Rama the Steadfast: An Early Form of the Ramayana (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Valmiki (Author), John Brockington (Translator), Mary Brockington (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 27, 2007 | Series: Penguin Classics

One of India’s great epics in a powerful new translation

The Ramayana (along with the Mahabharata) is to India what the epics of Homer and the stories of the Bible are to Western culture: works that cast a spell over an entire civilization. It is also one of the most entertaining of the great works of world literature. Populated with a cast of superhuman characters and imbued with a profound sense of moral purpose, the magical tale of the young prince Rama’s adventures as he seeks to find his abducted wife, Sita, has been central to Indian cultural life for centuries—told to children as bedtime stories and studied by philosophers and theologians. This version returns to the core story in its earliest written form, revealing a taut, vibrant, skillfully constructed heroic romance.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Brockington is emeritus professor of Sanskrit in the School of Asian Studies at the University of Edinburgh and is the secretary general of the International Association of Sanskrit Studies.
Mary Brockington has published on the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the Harivam´sa, and on traditional tales and early literature in Europe and South Asia.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (February 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 014044744X
• ISBN-13: 978-0140447446
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.9 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,091,311 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Abridged, March 31, 2008

By 

Divine Chemechanical (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Rama the Steadfast: An Early Form of the Ramayana (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

I had a hard time finding out if this is an unabridged copy. It is not. In fact, it is their attempt at finding the "original" version within the oldest texts based on scholarly research into linguistics. Frankly, what is the point? This could have been accomplished with notes in an unabridged version. When will someone publish an affordable unabridged Rama? Minus one star for the poor communication.

3 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not what a hindu expects-but interesting to the secular western reader., September 25, 2008

By 

Bernadette Starling (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rama the Steadfast: An Early Form of the Ramayana (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

In some excitement my hindu boyfriend ordered this book from our local bookshop. He was looking forward to introducing me to the Ramayana, epic story that he grew up with as a child, a story that has a massive influence on Indian thought and culture. He was terribly disappointed to discover to discover that it wasn't the real Ramayana, translated word for word from the sanskrit into english-a story that he regards as real, and equal to the Bible in its holiness. But an abridged tale that the translators believed to be the closest to earliest forms of the text. Making it not a translation of the Ramayana (a religious text) but a somewhat secular tale with a rather irritating hero and a very annoying heroine (who is the inspiration behind every silly, helpless annoying heroine in every Bollywood/Tollywood/Kollywood movie you will ever see). The characters also eat meat, which he accused of being a lie (many Indians believ that meat eating did not occur in India before the invasion of Islam) as no god (as Rama is a god in hinduism) would eat meat. For him this was a real disappointment-and from his discovery that it was not the Ramayana he knows and loves, but some abridged secular tale of murky origin (that because the translators say is an oral text originally, also challenges the Hindu view that Sanskrit is the worlds first language-written and spoken) he had as much interest in this story as a muslim has interest in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
As someone who is interested in languages generally I found the introduction very interesting-how the translators were able to ascertain that certain parts of the text come from different eras by the use of language and refrences to things that were invented in different eras (i have forgotten the name for that). Aside from that curiousity. What is the point of reading the story if not to read the sacred hindu epic? The plot is not interesting (merely a simple tale of man rescues wife from demon with aid of monkeys and then regaining his kingdom) and the characters are utterly one dimensional. I am not saying the real Ramayana would be any different-the feelings of hindus aside, from a literary perspective the simplistic Ramayana in no way equals the full blooded characters of the Bible. However the Ramayana is worth reading to know about Hinduism from a hindu perspective-not what western translators think maybe the earliest single authored version of the epic might be.
How hard can it be to produce a single, unabridged Ramayana translated accurately as possible into English?