of Rama reversed, or Mara, Mara, in the inaudible repetition of which he remained immovable for thousands of years, so that when the sages returned to the same spot they found him still there, converted into a valmiki, or ant-hill, by the nests of the termites, whence his name Valmiki." The time when Valmiki lived is uncertain. The poem makes him contemporary with Rama. It is generally supposed to have been composed about five centuries B. C. There is no reference to Rama in the Vedas, the language of which differs by centuries from that of the Ramayana. On the other hand, the Ramayana records no case of Sati, and there is only a single allusion to Buddha, which is admitted not to have been part of the original. When the poem was composed the southern regions of India had not been occupied by the Aryans; but it seems to have received its present form a century or two later. Metre. - In the introduction Valmiki is claimed to be the author of the sloka metre, in which it is composed; but it is also found in the Vedas. It "consists of two lines each containing sixteen syllables, or rather of four lines of eight syllables of each, the intervals between the first and second and third and fourth of which are not always so distinctly marked as that between the second and third. It corresponds then roughly to four lines of the octosyllabic metre which will generally be found to reproduce it without, as a rule, either condensation or amplification." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."

Long age when this book first appeared in the opening year of the century the great Epic, Mahabharata had not been thoroughly examined to see what literature it reflected had not received a careful investigation from the metrical side its philosophy had been reviewed only in a most haphazard fashion and its relation to other epic poetry had been almost judgement on the question of the date and origin of the poem of which scholars knew as yet this poem of which scholars knew as yet scarcely more than that before a definitive answer could be given the whole huge structure must be studied from many points of view.

Compared to the western epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata are more complete story of Hindu, religious, cultural and social imagination and more exact narration of evolutionary rise of man. In this book, William Buck has succeeded better than anyone else in conveying the spirit of the original.The task of presenting a faithful image of the original text, its metaphysical nuances as well as its chronological sequence the world`s largest epic in a small book is a stupendous task.Mainly as a narration, the version of William Buck will serve as an interesting and complete tale to the English speaking reader. Valmiki was called the Adikavi or first poet of Sanskrit literature and some of his remarkable talent shines forth in the English rendering. The reader will find pleasure in reading it aloud to himself or the others.

This is the first of seven volumes of a translation of the Valmiki Ramayana, the great Sanskrit epic of the life of Rama, ideal man and incarnation of the great god Visnu. This renowned work of ancient India has profoundly affected the literature, art, religions, and cultures of countless millions of people in South and Southeast Asiaan influence that is perhaps unparalleled in the history of world literature. Balakanda, the opening portion of this first translation to be based on the critical edition (Oriental Institute, Baroda), is presented here in a compact volume without the section of notes that appears in the hardcover book.