Book Reviewed: The Complete Valmiki Ramayana Bibek Debroy

Ramayana Darshanam; an immortal story of Dharma, Bhakti, and Karma yoga. This is an unabridged English translation of Valmiki Ramayana from its original. This work expresses the beauty of the Sanskrit poetry. The tone and style are direct, in austere prose with minimal embellishment and faithful to structure and dialogue of the Sanskrit epic. This translator avoids theological overlays with the narrative closer to the Sanskrit original. There are many questionable actions of Rama in the story that include Agni pariksha (purity (fidelity) test) for his wife Sita, and killing of his friend Vali in a clandestine fashion both of which are presented without his own observation. This work is based on the Critical Edition (Baroda / Oriental Institute) and reconstructs the text from many manuscripts. This is very readable, and recommended to anyone interested in Hinduism, Ramayana, and ancient Indian history.