Valmiki
Sage and poet traditionally credited with the Sanskrit Ramayana
- Known for
- Composing the Ramayana
- Title
- Adi Kavi, 'the first poet'
- Epic
- About 24,000 couplets in seven books
- Date of epic
- Probably not before c. 300 BCE (Britannica)
- Observance
- Valmiki Jayanti
The sage Hindu tradition calls the 'first poet', credited with the Ramayana, the epic that tells of Rama, Ravana and the flying Pushpaka.
What is Valmiki known for?
Valmiki is the sage traditionally credited with composing the Ramayana in Sanskrit. Tradition calls him the Adi Kavi, the first poet: a well-known story says the first shloka verse came to him in grief after seeing a hunter kill one of a pair of mating cranes. A later legend says he had been a robber before becoming a sage.
Valmiki also appears inside his own epic. In its final book, he shelters the exiled Sita in his hermitage and teaches the poem to her twin sons, Lava and Kusha.
Nothing is known of Valmiki as a historical person. Scholars see the Ramayana as a work that grew over centuries; Britannica dates its composition to probably not before 300 BCE, with the first and last books generally regarded as later layers. The text runs to about 24,000 couplets in seven books.
His Ramayana is the source of the Pushpaka vimana, the flying car the site examines.
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit holePushpaka Vimana
- PassagePushpaka, the flying car (Ramayana, Book VI)
- PersonLakshmana
- PersonRalph T. H. Griffith
- PersonRama
- PersonRavana
- PersonSita
Sources
- Valmiki, Ramayana, trans. Ralph T. H. Griffith, sacred-texts.comPrimary text
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Valmiki'Reference
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Ramayana'Reference
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