Sri Rama - part 1: Epic Characters of Ramayana

By Sri Hari

Sri Rama , an avatar of  Lord Vishnu, was born to King Dasharatha and Queen Kausalya after the  king performed the Aswamedha and Putrakameshthi yajnas. Rama and his three brothers had all the qualities of kshyatriyas and endeared themselves to one and all in  Ayodhya. Sage Viswamitra once came to the king's palace and requested for Rama to be sent to protect his yajna from two demons' interference. Much to the king's consternation, Rama and Lakshmana left with the sage. The sage initiated Rama into the 'Bala- Atibala' mantra. He first tackled Tataki successfully. The sage was so pleased that he initiated Rama into a number of divine weapons. Rama, in turn, initiated  Lakshmana into them. Armed suitably, all the three reached the ashram  where the yajna was to be performed. Everything went off well for  five days but on the sixth day, Rama and Lakshmana  destroyed Mareecha and Subahu as well as many demons who tried to defile the yajna.  The yajna was then completed successfully. In due course, the princes heard the stories of the sage's parentage and how he came to live in Siddhashrama,  of Ganga, Himavantha, King Sagara and Sage Kapila. They reached Gowthama's ashrama where Rama relieved the sage's wife, Ahalya, of the curse she had been under. Moving on from there, they went to Mithila where Rama won Sita's hand. After their marriage, Lakshamana got married to Urmila, Bharatha to Mandavi and Shatrughna to Shrutakirthi.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bharatha Samskruthi Prakashana
• Release date: May 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9789389020724

Book preview

EPIC CHARACTERS oF RAMAYANA

Sri Rama

Part - 1

Written by

Sri Hari

Translated by

Prof. G. S. Mudambadithaya

© Bharatha Samskruthi Prakashana, Bengaluru. All rights reserved.

Published by:

Bharatha Samskruthi Prakashana

C/o. Bharatha Darshana,

163, Manjunatha Road, 2nd Block,

Thyagarajanagar, Bangalure 560 028,

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Date: 02 March, 2019

ISBN: 9789389020724

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FOREWARD

Sri Srirangasadgurave Namah

Bharatha Samskruthi Prakashana, the instellectual and spiritual offspring of Bharatha Darshana, a premier publishing house of Bangalore, has been rendering yeoman services to the cause of literature, culture and its blossom, ‘The Epic Characters of the Mahabharatha,’ has bloomed in all splendor in the world of children’s literature and we have welcomed and blessed it. Now the second bud has blossomed in the form of ‘The Epic Characters of Ramayana’ and has already begun spreading its fragrance around. It is a set of books based on Ramayana. We welcome it and bless it.

There is a difference between the Ramayana and the Mahabharatha in style and treatment. There is no second opinion about differences regarding form, magnitude, delineation of characters and the time of composition of these two great epics. Srimad Ramayana is a pure epic in seven cantos. There are twenty four thousand stanzas. It is an epic par excellence dealing with a theme and characters who lived in tretayuga, composed by a contemporary poet. The Mahabharatha is essentially history. It is in eighteen parvas having hundred thousand stanzas. It deals with a theme and characters who lived in dwaparayuga, again composed by a contemporary poet. (There is a view that these two great epics depict the culture of different regions of this holy land and are composed by many poets and they portray the various events and circumstances which took place during the Aryan invasion of India. We do not agree with such views).

All the same these two epics provide us with the images of the Vedas. These are the essence of vedas, national epics of Bharatha and sources for thousands of books on our culture which followed them from the natural stream of poetical composition and enjoyment of literature. At the same time they are never drying sources of Purusharthas namely dharma, artha, kama and moksha. In the background of the struggle among human beings, they paint the struggle between the good and the evil very beautifully and announce to the world the message of victory of the good over the evil. These eloquent and learned creations, have a few universal and sovereign truths to give to the world and as a result they have occupied the pride of place among great literary works in the