Here's the plot (not to give away too much). Rama's father, King Dasratha promises two boons to his youngest wife Kaikeyi. Dasratha abdicates, intending to make Rama king, but Kaikeyi uses her boons on the eve of Rama's ascension to the throne, one to make her son Bharatha king in Rama's stead, the second to banish Rama for 15 years. The king wants to renege on his promises, but Rama refuses to let this happen. He leaves the kingdom willingly.

Rama, Sita and Rama's brother Lakshmana live in the jungle for 15 years, in the course of this time, Sita is kidnapped by daemons bent on destroying the world. Rama enlists the help of the bear and monkey kings to recapture her and this is the heart of the story.

Now, what makes this story is its characters and their courage. Rama will never break a promise, even when it may cost him his life. Sita and Lakshmana leave the palace for a life spent wearing the bark of trees. The animals, especially the immortal monkey, Hanuman, inspired by the love between Rama and Sita, fight ferociously against their much more powerful foes. They all obey Dharma and their difficult task is the moral lesson of this religious text.

What's interesting about Hinduism and the Ramayana in particular is its existential nature. The daemons are masters of Maya, the illusion of the material world. Maya is the daemons' most powerful weapon, they create a disorienting world in which there is precious little grounding. Where does a person find roots in such a world? The Ramayana gives us the example of Rama and the adherence to whatever truth we can find. Practice truth, fight deception, join in the struggle of the world to be conscious of itself. So what is real? For me, the most dramatic incident is one in which the fierce, brave, Hanuman answers the question. Rama gives Hanuman a bracelet as a gift. Hanuman tears it to bits. Rama asks why. Hanuman says, "though this bracelet looks expensive, it was really worthless, for nowhere on it did it bear your name." Someone asks Hanuman, "Why don't you destroy your body as well?". Hanuman rends his flesh and there, on his bones are the words, "Rama, Rama, Rama, Rama". So, too, your computer has become an instrument of truth. Read this book, it is incredible.


Good Introduction to the Ramayana   July 1, 2000
11 out of 11 found this review helpful

In this "retelling" of the Ramayana, Buck succeeds in shortening a lengthy epic into 432 pages. Buck's Ramayana is exciting, poetic, and inspiring, somehow maintaining the digressive narrative of the original without alienating its Western audience; Buck's version makes a good introduction to a work which has had immeasurable religious impact on various Asian cultures.


A wonderful introduction.   July 6, 1999
14 out of 15 found this review helpful

Like Mr. Buck's other retelling - The Mahabharata - The Ramayana is a wonderfully boiled down version of a classic Indian tale. It's a great introduction. Also the illustrations are wonderful in the California Press reprints. I love Hanuman particularly as he is drawn most delicately.


Dharma is Everything in this World   January 8, 2004
K_Street_NW (Arlington, Virginia United States)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

Ramayana is an unimaginably ancient epic poem, translated here into beautiful English prose. It does not present Hindu theology-- to glimpse Hinduism's ancient essence, one must attempt to understand the more impenetrable Upanishads. Rather, Ramayana presents in a literary, or fictional, work all of the values of right conduct, or "dharma," that are essential to happiness in all the worlds. The story so remarkably resembles Homer's The Illiad that it is difficult to believe some ancient wandering poet did not export the story to the near eastern culture of ancient Greece, many centuries after it began being told amongst Indian poets. Consequently, the values of Ramayana reverberate throughout three millenia of Eastern as well as Western literature. Honoring your father, fogiveness, loyalty to wife and husband irrespective of the hardships, devotion to God, knowing God when you see him, rejection of earthly wealth, and reverence for all of nature. These are but a few of the values, dharma, that revisit the reader through one beautiful character after another. Ramayana is essential reading for any ersatz scholar or well-read mind.


All the essential elements of the Myth   March 12, 2001
Michael J. Nuell (USA)
13 out of 15 found this review helpful

Not only is this book a wonderful read, for students of comparitive mythology it is an invaluable extraction of the key elements of one of the greatest epics of all time.

What Buck does is filter out the religious sections, an insurmountable barrier to any but the most dedicated students of theology, and focus in on the narrative.

The reslut is the bridge that brings this critically important Eastern perspective on the Epic to western lovers of such works as the Iliad.

Do not miss adding this to your library.