
The Ramayana, Index

A scene From the Ramayana, Rama with his brother and an army of monkeys and generals
In condensing the Ramayana with its more than 24,000 Sanscrit couplets into 2,000 English couplets I have followed the same plan which was adopted in my translation of the Maha-Bharata. I have selected those sections or cantos which tell the leading incidents of the Epic, and have translated the whole or main portions of them, and these selected passages are linked together by short notes. The plan, as was explained before, has this advantage, that the story is told not by the translator in his own way, but by the poet himself the passages placed before the reader are not the translator's abridgment of a long poem, but selected passages from the poem itself. It is the ancient poet of India, and not the translator, who narrates the old story; but he narrates only such portions of it as describe the leading incidents. We are told that the sons of Rama recited the whole poem of 24,000 verses, divided into 500 cantos or sections, in twenty-five days. The modern reader has not the patience of the Hindu listener of the old school; but a selection of the leading portions of that immortal song, arranged in 2,000 verses and in 84 short sections, may possibly receive a hearing, even from the much-distracted modern reader. Romesh C. Dutt
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Suggestions for Further Reading
- The Ramayana Translated by Romesh Dutt, Index
- The Mahabharata, the Epic of the Bharatas
- Indian Idylls from the Mahabharata and Ramayana
- Tao Te Ching by Lao-tzu
- What is Tantra?
- The Gospel of the Buddha
- The Historical Context of The Bhagavadgita
- The Sankhya Sutras of Kapila, Index page
- The Hungry Stones and Other Stories
- The Autobiography of a Yogi by Swami Yogananda, Index
- Essays On Dharma
- Esoteric Mystic Hinduism
- Introduction to Hinduism
- Hindu Way of Life
- Essays On Karma
- Hindu Rites and Rituals
- The Origin of The Sanskrit Language
- Symbolism in Hinduism
- Essays on The Upanishads
- Concepts of Hinduism
- Essays on Atman
- Hindu Festivals
- Spiritual Practice
- Right Living
- Yoga of Sorrow
- Happiness
- Mental Health
- Concepts of Buddhism
- General Essays
Source: The Ramayana And The Mahabharata Condensed Into
English Verse By Romesh C. Dutt (1899) Dedicated To The Right Hon.
Professor F. Max M ller.
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