Valmiki Ramayana

Eldest son of Dasharatha and Kausalya, born on Chaitra Shukla Navami in the Treta Yuga as the seventh avatar of Bhagwan Vishnu. Valmiki shows him as a man: he weeps for Sita, rages at the sea, doubts and grieves. What never moves is his word. He gave up a kingdom in a morning to keep his father’s promise, and he kept every promise he made after. Hindus call him Maryada Purushottam, the best of men within the bounds of dharma, and Ram Rajya is still the name for just rule.

Janaka found her in a furrow of the yajna ground, so she is Bhumija, daughter of the Earth, and Janaki, Maithili, Vaidehi after her father and his land. She chose the forest over the palace, refused Ravana for nearly a year with a blade of grass held between them as her answer, and walked through fire unharmed. Valmiki calls the whole poem “the great deeds of Sita” as much as Rama’s. For devotees she is Mata Lakshmi; Ram Navami and Janaki Navami in Vaishakha honour the pair.

Son of Sumitra, twin of Shatrughna, and from childhood never more than a step from Rama. Valmiki calls him Rama’s second life breathing outside his body. He left his wife Urmila to serve his brother for fourteen years, built every hut, kept watch every night, and in the end killed Indrajit. Quick to anger, quick to obey. Tradition sees him as Shesha, the serpent on whom Vishnu rests, come down to serve him again.

Son of Kaikeyi, for whom the throne was won by a trick he never wanted. He came home from Kekaya to a dead father and an exiled brother, turned on his own mother, and walked to Chitrakoot to bring Rama back. When Rama would not come he carried Rama’s sandals on his head to Ayodhya, set them on the throne, and lived fourteen years at Nandigram in bark and matted hair, ruling as their servant. “A brother like Bharata” is the highest praise a Hindu family gives.

Lakshmana’s twin, as close to Bharata as Lakshmana was to Rama. He went with Bharata to Kekaya, and on their return it was he who dragged Manthara across the floor until Bharata told him to let her go. In the Uttara Kanda Rama sends him against the rakshasa Lavana of Madhuvana; he kills Lavana and founds the city of Madhupura on the Yamuna, which tradition holds to be Mathura. He married Shrutakirti, daughter of Kushadhvaja.

King of Kosala of the Ikshvaku line, a great charioteer who had fought beside the devas. He had three chief queens and no son until Rishyashringa performed the putrakameshti yajna for him. His love for Rama was his whole life, and his promise to Kaikeyi was his ruin: bound by truth, he could neither break his word nor bear to keep it. He died on the sixth night of Rama’s exile, as the curse of a blind ascetic had foretold, calling Rama’s name.

Dasharatha’s eldest queen, who received half the payasa and bore Rama. Valmiki shows her at prayer, offering to the fire for her son’s coronation, when Rama comes to tell her he is leaving. She falls to the ground, begs to go with him, and then blesses him for the forest with a long svastyayana, calling on every deva and every season to guard him. In the years of exile she cared for the broken king to the end.

Princess of Kekaya and Dasharatha’s favourite queen, brave enough to drive his chariot in the war against Shambara and save his life. Valmiki is careful with her: her first response to Rama’s coronation is joy, and she loves Rama. Only Manthara’s fear, worked on her through an evening, turns her. Her two boons sent Rama to the forest and killed her husband, and her own son never forgave her. When Rama returns he greets her with the same respect as his own mother.

The third queen, who received two shares of the payasa and bore twins. She asked for nothing in the palace quarrels. When Lakshmana came to take leave she gave him the most quoted blessing in the Ramayana: think of Rama as your father, of Sita as me, of the forest as Ayodhya. She comforted Kausalya through the long years that followed, telling her Rama would come back shining like the moon.

The hunchbacked maid who had come with Kaikeyi from her father’s house. From the palace roof she saw Ayodhya decorated and asked why, and her anger was immediate. She told Kaikeyi that Rama’s mother would be queen mother and she a servant, that Bharata would be sent away or killed, and she reminded her of the two forgotten boons. Her name became the Hindi word for one who poisons a household with whispers.

