ABSTRACT
Once every year, at the great festival known as the Dasahra, the story of the famous Hindu epic, the "Ramayana," is, throughout Northern India, recalled to popular memory, by a great out-door dramatic representation of the principal and crowning events in the life of the hero, Rama. The "Ramayana," written in the Sanskrit language, embraces an account of the birth and adventures of Rama. The whole poem contains about fifty thousand lines and occupies five goodly volumes in Mr. Ralph Griffith's metrical translation an abridged version. A renowned ascetic, a sort of celestial being, named Narada, had related to Valmiki the main incidents of the adventurous life of Rama, and had deeply interested that sage in the history of the hero and his companions. Brahma himself, visited the sage in his hermitage, but Valmiki's mind was so much occupied with the little tragedy at the river-side, that he unconsciously gaye utterance to the verses he had extemporized on the occasion.
