00 Intro

RAMAYANA retold by C. Rajagopalachari
(Edited by Jay Mazo, American Gita Society)

Contents

    1. The Conception
    1. Sage Viswamitra
    1. Trisanku
    1. Rama Leaves Home
    1. Rama Slays The Monsters
    1. Sita
    1. Bhagiratha And The Story Of Ganga
    1. Ahalya
    1. Rama Wins Sita’s Hand
    1. Parasurama’s Discomfiture
    1. Festive Preparations
    1. Manthara’s Evil Counsel
    1. Kaikeyi Succumbs
    1. Wife Or Demon?
    1. Behold A Wonder!
    1. Storm And Calm
    1. Sita’s Resolve
    1. To The Forest
    1. Alone By Themselves
    1. Chitrakuta
    1. A Mother’s Grief
    1. Idle Sport And Terrible Result
    1. Last Moments
    1. Bharata Arrives
    1. Intrigue wasted
    1. Bharata Suspected
    1. The Brothers Meet
    1. Bharata Becomes Rama’s Deputy
    1. Viradha’s End
    1. Ten Years Pass
    1. The Surpanakha Episode
    1. Kamban’s Surpanakha
    1. Khara And His Army Liquidated
    1. The Path Of Ruin
    1. The Golden Stag
    1. The Good Bird Jatayu
    1. Closely Guarded
    1. Rama Disconsolate
    1. A Second Father Dies
    1. Left Eyelids Throb
    1. He Sees Her Jewels
    1. Sugriva’s Doubts Cleared
    1. The Slaying Of Vali
    1. Tara’s Grief
    1. Anger And Reconciliation
    1. The Search Begins
    1. Son Of Vayu
    1. The Search In Lanka
    1. Sita In The Asoka Park
    1. Ravana’s Solicitation
    1. First Among The Astute
    1. Sita Comforted
    1. Sita And Hanuman
    1. Inviting Battle
    1. The Terrible Envoy
    1. Hanuman Bound
    1. Lanka In Flames
    1. A Carnival
    1. The Tidings Conveyed
    1. The Army Moves Forward
    1. Anxiety In Lanka
    1. Ravana Calls A Council Again
    1. Vibhishana
    1. The Vanara’s Doubt
    1. Doctrine Of Surrender And Grace
    1. The Great Causeway
    1. The Battle Begins
    1. Sita’s Joy
    1. Serpent Darts
    1. Ravana’s Defeat
    1. The Giant Is Roused
    1. Is This Narayana Himself?
    1. The Death Of Indrajit
    1. End Of Ravana
    1. The End
    1. Epilogue

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

The Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan has added to the debt of gratitude owed it by undertaking the publication of the English version of my Tamil Ramayana. They achieved great success in the distribution of my Mahabharata book and I trust this book of the story of Rama and Sita will receive similar welcome. Once again, I repeat my confession that in the evening of my busy life during a great and eventful period of Indian history, the writing of these two books wherein I have retold the Mahabharata and Ramayana, is, in my opinion, the best service I have rendered to my people. At any rate, they embody the best joy I have experienced; for in these two books I helped our great sages to speak to our dear men and women again in their own language, elevating their minds through the sorrows borne by Kunti, Kausalya, Draupadi and Sita. The real need of the hour is a recommunion between us and the sages of our land, so that the future may be built on rock and not on sand. In presenting this English version to a wider circle of readers spread all over the world, I think I am presenting to them the people of Bharat just as they are, with all their virtues and their faults. Our classics really embody our national character in all its aspects and it is well the world sees us as we really are, apart from what we wish to become. The Ramayana is not history or biography. It is a part of Hindu mythology. One cannot understand Hindu dharma unless one knows Rama and Sita, Bharata, Lakshmana, Ravana, Kumbhakarna and Hanuman. Mythology cannot be dispensed with. Philosophy alone or rituals alone or mythology alone cannot be sufficient. These are the three stands of all ancient religions. The attitude towards things spiritual which belongs to a particular people cannot be grasped or preserved or conveyed unless we have all these three. The Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan has achieved great work by the very wide distribution organised by it of my Ramayana and Mahabharata books, which seek to bring Valmiki and Vyasa near to those who have no access to the unrivalled original classics. The characters and incidents of these two itihasas have come to be the raw material for the works of numerous poets and saints that came later to write dramas and sing poems and hymns to keep this nation in the straight path. Oral discourses have further played with them in order to entertain and instruct pious audiences and not a few variations and additions have been made to the original. All the languages of India have the Ramayana and Mahabharata retold by their poets, with additions and variations of their own. They are the records of the mind and spirit of our forefathers who cared for the good, ever so much more than for the pleasant and who saw more of the mystery of life than we can do in our interminable pursuit for petty and illusory achievements ill the material plane. We should be thankful to those who preserved for us these many centuries-old epics in spite of all the vicissitudes through which our nation passed since Vyasa and Valmiki’s time. Even the poets who wrote these epics in the original did not create but built out of the inherited bricks of national memory prior to their own time. Reading the Ramayana and Mahabharata even in the form I have given them, we go back to live with our ancient forbears and listen to their grand voice.Mythology is an integral part of religion. It is as necessary for religion and national culture as the skin and the skeleton that preserve a fruit with its juice and its taste. Form is no less essential than substance. Mythology and holy figures are necessary for any great culture to rest on its stable spiritual foundation and function as a life-giving inspiration and guide. Let us keep ever in our minds the fact that it is the Ramayana and the Mahabharata that bind our vast numbers together as one people, despite caste, space and language that seemingly divide them.