The celebrated epic poem by Valmiki describing the life of Rama and Sita.
रामायण (yaṇa) (rāmāyaṇa) n. (रमा (ramā)यण (yaṇa)) N. of Vālmīki's celebrated poem, describing the ‘goings’ [अयन (ayana)] of Rāma and Sitā (it contains about 24000 verses in 7 books called Kāṇḍas, viz. 1. Bāla-kāṇḍa or Ādi-k°; 2. Ayodhyā-k°; 3. Araṇya-k°; 4. Kiṣ-kindhyā-k°; 5. Sundara-k°; 6. Yuddha-k°; 7. Uttara-k°; part of the 1st book and the 7th are thought to be comparatively modern additions; the latter gives the history of Rāma and Sītā after their re-union and installation as king and queen of Ayodhyā, afterwards dramatized by Bhava-bhūti in the Uttara-rāma-caritra; Rāma's character, as described in the Rāmāyaṇa, is that of a perfect man, who bears suffering and self-denial with superhuman patience; the author, Vālmīki, was probably a Brāhman connected with the royal family of Ayodhyā; and although there are three recensions of the poem, all of them go back to a lost original recension, the ground work of which, contained in books 2-6, in spite of many amplifications and interpolations, may be traced back to one man, and does not like the Mahābhārata, represent the production of different epochs and minds), MBh.; Hariv. &c. (cf. Indian Wisdom, by Sir M. Monier-Williams (Title) 335 ). [ID=177657]
— Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899)