Son of Brahma, one of the Saptarishis, and family priest of the Ikshvaku kings for generations. He named the four princes and taught them. It was his counsel that made Dasharatha send Rama with Vishvamitra, and he fixed the hour of both coronations, the one undone and the one fulfilled. When Kaikeyi gave Sita bark to wear he rebuked her before the court. The Yoga Vasishtha is his teaching to the young Rama.

Once King Kaushika, he tried to take Vasishtha’s wish-granting cow Shabala, lost to the power of tapas, and spent thousands of years in austerity until Vasishtha himself called him brahmarshi. He is the rishi of the Gayatri mantra in the Rigveda. In the Bala Kanda he takes the boy Rama to guard his yajna, gives him the divine astras, tells him the kathas of the land as they walk, and leads him to Mithila and Sita.

Seeradhvaja Janaka of Mithila in Videha, a rajarshi, a king who lived like a sage. He kept Shiva’s bow in trust from his ancestor Devarata, found Sita while ploughing the yajna ground, and promised her only to the man who could string it. When Rama broke it he sent at once for Dasharatha and gave four daughters of his house to the four brothers. The Upanishads honour a Janaka of this line as a knower of Brahman.

Wife of Maharshi Gautama, to whom Indra came in her husband’s form. Gautama cursed her to live for ages in the ashrama unseen by any being, fasting on air, lying on ashes, until Rama should come. In Valmiki she is never a stone; the image of the stone that comes alive at Rama’s touch belongs to later tellings. When Rama arrived she shone out like a flame through smoke, and the princes touched her feet. She is counted among the panchakanya.

Son of the rishi Jamadagni, the axe-bearing avatar of Vishnu who had cleared the earth of arrogant kshatriyas twenty-one times and given it to Kashyapa. In Valmiki he meets the wedding party on the road home from Mithila, furious that Shiva’s bow is broken, and offers Rama the bow of Vishnu as a challenge. Rama strings it, and Parashurama knows who stands before him. He gives up his worlds of merit and returns to his tapas on Mahendra.

King of the Nishadas at Shringaverapura on the Ganga, whom Valmiki calls Rama’s friend, dear as his own life. He came out with food and offered Rama his whole kingdom; Rama accepted only fodder for the horses. Guha kept watch all night with Lakshmana while Rama and Sita slept on the ground, and his boats took them across. Later he stood ready to stop Bharata’s army at the river, then wept and guided him when he learned why Bharata had come.

Son of Aruna, the charioteer of the sun, and old friend of Dasharatha. At Panchavati he promised to guard Sita, and when Ravana carried her off he fought him alone, sixty thousand years old against a young warrior in a chariot. He broke the chariot and killed its beasts before Ravana cut off his wings. He lived only long enough to tell Rama which way Ravana had gone. Rama performed his last rites with his own hands, as a son for a father.

A woman of the Shabara people and disciple of Maharshi Matanga at Pampa. When her gurus left the body they told her to wait, for Rama would come. She waited for years, gathering forest fruits. Valmiki has Rama call her a siddha, an ascetic perfected; she shows him her gurus’ ashrama, gives him the fruits, and enters the fire to join them. The berries she tasted one by one so only the sweetest reached him come from later devotional tradition.

Ravana’s sister, whose name means one with nails like winnowing fans. At Panchavati she wanted Rama, was turned away, and rushed at Sita to devour her; Lakshmana cut off her nose and ears. She ran first to her brother Khara, whose whole army Rama destroyed, and then to Ravana in Lanka. There she shamed him for not knowing what was happening in his own lands and described Sita’s beauty until he set out for Maricha’s hermitage.

Son of Tataka. As a young rakshasa he attacked Vishvamitra’s yajna and was flung a hundred yojanas into the sea by Rama’s Manava astra. He never forgot it. He became an ascetic, and when Ravana came to him he begged him not to touch Rama, “dharma in a body”. Threatened with death, he took the shape of a golden deer, led Rama far from the hut, and with his last breath cried out in Rama’s voice for Sita and Lakshmana.

