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Ramayana

The Ramayana is a Sanskrit epic attributed to the poet Valmiki and composed over several centuries in the late 1st millennium BCE. It tells of Rama, prince of Ayodhya in Kosala, his exile, the abduction of his wife Sita by Ravana, king of Lanka, and her rescue. Retold in many languages, from Tamil and Bengali to the Thai Ramakien and Khmer Reamker, it shaped art and ideals of kingship across South and Southeast Asia.

Ramayana
Image: Scribes and painters employed by the Kingdom of Mewar. · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 5 profiles

Udaipur StateSocioeconomyBengal SultanateImpactRattanakosin KingdomImpactHinduismOrigins, Texts, Spread, SummarySanskritLiterature

Mentioned in 4 state histories

VidehaKingdom of KosalaBengal SultanatePost-Angkorian Cambodia

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Ramayana. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/ramayana
MLA
“Ramayana.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/ramayana. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Ramayana.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/ramayana.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Ramayana’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/ramayana (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