The Valmiki Ramayana Vol. 2

The Valmiki Ramayana (Penguin edition) #2

by Vālmīki, Bibek Debroy (Translator)

The Valmiki Ramayana remains a living force in the lives of the Indian people. A celebration of the victory of good over evil, this timeless epic recounts the legend of Rama, the exiled prince of Ayodhya, and his battle to vanquish the demon king Ravana.

Exiled on the eve of his coronation, Rama enters the forests of Dandaka with his beautiful wife Sita and devoted brother Lakshmana. When Sita is abducted by Ravana, who takes her to his isolated kingdom on the far side of the southern ocean, the two brothers set out to rescue her. What follows is a heroic tale filled with intrigue and adventure, gods and demons, colossal battles and ancient wisdom.

But the Ramayana is also an intensely personal story of love and loss, duty and honour, petty jealousies and destructive ambitions.

Genres: Mythology, Hinduism, Religion, Classics, India, Epic, History

504 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2017

About the author

Valmiki is celebrated as the poet harbinger in Sanskrit literature. He is the author of the epic Ramayana, based on the attribution in the text of the epic itself.He is revered as the Adi Kavi, which means First Poet, for he discovered the first śloka i.e. first verse, which set the base and defined the form to Sanskrit poetry. The Yoga Vasistha is attributed to him. A religious movement called Valmikism is based on Valmiki's teachings as presented in the Ramayana and the Yoga Vasistha.
At least by the 1st century AD, Valmiki's reputation as the father of Sanskrit classical poetry seems to have been legendary. Ashvagosha writes in the Buddhacarita,
"The voice of Valmiki uttered poetry which the great seer Chyavana could not compose."
This particular verse has been speculated to indicate a familial relationship between Valmiki and Chyavana, as implied by the previous and subsequent verses.

Reviews

[Monte Desai]

🌻🌻🌷🌷🌷🙏🙏🙏JAI SHREE RAM JAI SHREE HANUMAN...
THIS IS THE MOST COMPLETE AND ACCOMPLISHED ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE HINDU EPIC "VALMIKI RAMAYANA "...
THIS PART INCLUDES 3 KANDAS:

3RD KANDA: ARANYA KANDA
4TH KANDA: KISHKINDHA KANDA
5TH KANDA: SUNDARA KANDA

[Bharath Chava]

Reading a unabridged version of any thing is no easy task. Unless you have the extreme will to complete and understand it in full.

The Bibek Debroy's unabridged version is nothing but converting a 25,000 verses written in ancient Sanskrit to a book into English that to in prose without loosing the poetic beauty of Valmiki. There is lot of noise and agenda in the books written on the ancient Hindu epics. If you are in search of trueness of this epic with no agenda & read it as it intend to, Bibek Debroy's Book is your answer.

The Vol-2 consists of AranayaKanda , KishkindaKanda & The best of Kanda's SundaraKanda!! I never understood the why it was called Sundarakanda when all it talks about triumph of hanuman in Lanka.I always thought it should be called as Humantkanda instead of sundarakanda. This book answers that question.

[Bhakta Kishor]

Valmiki was the first person in history to write an epic poem (called Adi Kavi). Mahabharata is basically a poem which consists 24,000 verses called shlokas) divided into 7 parts. Lord Rama and Sita had met sage Valmiki during their exile, in the forest. After that when Sita was banished by Lord Rama, Valmiki had provided her shelter in his hermitage. Their she gave birth to her twin sons, lava and kush, the epic poem written by Valmiki was narrated and taught to lava and kush and they sang the same during ashwamedha yajna in Ayodhya. Thus, ramayana came into limelight.

[Chiranjib Chowdhury]

This book covers 3 kandas (Aranya, Kishkindha & Sundara Kanda).
I always knew that Valmiki’s unabridged version will be different than the version we read. Especially for Bengali’s where “Krittibashi Ramayan” is more popular. I have also come to know another version of Bengali Ramayana which is called “Jagadrami Ramayana”. It has 8 kandas instead of seven. Probably the biggest in its kinds (!).

[Mrutyunjay Joshi]

Really good translation of the original Valmiki Ramayan by Dr. Bibek Debroy. He has also provided meaning of certain events and terminology with the reference from various other Hindu Scriptures and given as extra note. Really must read collection of all 3 volumes.

[Prabhu Mazhavarayar]

Moved from Volume 1 to 2 instantly because of the good translation . Highly recommend this if anyone is interested in reading the unabridged version of this ithihasa.

[Rutuja Mane]

Still just a built up to the big climax that is the third book.

[Manish]

The Lanka Dahan and the preceding sections of Hanuman roaming around the island were quite vivid. :)

[Samyuktha Ell]

A good read. Replete with the minutest details.

[Priya Kumar]

Just like the first volume, the translation is done exceptionally well. Bibek Debroy provides an honest and faithful translation of the Critical Edition of the Valmiki Ramayana with useful footnotes to provide relevant context. The translation maintains an academic tone while remaining readable, and at times highlights important textual nuances.

This second book in the collection consists of three Kandas: Aranya Kanda, Kishkindha Kanda and Sundara Kanda. The narrative escalates significantly in Aranya Kanda with the abduction of Sita and the emotional shift in Rama’s character. Kishkindha Kanda introduces the political alliance between Rāma and Sugrīva, resulting in the controversial killing of Vali. Sundara Kanda centres on Hanumat’s journey to Lanka, where his intelligence, strategic thinking, and problem-solving skills really shine. Across the Kandas we explore different themes such as morality, justice, power, diplomacy and dharma.

I found this book much easier to read than the first and would recommend continuing with the series. Reading faithful translations of the original epic can highlight important differences with popular retellings. For example, Hanumat is often portrayed as the ideal devotee of Rama, the model Ram Bhakt. However, in the original epic his defining qualities here are intelligence, restraint, and strategic thinking.

[Shaily Singh]

The true to word translation with very objective footnotes is what I really loved. Also, the quality of translation and the carrefully chosen words is another amazing thing about this book. Loved reading it and now it's time for the 3rd volume of the series. Highly recommended!

[Mahesh J]

I haven't read the Sanskrit original, so I can't comment on how this compares with it, but I'll say this: the spellings of names could've been much better. I can't bring myself to agree with the reasoning behind the transliterated spellings of names, as it seems a bit unsound to me.

[Abhilash Gosavi]

Slow and Repetitive. 3.4/5.

[Arunayan Sharma]

Best ever.

[Nikhilesh Nadkarni]

Extremely interesting. Goes on getting interesting. One who wishes to read the Ramayana should read this series.