Ramayana Book One: Boyhood (Clay Sanskrit Library) [Hardcover]

Valmiki (Author), Robert Goldman (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Clay Sanskrit Library | Publication Date: February 1, 2005

Rama, the crown prince of the City of Ayodhya, is a model son and warrior. He is sent by his father the king to rescue a sage from persecution by demons, but must first kill a fearsome ogress. That done, he drives out the demons, restores peace, and attends a tournament in the neighboring city of Mithila; here he bends the bow that no other warrior can handle, winning the prize and the hand of Sita, the princess of Mithila.

Valmíki's Ramáyana is one of the two great national epics of India, the source revered throughout South Asia as the original account of the career of Rama, ideal man and incarnation of the great god Vishnu. The first book, “Boyhood,” introduces the young hero Rama and sets the scene for the adventures ahead. It begins with a fascinating excursus on the origins and function of poetry itself.

Co-published by New York University Press and the JJC Foundation

For more on this title and other titles in the Clay Sanskrit series, please visit http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The books line up on my shelf like bright Bodhisattvas ready to take tough questions or keep quiet company. They stake out a vast territory, with works from two millennia in multiple genres: aphorism, lyric, epic, theater, and romance.”
-Willis G. Regier,The Chronicle Review

“No effort has been spared to make these little volumes as attractive as possible to readers: the paper is of high quality, the typesetting immaculate. The founders of the series are John and Jennifer Clay, and Sanskritists can only thank them for an initiative intended to make the classics of an ancient Indian language accessible to a modern international audience.”
-The Times Higher Education Supplement

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“The Clay Sanskrit Library represents one of the most admirable publishing projects now afoot. . . . Anyone who loves the look and feel and heft of books will delight in these elegant little volumes.”-New Criterion

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“Published in the geek-chic format.”
-BookForum

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“Very few collections of Sanskrit deep enough for research are housed anywhere in North America. Now, twenty-five hundred years after the death of Shakyamuni Buddha, the ambitious Clay Sanskrit Library may remedy this state of affairs.”
-Tricycle

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From the Publisher

“Geek-chic.”â€"BookForum

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 424 pages
• Publisher: NYU Press; Bilingual edition (February 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814731635
• ISBN-13: 978-0814731635
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #832,315 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly enjoyable edition, July 1, 2011

By 

Mark Sprecher "Mark Sprecher" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ramayana Book One: Boyhood (Clay Sanskrit Library) (Hardcover)

I've just finished this first volume in five volume series and look forward to continuing with the other four. I've enjoyed R.K. Narayan's one volume retelling of the story, and highly recommend that for anyone who just wants to take in the basic tropes and story of the Ramayana. But I really got into the slower pace of this first volume, the repetitions, the officious language. They give the work a certain majesty that is well suited to the other-worldliness (macro-worldliness?) of its nature. I suppose taking up these five volumes isn't exactly a casual undertaking, but the material is engrossing and well worth the time. And I am grateful to have the Sanskrit facing pages to refer to -- I do not know Sanskrit, just some Hindi, but I love being able to sporadically read some of the romanized Sanskrit aloud to get a sense of the original language and rhythm, it just adds to the overall experience.