In terms of narrative time, the action of the Ramayana predates the Mahabharata. The text also mentions Ayodhya as the capital of Kosala, rather than its later name of Saketa or the successor capital of Shravasti. This is due to the narrative not mentioning Buddhism nor the prominence of Magadha. Goldman, the oldest parts of the Ramayana date to between the mid- 7th century BCE and the mid- 6th century BCE. Painting from Jaipur, now at the Victoria and Albert MuseumĪstronomically, the narrative of the Ramayana took place during a period of time known as Treta Yuga in 5301 BC. Rama (left third from top) depicted in the Dashavatara, the ten avatars of Vishnu. Thus, Rāmāyaṇa means "Rama's progress", with ayana altered to ayaṇa due to the Sanskrit grammar rule of internal sandhi. The other meaning, which can be found in the Mahabharata, is 'pleasing, pleasant, charming, lovely, beautiful'. In the Atharvaveda, it means 'dark, dark-coloured, black' and is related to the word rātri which means 'darkness or stillness of night'. Rāma, the name of the central figure of the epic, has two contextual meanings. The name Rāmāyaṇa is composed of two words, Rāma and ayaṇa.
Scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text range from the 7th to 4th centuries BCE, with later stages extending up to the 3rd century CE. It belongs to the genre of Itihasa, narratives of past events ( purāvṛtta), interspersed with teachings on the goals of human life. It consists of nearly 24,000 verses (mostly set in the Shloka/ Anustubh meter), divided into seven kāṇḍas, the first and the seventh being later additions. The Ramayana is one of the largest ancient epics in world literature. The epic follows his fourteen-year exile to the forest urged by his father King Dasharatha, on the request of Rama's stepmother Kaikeyi his travels across forests in the Indian subcontinent with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana, the kidnapping of Sita by Ravana – the king of Lanka, that resulted in war and Rama's eventual return to Ayodhya to be crowned king amidst jubilation and celebration. The epic, traditionally ascribed to the Maharishi Valmiki, narrates the life of Rama, a legendary prince of Ayodhya city in the kingdom of Kosala.
Rāmāyana ( / r ɑː ˈ m ɑː j ə n ə/ Sanskrit: रामायणम्, IAST: Rāmāyaṇam pronounced ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and important text of Hinduism, the other being the Mahābhārata.