The Ramayana, the immortal saga of the life and teachings of Shri Rama, was first penned in Sanskrit by the sage Valmiki. Due to the fact that the general public was not conversant with Sanskrit, study and teaching of the epic remained the prerogative of the educated priestly class. Tulsidas' great contribution to the literary and spiritual life of India was his vernacular rendition of the legend. The antiquity of Valmiki's work (it is known as 'adikvayam', 'the first poem'), not to mention its literary and linguistic value, makes it interesting to the student of Indian history. Scholars tentatively date it from about 500 B.C. and it has been suggested that there were Ramayanas even before Valmiki's.¹ The existing Ramayana is a modified version of Valmiki's original.2 Tulsidas portrays Rama as the incarnation of Vishnu, whereas originally he was not so deified. There seems to be general agreement, however, that the Valmiki Ramayana attained its present form by the beginning of the Christian era.
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