To enjoy my Ramayana posts, reading the book may help. This post lists both online and hardcopy versions and other resources. Click “more” to see the following:
- Translations & Re-Tellings
- Fiction based on the Ramayana
- Films based on the Ramayana
- Website Resources
- Scholarly Works
Translations and Re-Tellings:
- Buck, William (1933-1970): Ramayana (Amazon) (461 pg). A re-telling.
- Chowdhari, Bani Roy: The Story of Ramayan: The Epic Tale of India. (140 pg with many illustrations). Hemkunt Press, New Dehli. Good for older children. A re-telling (Google Books).
- Dutt, Manmatha Nath. The Ramayana. Translated into English Prose. 1891. (Free PDFs)
- Dharma, Krishna. Ramayana: India’s Immortal Tale of Adventure, Love and Wisdom (460 pgs) Pilgrims Publishing, 2004. (Amazon)
- Goldman, Robert. The Ramayan of Valmiki. An Epic of Ancient India Vol 1-6. Princeton Univ. Press 1990. (Princeton University Press) (Amazon – many out of print). This is the most scholarly.
- Griffith, Ralph (1826-1906) (wiki) a poetic translation. Indology scholar who used Max Müller’s 6-volume Sanskrit edition.
- Free On-line at Sacred-Texts.com – all books
- Free Audio files from LibriVox: Book 1 and Book 2. Reader has a hard to understand heavy Indian accent.
- Buy on Amazon
- Macfie, JM. The Ramayan of Tulsidas (260 pg). Pilgrims Publishing 2007. (Amazon)
- Menon, Ramesh: The Ramayana: A modern Retelling of the Great Indian Epic. (720 pg) North Point Press, 2003 (Amazon)
- Mitchell, PR. Ramayan: India’s Classic Story of Divine Love. (260 pg) Publ: iUniverse.com, 2009 (Amazon)
- Narayan, R.K. (1906-2001): The Ramayana: A shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic. (192 pg) Publ: Viking Adult 1972 (Amazon). Based on the version by Tamil poet Kamban in the 1100s AD.
- Patel, Sanjay: Ramayan: Divine Loophole. (186 pg – lots of gorgeous illustrations) Publ: Chronicle Books 2010. (Amazon)
- Prime, Ranchor: Ramayana: A Tale of Gods and Demons.(147 pg) (Amazon)
- Prime, Ranchor: Ramayana: A Journey (160 pg) (Amazon)
- Rajhaveshananda, Swami: Ramayana for Children. (44 pg) Vedanta Press, 1989. (Amazon)
- Rajagopalachari, C. 1951: Ramayana (477 pg) Publ: Vharatiya Vidya Bhavan. (Amazon) Very popular in India
- Rao, Desiraju Hanumanta & Murthy, KMK. Valmiki Ramayana. Complete with transliteration. Free On-line
- Ray, Maya: Children’s Ramayana (Children’s Ramayana Series) (Amazon) on Kindle.
- Sharma, Bulbul. The Ramayana for Children. (198 pg) Penguin, 20004. (Amazon)
- Souhami, Jessica. Rama and the Demon King: An Ancient Tale from India. (36 pgs with lots of pic) For kids. (Amazon)
- Subramaniam, Kamala: Ramayana. (695 pg) Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 2009. (Amazon)
- Tulasidas. RamaCharitaManas (1576 AD) (The Ramayan of Goswami Tulasidas). Free PDF with side-by-side Awadhi (a Hindi dialect) and English. Also here. Wiki about the Author and the Work. Tulasidas changed Valmiki’s original (300 BC?) to reflect his Bhakti ideals for Rama.
- Venkatesananda, Swami: The Concise Ramayana of Valmiki (424 pg). State Univ. of NY Press, 1988.(Amazon)
Fiction based on the Ramayana:
- Arni, Samhita: Sita’s Ramayana. Moyna Chitrakar (Illustrator) (152 pg) Groundwood Books, 2011. (Amazon)
- Neelakantan, Anand: Asura: Tale of the Vanquished. Ravana re-explored. (website)
- Vijayendra Mohanty and Vivek Goel: Ravanayan. Ravana revamped! (website)
Films/ Animations based on the Ramayana:
- Paley, Nina (director): Sita Sings the Blues (1 hr 22 min) Free on YouTube , or buy it on (Amazon). A funny mix of Ramayana details, author’s life and woman’s rights issues – read the Wiki article. Very well done. If you don’t know the story, the various versions or the controversies of the translation, this fantastic film will seem very crazy.
- Sagar, Ramanand (director): Ramayana, 1987: The complete series (16 DVD) 78 episode TV Series. (read about in Wiki): Based on all three: Valmiki’s, Tulsidas’ and Kamban’s versions. Natraj Studios. Actors: Arun Govil, Deepika, Dara Singh, Arvind Trivedi. Hindi with English subtitles. (Amazon)
- Sagar, Ramananda (director): Luv Kush. Follow-up on Sagar’s popular TV series. This covers last book “Uttar Kand” – focusing on Ram’s children Luv and Kush. Subtitles in English (Amazon)
- Sako, Yugo (director) Ramayana – The Legend of Prince Rama. Japanese animation. (Amazon)
- Hanuman: kids version (Amazon)
Ramayana Website Sources:
- Ramayana Podcast (coming) by Lawrence Manzo (see his Mahabharata Podcast.)
Scholarly Works on the Ramayana:
- Ramanujan, A.K.. Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation. This caused a huge controversy in India in 2012. (PDF)
- Richman, Paula. Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia. (280 pg) Univ. of Calif. Press, 1991. (Free on-line UC Press, Amazon)
- Singh, Sherry-Ann. The Ramayana Tradition and Socio-Religious Change in Trinidad, 1917-1990. . (336 pgs). Ian Randle Publishers, Jamaica, 2011. (Amazon)
