Ramayana (i.e. journey of Sri Rama’s life on earth) was first written in Sanskrit (around 500 B.C.) by Valmiki.  It is called “Adi-Kavyam”, the original epic.  After completing the work, Valmiki taught lyric and music to two of his students, Lava and Kusha (Sri Rama’s sons), who were living in Sri Valmiki ashrama along with their mother, Sita.  Valmiki asked Lava and Kusha to sing and popularize the story of Ramayana in public.  Ramayana has continued its tradition in the form of singing and reenactment, with the massive productions of Ramalila throughout India and in many other parts of the world. Valmiki’s Ramayana, composed of twenty four thousand (24,000) verses, is considered as part of Hindu Smriti and is sacred to the Hindu faith. The Ramayana is a “Sarvakalina Samskrta Sahitya”, an enduring literary classic that teaches idealism, faith, and devotion (‘bhakti’).

Valmiki's Ramayana inspired many new creations in later times. Among them are masterpieces like Raghuvamsa in Sanskrit (describing in detail lineage of Suryavanshi Raghuvamsa ancestry of King Rama) by Kalidasa (between 4th and 5th century A.D.), Kambaramayanam (~10th century A.D.) in Tamil by Kamban, Ramayana-Manjari in Sanskrit by Kashmiri Poet Ksemendra (~ 11th century A.D.), Ramacharitam (~13th century A.D.) in Malayalam-Tamil (author Cheeraman),  Vilanka-Ramayan (14th century A.D.) in Oriya by Saraladasa,  Ramayana  in Bengali by Krittivas ((~15th century A.D.).

In later times, Sri Ramacharitamanasa, a composition in Awadhi, (now considered a dialect of Hindi) by Goswami Tulasidasa (17th century A.D.), has received high popularity among the religious practitioners throughout India. In the 20th century Sri Ramayana Darshanam by Dr.K.V.Puttappa in Kannada and Ramayana Kalpavrikshamu by Viswanatha Satyanarayana in Telugu, have been added The modern Indian author Ashok Banker has so far written a series of six novels in English language based on the Ramayana.

Many other Asian cultures in South-east Asia have integrated the Ramayana story to the local literature resulting in customized versions tuned to native cultures. These include the Kakawin Ramayana of Java, Ramakavaca of Bali, Hikayat Seri Rama of Malaysia, Maradia Lawana of the Philippines, the Reamker of Cambodia, the Yama Zatdaw of Myanmar, and the Pra Lak Pra Lam of Laos.  Ramakien of Thailand is witnessed in elaborate illustration at the Wat Phra Kaew temple in Bangkok,

Goswami Tulsidasji’s masterpiece Sri Ramacharitamanasa expresses a strong path to devotion or ‘Bhakti’ in the form of poetry. In the grandeur of its poetry there is nothing that is equal to Sri Ramacharitamanasa in the entire range of Hindi literature. In the words of a famous literary, “it is the tallest tree in the magic garden of medieval Hindi poetry literature.” Goswami Tulsidasji upholds both Saguna and Nirguna aspects of GOD (Supreme Lord Vishnu incarnated on earth in the form of Lord King Rama). There is knowledge, work, devotion, duty, and above all humility in his creation, which ultimately leads to the path of Moksha or liberation.

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