what role to the gods play within the book the ramayana

Rama, Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman in the forest. India, Rajasthan, Bundi, c. 1680. Source: Dan Ehnbom, individual drove.
Can y'all figure out who is who?

The Ramayana is one of South asia's oldest epic poems.  The work--transmitted and transformed orally for centuries before being written downwards sometime in the fourth century bce--is a mix of politics, history, myth, faith and run a risk that tells the story of Rama, Sita and Hanuman.  The poem also very much resembles Homer's The Odyssey and Iliad in its structure and form; but unlike Homer'southward work, the Ramayana has continued to undergo transformation and farther evolution since its origin.  The version used in this course is by R. K. Narayan and based on an eleventh-century Tamil edition of the epic.

The Ramayana is often chosen the "adikavya" (first poem) and Valmiki--the "adikavi" (starting time poet). Valmiki, the traditional author of the poem, lived mayhap 1000 bce, although versions of the long epic poem pre-date Valmik. The final version tin exist roughly dated to early forms of the Mahabharata. According to Hindu tradition, Rama is an incarnation (Avatar) of the God Vishnu. The principal purpose of this incarnation is to demonstrate the righteous path (dharma) for all living creatures on earth.

The Ramayana is the shorter of the two neat epic poems of Republic of india, the other beingness the Mahabharata. (If you accept Professor Nayak's mythology course, you get to read the Mahabharata). The Ramayana, in Sanskrit, consists of some 24,000 couplets divided into seven books. The epic focuses on the birth, youth and adventures of Rama. About of the characters, including Rama, Sita, Hanuman, etc are incarnations of the Hindu gods. If you lot thought Greek mythology was complicated, this is far more interesting!

The Ramayana, as ane of the two major Hindu myths of Ancient India, played an of import role in giving meaning to the people's life. Myth, every bit an essential element of a gild, served to explain one's place in the world and how the world worked. Myth fabricated the world less mysterious and the unknowable--knowable. For some splendid background on the functions/theory of myth, come across Joseph Campbell'south four functions of myth:

Fun fact nigh the Ramayana:

Co-ordinate to legend, the poet who wrote the Ramayana was originally a thief. One twenty-four hour period he tried to rob a sadhu, who of form owned naught. The sadhu gave him a mantra: "Mara" (evil). Valmiki liked it and kept repeating information technology, and he gradually became a better person. Then he realized that when he was saying "mara mara mara" he was also proverb "rama rama rama." He and then wrote the Ramayana in honor of the god who had changed his life.

Some more fun facts:

The Ramayana is extremely popular. India nearly close down when a dramatized serial of the Ramayana appeared on television in the 1980s. Recitation of the Ramayana earns neat merit....Gandhi called it the greatest volume in the world. Tulsi Das, medieval writer of the Hindi translation, said, "Whenever I remember Rama's name, the desert of my heart blooms lush and green."

While it is difficult to brand whatever specific historical connections to the story of the Ramayana, take a moment and read abut Rama's bridge.

Some notes on Hindu mythology (used with the permission of Professor Meena Nayak):

• Gods are anthropomorphic, but their homo traits are but visible when they are in the grade of humans, which they take to combat the dark forces, like Krishna (an incarnation of Vishnu, the Preserver) does in The Mahabharata.
• Gods are immortal But Not Eternal. They die at the end of the 4 eons which make up a Hindu universe. (Y'all volition learn more virtually this in the Introduction to Hindu Mythology)
• They, like Greek gods, interfere in human matters, and sometimes for selfish reasons.
• Also similar to Greek gods, they too tin can be kept happy with rituals. However, the temples are built non so much to laurels them but every bit a way for people to recall their being. Unlike in Greek club, temples are non all important in Hindu society.
• The Hindu equivalent to honor & celebrity is the practice of Dharma, which is really a sustenance of social order through right activeness. (As well run across explanation of Dharma and Karma in a higher place). Dharma brings honor & glory and that brings men closer to the gods.
• Another fashion of communicating with the gods is sacrificing one'south self, body and soul to a god and gaining that god's skilful will and boons. The Hindu term for this concept is bhakti.
• To a higher place the gods, at that place is a supreme being, who rules and will always dominion, even at the end of the 4 ages (kalpas, each one is four,320,000,000 years), later which the universe will be annihilated and that One Supreme Existence (Brahman--different from the Creator god, Brahma) will create a new Universe again.
• Some lesser gods are only different manifestations of qualities, elements of nature, etc. However, the main gods, such equally Shiva and Vishnu, are complete and three dimensional.
• Destiny or rather Fourth dimension is supreme. Fifty-fifty the gods do non have rule over that.
• BUT humans through the theory of Karma (the constabulary of cause & event) can in a fashion pre-ordain their destiny. So in some ways humans take the ability to get more powerful than the gods.
• Everything is recycled. Nothing dies. Hindus believe in the reincarnation of the soul. The gods practise not and cannot interfere in their births and rebirth. These are determined by man'due south own Dharma and Karma.

Some recommended online lectures, websites and versions/translations of the epic:

• The two wiki entries are a good starting place: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valmiki
• Word to Give-and-take Translation of the Valmiki Ramayanam with Sanskrit text and audio
• Some other site with the Valmiki Ramayana Text and caption
• Ramayana Home
• Ralph T. A Griffith, Ramayan of Valmiki (1870-74)
• Religious Texts of India, Ramayana
• The Story board of the Ramayana
• Lord Rama - The Perfect Avatar
• Maharshi Valmiki
• The Two Great Epics [of Bharat]
• Introduction to Ramayana by Dr. CS Shah
• www.gradesaver.com/the-ramayana/wikipedia/ (plenty said)
• "Hindu epic Ramayana reborn with modern touch" is about the new illustrated version of the epic published past Pixar animator Sanjay Patel, Ramayana: Divine Loophole
• Cliff Notes near Indian mythology
• Indian Divinity
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_mythology
• http://www.indianmythology.org/: Stories, Tales and Legends
• Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Puranic by Due west. J. Wilkins (1900)
• For extra credit please suggest to your teacher a relevant website for this unit of the form.  Send the title of the site, the url and a cursory explanation why you find the information interesting and applicative to the material beingness studied in this unit of measurement.
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Source: https://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/evans/his111/Notes/Ramayana.html

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