Have started reading Ramayana (in English) by Kamala Subramaniam published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan; Sanskrit Valmiki Ramayana and English translation online

Last updated on 11th Feb. 2019

Thought some readers may be interested to know that I have started reading Ramayana authored by Kamala Subramaniam and published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. The first edition was printed in 1981. I have a hardbound (print) copy of the fourteenth edition printed in 2018. While I do not recall reading specifically in the preface that it is based on Valmiki Ramayana, I presume that is the case.

This book does not provide original Sanskrit verses and English translation of those verses. It instead provides an English rendition of Ramayana which seems to be based on Sanskrit Valmiki Ramayana.

I think I should also say that my view of Lord Rama is strongly influenced by what I have read and heard (many times live in Sai Kulwant Hall, Prasanthi Nilayam) my beloved and revered Gurudev Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba say about Lord Rama. Primarily due to Sathya Sai's words, I believe Lord Rama to be a historical figure and NOT a mythological figure. Further, I believe that Lord Rama lived around 20,000 years ago based on a video where Sathya Sai speaks on this matter. For more, please read my blog post: http://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2015/01/sathya-sai-on-historicity-of-rama-and.html OR watch this 43 second video: Sathya Sai on historicity of Rama and Krishna, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3Lep9OXSfw.

Note that Sathya Sai has authored these books on Lord Rama's life:
Ramakatha Rasavahini I, http://www.sssbpt.info/english/vramakatha1.htm
Ramakatha Rasavahini II, http://www.sssbpt.info/english/vramakatha2.htm

If I recall correctly, I have read the above books some years back.

For the past few years, as I have been interested in the wider Hindu devotees and contemporary Hindu religion (beyond Sathya Sai fraternity), I have been wanting to re-read Ramayana (and some other Hindu epic-scriptures) for some time now (earlier, if I recall correctly, I have read abridged accounts of Valmiki Ramayana).

Valmiki Ramayana being the original Ramayana, is the one I want to read.

Now, given the antiquity of Valmiki Ramayana, and, I presume, the oral traditions used to transmit it in ancient times, there seem to be various versions of Sanskrit Valmiki Ramayana. I had hoped that there would be one version which is viewed as authoritative. I Google searched for it but did not find results that point to some reputed govt. or religious institution which says that so-and-so Sanskrit pdf files are the authoritative version of Valmiki Ramayana. Maybe I did not search well.

Google search top results include this link: https://www.valmikiramayan.net/. I find it to be rather comprehensive and am very happy about that. It has a detailed format which I have seen in other Hindu scriptures translated to English books by reputed religious/spiritual institutions, with the following:
1. Verse in Sanskrit
2. Word by word Sanskrit to English translation
3. Complete English translation of the verse
4. Optionally, notes which give added context/interpretation

In this particular case, it also links to an audio of the verse.

I am very happy with these aspects.

One concern though is that I don't know how reputed as religious scholars (different from academic scholars) of Ramayana, the main authors, Desiraju Hanumanta Rao and K.M.K. Murty, are.

In the home page they write about the Ramayana version they have described: "However, scholars, grammarians, historians have put lot of effort to standardize the original text, by verifying various manuscripts available from various parts of India, thus trying to stabilize and save the text from further contradictions. An example of this effort is the critical edition of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana. This site aims to study various versions of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana and arrive at a version of Ramayana that is most relevant to modern times."

So I am hopeful that the Valmiki Ramayana version this site provides/uses is a version acceptable to Hindu religion scholars of Valmiki Ramayana.
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Given below are some comments from my Facebook post,  https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2413012828915280, associated with this blog post:

Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited): --Name-snipped-- - Your thoughts on above post are welcome.
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--Name-snipped-- wrote (and was OK with sharing here; slightly edited to fix a typo type error): Ravi sir, thank you for posting this. Yes ramayana is actual history based on what Swami says and historical evidences etc. It is definitely NOT mythology. Mythological lens leads to the danngerous possibilities of distortions. And of course it not fiction either.

I am glad that an attempt is being made to ascertain the veracity of the material and the translations. My only difference in modus operandi would be that instead of looking for the degree of 'reputation' of the concerned scholars, I would look for their 'insiderness' (refer to Shri Rajiv Malhotra's works).

There are an umpteen number of scholars such as pollack, Wendy etc who are very reputed Sanskrit scholars, but who distort the original texts to suit and create very mundane narratives which cause a lot of damage to Hinduism. Some such scholars are indians also. And there are other 'reputed' people like Shri Devdutt patnaik who present all Hindu texts are 'mythology' which once again is extremely dangerous and detrimental. So instead of reputation I might look for the degree of indic-alignment, which I admit is often hard to gauge.

Thanks very much again for sharing sir. Jai Sai Ram
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
--Name-snipped-- sir - Thanks for your comment. I had meant religious scholars different from academic scholars. But I can see how it could get interpreted as academic scholars. So I have rephrased the sentence in the post as follows:

One concern though is that I don't know how reputed as religious scholars (different from academic scholars) of Ramayana, the main authors, Desiraju Hanumanta Rao and K.M.K. Murty, are.

Usually religious scholarship for such scripture comes from established Mutts or spiritual institutions in India. E.g. Shankara Mutts, Vaishnava parampara mutts, Ramakrishna Mutt/mission, Divine life society etc.

People from these institutions are recognized as experts in scripture. For example, the Kamala Subramaniam book on Ramayana has a foreword (dated 1981) from Swami Ranganathananda of Ramakrishna Math Hyderabad. [I think this is the wiki page of the same Swami Ranganathananda, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranganathananda, whose lectures on scripture (while he was in Karachi in 1940s) have been praised by L.K. Advani and, as per Advani, even Mohammed Ali Jinnah (as per the wiki page)!]

The foreword by Swami Ranganathananda, along with the publisher being Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, puts a stamp of authenticity on the book.

It would have been wonderful if the Valmiki Ramayana website I mentioned also had similar stamps of approval from such acknowledged names in the field of Hindu religious scripture in India.

I am exposed to the damage to Hinduism created by some academic scholars of Hinduism like Wendy Doniger. I don't think you would have read my post on her (about Ramayana being fiction), written around five years ago, in the context of the court case in India against her book. Here's the post: Book having Baseless Criticism of Hindu Divine Figures Blocked from being Distributed in India, http://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2014/02/book-having-baseless-criticism-of-hindu.html, published on 12th Feb. 2014.
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--Name-snipped-- wrote: Truly appreciate the detailed response sir! Thank you. 💯 agree with you.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote (in part and slightly edited):--Name-snipped-- sir. Thank you so much for your comments.
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