The Story of Rama

It is a mythological novel written in autobiographical mode. The primary source of inspiration has been the Ramayana of Valmiki composed in Sanskrit in the 5th century BC, which goes into twenty-four thousand couplets in the present form. Having been transformed from epic poetry into fictional prose, the novel, written in a simple lucid style, provides an exhaustive account of the great epic character, in his own words. Rama is unquestionably one of the tallest figures in Indian history and culture while Sita represents the best of Indian womanhood. Both of them are, traditionally, treated as incarnations. And yet, the whole story has been presented rationally, from characterization to accounts of events, with a human perspective that can be of interest to a modern reader anywhere.