The great sage Valmiki has the distinction of being the author of the holy epic ‘Ramayana’. The epic narrates the struggle of the divine prince Rama to rescue his wife Sita from the demon king Ravana. ‘Ramayana’ consists of nearly 24,000 verses divided into seven Kandas and about 500 sargas.
‘The epic Ramayana’, dated variously from 5th century BC to first century BC. Valmiki is revered as Adi Kavi, the first poet.
According to legend, Maharishi Valmiki was born as Ratnakara. At a very young age, Ratnakara went into the forest and got lost. A hunter, who was passing by, saw Ratnakara and took him under his own care. Ratnakara turned out to be an excellent hunter. Later, he started robbing people because he found it impossible to feed his large family.
One day, Ratnakara tried to rob the great sage Narada. However, Narada was a divine sage, and he made Ratnakara understand that robbing and killing was wrong. He advised Ratnakara that by chanting Rama’s name, he could wash away all his sins. Ratnakara started chanting the name without stopping. As he performed his penance for several years, huge anthills grew around him and this earned him the name Valmiki. Later, Valmiki wrote ‘Ramayana’, the great epic. Valmiki-Adi Kavi was the torch bearer for generations of poets.