uddhamsoto

Kamba Ramayanam  is a Tamil epic that was written by Kamban during the 12th century. Based on Valmiki’s Ramayana in Sanskrit, the story describes the life of King Rama of Ayodhya. However, Ramavatharam is different from the Sanksrit original in many aspects – both in spiritual concepts and in the specifics of the story line. This historic work is considered by Tamil scholars as well as the general public as one of the greatest literary works in Tamil literature.

The Ramayana  is one of the great epics of India. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon (smṛti), considered to be itihāasa.^[ The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India, the other being the Mahabharata. It depicts the duties of relationships, portraying ideal characters like the ideal father, ideal servant, the ideal brother, the ideal wife and the ideal king. The name Ramayana is a tatpurusha compound of Rāma and ayana (“going, advancing”), translating to “Rama’s Journey“. The Ramayana consists of 24,000 verses in seven books (kāṇḍas) and 500 cantos(sargas),  and tells the story of Rama (an avatar of the Hindu Supreme-God Vishnu), whose wife Sita is abducted by the king of Sri Lanka,Ravan. Thematically, the Ramayana explores human values and the concept of dharma.

Verses in the Ramayana are written in a 32-syllable meter called anustubh. The Ramayana was an important influence on later Sanskrit poetry and Indian life and culture. Like the Mahābhārata, the Ramayana is not just a story: it presents the teachings of ancient Hindu sages (Vedas) in narrative allegory, interspersing philosophical and devotional elements.

Yoga Vasistha is a spiritual text written by Srishti Rachaita Lord Valmeki Ji. It is believed by some Hindus to answer all the questions that arise in the human mind. By reading this book one can get the moksha. It recounts a discourse of the sage Vasistha to a young Prince Rama, during a period when the latter is in a dejected state. The contents of Vasistha’s teaching to Rama is associated with Advaita Vedanta, the illusory nature of the manifest world and the principle of non-duality. The book has been dated between the 11th and 14th century AD) and is generally regarded as one of the longest texts in Sanskrit (after theMahabharata) and an important text of Yoga. The book consists of about 32,000 shlokas (lines), including numerous short stories and anecdotes used to help illustrate its content. In terms of Hindu mythology, the conversation in the Yoga Vasishta takes place chronologically before the Ramayana.

Other names of this text are Mahā-Rāmāyana, ārsha Rāmāyana, Vasiṣṭha Rāmāyana,Yogavasistha-Ramayana andJnanavasistha.

The traditional belief is that reading this book leads to spiritual liberation. The conversation between Vasistha and Prince Rama is that between a great, enlightened sage and a seeker who is about to reach wholeness. This is said to be among those rare conversations which directly leads to Truth.The scripture provides understanding, scientific ideas and philosophy; it explains consciousness, the creation of the world, the multiple universes in this world, our perception of the world, its ultimate dissolution, the liberation of the soul and the non-dual approach to creation.
An oft-repeated verse in the text is that relating to Kakathaliya, (“coincidence”).
The story is that a crow alights on a palm tree, and that very moment the ripe palm fruit falls on the ground. The two events are apparently related, yet the crow never intended the palm fruit to fall; nor did the palm fruit fall because the crow sat on the tree. The intellect mistakes the two events as causally related, though in reality they are not.

Adbhuta Ramayana a Sanskrit work traditionally attributed to the sage Valmiki. It is considerably more obscure than both the Valmiki Ramayana—generally considered the original version—as well as Tulsidas’ awadhi version entitled Ramacharitamanasa, northern India’s most popular version of the Ramayana story.

Scholarly analysis of its content and text history has, to this point, been minor. Its significance lies in its traditional place in the body of Ramayana literature. It is not to be confused with the Kannada prose work of the same name by Nandalike Lakshminarayana.

The Adbhuta Ramayana is composed in 27 sargas of various metres, and only briefly recounts the traditional Rama narrative. The earliest episodes of Rama’s life, as depicted inValmiki’s original telling—such as the story of Rama’s birth, his training with Vishwamitra, and the breaking of Shiva’s bow at Sita’s swayamvara—are omitted. This adaptation of Rama’s life begins with his confrontation with Parashurama as he and his family returned from his wedding in Janakpura. The story glosses over other noteworthy events of the epic, focusing more on supportive stories intended to elaborate upon the major themes of Valmiki’s primary work.

Sita is accorded far more prominence in this variant of the Ramayana narrative, and indeed two of its most notable contributions are an elaboration of the events surrounding her birth—in this case to Ravana’s wife, Mandodari, as well as her conquest of Ravana’s older brother in her Mahakali form.

Kakawin Ramayana is an Old Javanese rendering of the Sanskrit Ramayana in kakawin meter. It is believed to have been written in Central Java (modern Indonesia) in approximately 870 AD during the era of Medang Kingdom. Kakawin Rāmâyaṇa is a so-called kakawin, the Javanese form of kāvya, a poem modeled on traditional Sanskrit meters.

Among the Javanese, Kakawin Ramayana has always been considered the pinnacle of artistic expression. The large number of preserved manuscripts attest to it popularity and adaptation. It is the lengthiest of all the Old Javanese kakawins of the Hindu-Buddhist period of Java.

The Javanese Ramayana differs markedly from the original Hindu prototype. The first half of this Ramayana Jawa is similar to the original Sanskrit version, while the latter half is divergent to the point of being unrecognizable by Indian scholars of the original Ramayana. One of the many major changes is the inclusion of the all-powerful Javanese indigenous deity dhayana Guardian God of Java Semar (in Balinese literature known as Twalen) and his misshapen sons, Gareng, Petruk, and Bagong who make up the numerically significant four Punokawan or “clown servants”. This latter, altered half of the original tale is the most popular, and it is performed in all wayang performances