Valmiki: Adi Kavi, the Composer of the Ramayana

Adi Kavi · Pracetasa · Ratnakara

Who is Valmiki?

Valmiki — Adi Kavi (first poet), Pracetasa (descendant of Pracetas), Ratnakara (his pre-transformation name in folk tradition) — composed the Ramayana, Sanskrit's first kavya. The verse he uttered when he saw a hunter shoot a krauncha bird is the original anushtubh shloka — the meter of the Mahabharata and most of classical Sanskrit poetry.

Names

• Valmiki — 'one who came out of an ant-hill (valmika),' from his long tapas.
• Adi Kavi — first poet.
• Pracetasa — patronymic.
• Ratnakara — folk tradition; his earlier name as a forest-dweller.

The Ratnakara story (folk)

The folk story (post-Valmiki, found in the Skanda Purana and Tulsidas) tells that Ratnakara was a forest robber. Narada asked whether his family would share his sin; they refused. Shaken, Ratnakara meditated, but could not say 'Rama'; Narada told him to repeat 'mara' (kill) instead. Repeated, it became 'Rama Rama Rama.' Years passed; an anthill grew over him. He emerged as Valmiki. (Valmiki's own Ramayana doesn't tell this story; it presents him as already a sage.)

The krauncha couplet

Walking by the Tamasa river, Valmiki saw a hunter shoot one of a pair of krauncha birds. The grief of the surviving bird forced from him spontaneous Sanskrit:

mā niṣāda pratiṣṭhāṃ tvam agamaḥ śāśvatīḥ samāḥ yat krauñca-mithunād ekam avadhīḥ kāma-mohitam

'O hunter, may you find no peace for endless years, for you have killed one of the krauncha pair, drunk with desire.'

Shoka (grief) became shloka (verse). Brahma then commanded him to compose the Ramayana in this meter — assuring him that everything Rama had done, was doing, and would do, would be revealed to him by yogic vision.

The composition

Valmiki composed 24,000 shlokas in seven kandas — Bala, Ayodhya, Aranya, Kishkindha, Sundara, Yuddha, Uttara. He taught it to Lava and Kusha — Sita's twin sons born in his ashram — who would later sing it back to Rama at the Ashvamedha.

Refuge to Sita

When Lakshmana left the pregnant Sita in the forest, she came to Valmiki's ashram. He raised her and her sons as her father. The closing of the Uttara Kanda — Sita's return to the earth — happens in his presence. Valmiki is the moral witness of the second half of the Ramayana.

Symbolism

Valmiki personifies the transformative power of naam-japa (name-recitation) and the creative power of shoka (compassionate grief) becoming shloka (poetry). He is the patron of poets, of converts, and of the literary tradition itself.

Worship

Worshipped at:

• Valmiki Ashram, Chitrakoot and Bithoor (UP).
• Valmiki Temple, Tiruvanmiyur, Chennai — major.
• Valmiki Mandir, Delhi (Valmiki Sabha) — community centre. The Valmiki community (largely in north India) regards him as their founding figure. Valmiki Jayanti (full moon of Ashwin) is celebrated nationally.

Regional variants

• The Tulsidas Ramayana opens with a salutation to Valmiki.
• Kamba Ramayanam acknowledges Valmiki as source.
• Adhyatma Ramayana is in Vedantic key.
• The Yoga Vasishta is also attributed to Valmiki, as Vasishtha's discourse to young Rama.

Legacy

Sanskrit literature begins, definitively, with Valmiki. Every Sanskrit poet from Kalidasa to Bhavabhuti to Bhasa treats him as the source. Bhavabhuti's Uttararamacharita centres on Valmiki's role as Sita's protector.

Related reading

• Rama
• Sita
• Vyasa
• Hanuman
• Four Vedas