Ramayanaरामायणम् · The Rámáyan of Válmíki

Vālmīki’s epic of Rāma, prince of Ayodhyā: his exile to the forest with Sītā and Lakshmaṇa, the carrying off of Sītā by Rāvaṇa, the alliance with Hanumān and the Vānars, and the war at Laṅkā. Here are the six books of Ralph T. H. Griffith’s English verse translation (1870–74), canto by canto, with the Sanskrit sarga beside each canto where the two have been matched.

Public domain. Griffith’s translation was published 1870–74; Griffith died in 1906. The Sanskrit is the ancient text.

Books

Book I · Bāla Kāṇḍaबालकाण्डम् · 75 cantos · 46 with Sanskrit Book II · Ayodhyā Kāṇḍaअयोध्याकाण्डम् · 119 cantos · 106 with Sanskrit Book III · Araṇya Kāṇḍaअरण्यकाण्डम् · 76 cantos · 69 with Sanskrit Book IV · Kiṣkindhā Kāṇḍaकिष्किन्धाकाण्डम् · 67 cantos · 67 with Sanskrit Book V · Sundara Kāṇḍaसुन्दरकाण्डम् · 55 cantos · 35 with Sanskrit Book VI · Yuddha Kāṇḍaयुद्धकाण्डम् · 101 cantos · 89 with Sanskrit

How the cantos are matched

Griffith did not always follow the Sanskrit edition beside him here, so canto numbers alone were not trusted. Each canto was matched by the names in it (from Griffith’s own index of names), compared with the names in the Sanskrit sargas, over runs of eight cantos at a time.
A canto is placed beside a sarga only when every run that includes it points to the same sarga. Openings were then read side by side for a sample across all six books, and each matched verse for verse.
Where the check could not settle the match (parts of Books I, II, III, V and VI, mostly where Griffith’s cantos and this Sanskrit edition are divided differently), the canto is shown in English only, with links to the nearest Sanskrit sargas. In all, 412 of 493 cantos are beside their Sanskrit.
Griffith turns each Sanskrit couplet into English rhyming verse and sometimes shortens; a canto beside its sarga is the same passage, not a line-by-line match.
Griffith’s translation ends with Book VI. The seventh book (Uttara Kāṇḍa) is not in it, and his prose appendix is not included here.
Griffith’s footnotes keep his own numbers (1–1184).

Invocation

✦Griffith’s Invocation

Praise to Válmíki,²bird of charming song,³
Who mounts on Poesy’s sublimest spray,
And sweetly sings with accent clear and strong
Ráma, aye Ráma, in his deathless lay.

Where breathes the man can listen to the strain
That flows in music from Válmíki’s tongue,
Nor feel his feet the path of bliss attain
When Ráma’s glory by the saint is sung!

The stream Rámáyan leaves its sacred fount
The whole wide world from sin and stain to free.⁴
The Prince of Hermits is the parent mount,
The lordly Ráma is the darling sea.

Glory to him whose fame is ever bright!
Glory to him, Prachetas’⁵holy son!
Whose pure lips quaff with ever new delight
The nectar-sea of deeds by Ráma done.

Hail, arch-ascetic, pious, good, and kind!
Hail, Saint Válmíki, lord of every lore!
Hail, holy Hermit, calm and pure of mind!
Hail, First of Bards, Válmíki, hail once more!

Griffith’s notes (5)

The MSS. vary very considerably in these stanzas of invocation: many lines are generally prefixed in which not only the poet, but those who play the chief parts in the poem are panegyrized. It is self-apparent that they are not by the author of the Rámáyan himself.
“Válmíki was the son of Varuṇa, the regent of the waters, one of whose names is Prachetas. According to the Adhyátmá Rámáyaṇa, the sage, although a Bráhman by birth, associated with foresters and robbers. Attacking on one occasion the seven Rishis, they expostulated with him successfully, and taught him the mantra of Ráma reversed, or Mará, Mará, in the inaudible repetition of which he remained immovable for thousands of years, so that when the sages returned to the same spot they found him still there, converted into a valmík or ant-hill, by the nests of the termites, whence his name of Válmíki.” WILSON. Specimens of the Hindu Theatre, Vol. I. p. 313. “Válmíki is said to have lived a solitary life in the woods: he is called both a muni and a rishi. The former word properly signifies an anchorite or hermit; the latter has reference chiefly to wisdom. The two words are frequently used promiscuously, and may both be rendered by the Latin vates in its earliest meaning of seer: Válmíki was both poet and seer, as he is said to have sung the exploits of Ráma by the aid of divining insight rather than of knowledge naturally acquired.” SCHLEGEL.
Literally, Kokila, the Koïl, or Indian Cuckoo. Schlegel translates “luscinium.”
Comparison with the Ganges is implied, that river being called the purifier of the world.
“This name may have been given to the father of Válmíki allegorically. If we look at the derivation of the word (pra, before, and chetas, mind) it is as if the poet were called the son of Prometheus, the Forethinker.” SCHLEGEL.