Son of the rishi Vishrava and the rakshasi Kaikasi, grandson of Pulastya, half-brother of Kubera, from whom he took Lanka and the Pushpaka. By long tapas he won from Brahma safety from devas, asuras and every other being, and scorned to ask it against men. Valmiki grants him learning, courage and splendour, and shows how desire and pride undid them: he carried off another man’s wife, would hear no counsel, and lost his sons, his brothers and his city before he fell to Rama’s arrow.

Son of Vayu and Anjana, Kesari’s wife, counsellor of Sugriva. As a child he leapt at the sun and was struck by Indra’s vajra on the jaw, the hanu, and the devas gave him boons. He leapt a hundred yojanas to Lanka, found Sita, burned the city, carried the mountain of herbs, and asked as reward only to live as long as Rama’s katha is heard on earth. Hindus hold him chiranjivi, ever-living, and wherever the Ramayana is read a seat is left for him.

Son of Surya and younger brother of Vali. Driven out of Kishkindha and robbed of his wife, he hid on Rishyamuka, the one hill Vali could not climb. He swore friendship with Rama around a fire; Rama killed Vali for him and he was crowned. He forgot his promise through the monsoon, was brought back to it by Lakshmana’s anger, and then sent the vanara armies to every corner of the earth. In the war he fought Kumbhakarna and stayed at Rama’s side to the end.

Son of Indra and king of Kishkindha, strong enough to have held Ravana under his arm. He killed the asura Dundubhi and the asura Mayavi, and when he wrongly believed Sugriva had sealed him in a cave to steal his throne, he drove his brother out and kept his wife. Rama killed him with one arrow from behind a tree. Dying, Vali argued with Rama, heard his answer, accepted it, and gave his son Angada into Rama’s care. Tara mourned him.

Son of Vali and Tara, made yuvaraja by Sugriva at Rama’s wish. He led the southern search party and, when the month ran out, would rather fast to death than face Sugriva empty-handed. Before the battle Rama sent him as envoy to Ravana’s court. In Valmiki the rakshasas seize him and he leaps up with them, breaks the top of the palace, and returns. The scene of Angada planting a foot that no one in the court can move is the Ramcharitmanas’s.

King of the rikshas, the bears, son of Brahma by Valmiki’s account, so old he had circled the earth when Vishnu took his three strides as Vamana. Too old now to leap the sea himself, he sat beside the silent Hanuman on the southern shore and reminded him of his birth and his strength until Hanuman rose. In the war it was Jambavan who, when Indrajit’s astra had felled the army, sent Hanuman to the Himalaya for the healing herbs.

Ravana’s youngest brother, who asked Brahma only that his mind stay on dharma. He told Ravana in open court to return Sita, was answered with insults, and rose and flew with four companions across the sea to Rama. Sugriva wanted him killed as a spy; Rama gave his vow that he never refuses anyone who comes to him even once for refuge. Vibhishana guided the war, was crowned king of Lanka, and is counted among the chiranjivis.

Ravana’s middle brother, a giant whose hunger frightened the devas. When he went to ask Brahma for a boon, Saraswati sat on his tongue at the devas’ request and he asked for sleep. He slept for months at a stretch. Woken with drums, elephants and mountains of food, he told Ravana plainly that he had done wrong, and then went out to fight for him anyway. He crushed thousands of vanaras and carried off Sugriva before Rama’s arrows cut him down.

Ravana’s eldest son by Mandodari, born Meghanada, who won the name Indrajit by defeating Indra and carrying him captive to Lanka. A master of illusion, he fought unseen from the clouds, bound Rama and Lakshmana with serpent arrows, felled the vanara army with the Brahmastra, and killed a Maya Sita before the vanaras’ eyes. Vibhishana led Lakshmana to the Nikumbhila grove to break his yajna before it was complete, and there Lakshmana killed him.

Twin sons of Rama and Sita, born in Valmiki’s ashrama after Sita was sent away. Valmiki named them for the kusha grass and its lower part, lava, with which their protection rites were done, and taught them his poem. At Rama’s Ashvamedha they sang it before the assembly, and Rama listened to his own life from his sons without yet knowing them. Kusha later ruled at Kushavati and Lava at Shravasti.