- Paperback: 172 pages
- Publisher: Penguin; 1 edition (28 Nov 1977)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140187006
- ISBN-13: 978-0140187007
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13 x 1.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 135,155 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
"The Ramayana" is, quite simply, the greatest of Indian epics - and one of the world's supreme masterpieces of storytelling. Here, drawing his inspiration from the work of an eleventh-century Tamil poet called Kamban, Narayan has used the talents of a master novelist to recreate the excitement and joy he has found in the original. It can be enjoyed and appreciated, he suggests, for its psychological insight, its spiritual depth and its practical wisdom - or just as a thrilling tale of abduction, battle and courtship played out in a universe thronged with heroes, deities and demons.
About the Author
R.K. Narayan was born in Madras, South India, in 1906, and educated there and at Maharaja's College in Mysore. His first novel, Swami and Friends and its successor, The Bachelor of Arts, are both set in the enchanting fictional territory of Malgudi and are only two out of the twelve novels he based there. In 1958 Narayan's work The Guide won him the National Prize of the Indian Literary Academy, his country's highest literary honor. In addition to his novels, Narayan has authored five collections of short stories, including A Horse and Two Goats, Malguidi Days, and Under the Banyan Tree, two travel books, two volumes of essays, a volume of memoirs, and the re-told legends Gods, Demons and Others, The Ramayana, and the Mahabharata. In 1980 he was awarded the A.C. Benson Medal by the Royal Society of Literature and in 1982 he was made an Honorary Member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Narayan died in 2001.
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The new assembly hall, Dasaratha's latest pride, was crowded all day with visiting dignitaries, royal emissaries, and citizens coming in with representations or appeals for justice. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
The new assembly hall, Dasaratha's latest pride, was crowded all day with visiting dignitaries, royal emissaries, and citizens coming in with representations or appeals for justice. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I recently completed Ashok Banker's excellent Ramayana sequence, which I can't recommend highly enough and I wanted to read a more traditional retelling. I was thrilled to discover one of India's literary giants had written a version of this compelling epic and pleased to say it didn't disappoint.
The story is 2,500 years old; that it is told, retold and loved by generations of Hindus, is recommendation enough. The Ramayana is a wonderful fable full of heroic deeds, poweful armies and vengeful demons. It demands to be read.
Ashok Banker's version is about 3600 pages and Narayan's about 150 so there obviously some differences! Narayan's retelling is quite sparse but the language he uses is wonderful. Most of the book is told as a narrative but often at the end of a chapter the author has added an explanation of the chapter's events or brief synopsis of events that take the reader up to the beginning of the next chapter.
I preferred the longer retelling but if you don't have time to plough through six books then this version is well worth reading. It is sure to whet your appetite and entice you to delve further into the expolits of Rama and Sita.
The story is 2,500 years old; that it is told, retold and loved by generations of Hindus, is recommendation enough. The Ramayana is a wonderful fable full of heroic deeds, poweful armies and vengeful demons. It demands to be read.
Ashok Banker's version is about 3600 pages and Narayan's about 150 so there obviously some differences! Narayan's retelling is quite sparse but the language he uses is wonderful. Most of the book is told as a narrative but often at the end of a chapter the author has added an explanation of the chapter's events or brief synopsis of events that take the reader up to the beginning of the next chapter.
I preferred the longer retelling but if you don't have time to plough through six books then this version is well worth reading. It is sure to whet your appetite and entice you to delve further into the expolits of Rama and Sita.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I bought this book because I was hoping for a quick and easy insight into the Ramayana epic. It delivered in every way. Narayan breaks this engaging set of stories down into an enjoyable read. He often breaks into the stories to move them along whilst explaining that the original would be using extensive description of detail at certain points. Because of this, I felt that I had the best of both worlds. I was reading it for educational purposes but it soon became a treat rather than a duty. Recommended.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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18 reviews
51 of 53 people found the following review helpful
Narayan's Ramayana
9 Jun 2002
Format:Paperback
As a fan of Narayan's work, I was fascinated to see how he would tackle the grand subject of the Ramayana, a work that runs through and certainly influences all of Narayan's stories. The result is one of his most delightful and beautifully written novels. I think it is important to approach this book not as "THE" Ramayana, but one storyteller's unique vision of the timeless epic--even as a variation on one of his Malgudi novels (the characters certainly bare a distinct resemblance). Narayan's writing is extremely sensitive, refined, yet full of humor and charm. Throughout he adopts the tone of a storyteller, openly acknowledging that he is only "retelling" a story by a much greater storyteller, and leaving out the juciest parts at that. His little asides where he explains, "And here the poet described the scene so touchingly..." are at once reverent and amusing, as Narayan wisely omits anything too excessive or poetic that might derail his narrative. But the story itself is wonderful, a colorful, full-blooded telling of the Ramayana, sparse, fast-moving, but with all the hallmarks of Narayan's style. This book is a must for any fan of Narayan's fiction, Indian writing, or mythology. Narayan effectively conveys the epic's timelessness, with characters and situations that echo throughout literature and film, full of profound human emotions. And this is always one of Narayan's chief strengths, to create believable, complex human characters. In his treatment, even Rama and Sita emerge as sympathetic individuals, not the cardboard cut-outs all too common given their extraordinary powers. In short, this is a magical and engaging work that I know I will read again and again in the years to come. I invite you to do the same!
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
A Gripping Story out of a Great Epic.
9 April 2002
Format:Paperback
The story of Ramayana is in the blood stream of everyone from India. The original epic was written in the 4th century BC in Sanskrit, by Valmiki. Poets in every Indian language have retold this story. This present book relying on the Tamil Kamban version, presents before the reader the essential story of Ramayana. R.K Narayan, with the command of the English language and love for fast story movement, narrates the kernel of the epic poem in an engaging manner, for the sake of the English reader not familiar with the original version. Naturally, some of the elaborate details had to be left out and some narratives had to be condensed. This made the enormous epic into an enjoyably gripping story, in less than 200 pages.
37 of 41 people found the following review helpful
Wonderful Retelling
5 Jun 2000
Format:Paperback
This is a condensed version of not the original Ramayana as handed down to us in Sanskrit, but of the Tamil version of the story that Sri Narayanji grew up with. There are versions of the Ramayana in nearly all Indian dialects and languages, and as Tamil is one of the oldest, it is also quite interesting to see a translation from that language. The tale is told fairly faithfully, although much is left out (this is necessary to avoid having to sell several volumes to tell the whole tale, as the original tale is HUGE). I thought that it may have been a rather boring story, especially to a modern reader, but boy, was I ever wrong! This was one of the most entertaining and gripping books that I have ever read. It tells the story of Ramachandra's youth to his betrayal by his stepmother, his journey in the desert, and how he defeated Ravana, who had kidanapped Sita and brought her to Sri Lanka, as well as Hanuman's revelries. Rama is still an excellent example of Hindoo ideals, but the primary value of the story for me was not so much religious or ethical as much as it was simply a fascinating journey into the vast world of Indian literature. A wonderful read; I would recommend it to anyone.
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