The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic

“In keeping with the classical tradition, Kamban begins his epic with a description of the land in which the story is set. The first stanza mentions the river Sarayu, which flows through the country of Kosala. The second stanza lifts your vision skyward to observe the white fleecy clouds that drift across the sky towards the sea […].” 

The first lines of Narayan’s translation acknowledge the fact that Narayan is working with a text by Kamban, a poet who wrote in Tamil in the 11th century, and not the original ancient Sanskrit text by Valmiki. Kamban translated the original Sanskrit version into Tamil, and Narayan has condensed his translation of the Tamil version into a “shortened modern prose version” of the Ramayana, as the subtitle of the text states. All three versions contain the literary motif of nature and the natural landscape, as these mentions of the river and the sky attest.

“They explained, ‘The ten-headed Ravana and his brothers have acquired from us extraordinary powers through austerities and prayers, and now threaten to destroy our worlds and enslave us. […] You alone are the Protector and should save us.’”

At the start of the epic, as Dasaratha’s sage Vasishtha hears the king’s lament regarding the absence of a son who can be Dasaratha’s successor, the sage recalls an “inner vision” involving the gods above pleading with Vishnu, the Supreme God and protector of the universe, for help. This passage, from Vasishtha’s vision, contains the pleas of the gods who seek assistance from Vishnu; these pleas start the action of the plot of the epic. Vishnu tells the gods that he will incarnate as a man because only a human can kill Ravana. The sage connects his vision to Dasaratha’s plight, and this vision enables the sage to advise