One of India’s greatest epics, the Ramayana pervades the country’s moral and cultural consciousness. Believed to have been composed by Vālmīki sometime between the eighth and sixth centuries BC, it recounts the tragic and magical tale of Rāma, the wrongfully exiled prince of Ayodhyā, an incarnation of the god Viṣṇu, born to rid the earth of the terrible demon Rāvaṇa.
An idealized heroic tale about the struggle between good and evil, the Ramayana is also an intensely personal story of family relationships, love and loss, duty and honor, of harem intrigue, petty jealousies and destructive ambitions—all this played out in a universe populated by larger-than-life humans, gods and celestial beings, wondrous animals and terrifying demons.
Widely acclaimed since its first publication in 1996, Arshia Sattar’s stellar translation is an absolute delight, successfully bridging time and space to bring us the wisdom, adventure and eroticism of this enduring classic.