Nārada Laghu Rāmāyaṇa

The first sarga of the Manohara Khaṇḍa of the Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa gives the Laghu Rāmāyaṇa. This is a short account of the whole story of Bhagavān Rāma in one hundred verses. Nārada recites it to Vālmīki. It serves as the maṅgalācaraṇa (auspicious opening) of the khaṇḍa.

The frame and the occasion

The Manohara Khaṇḍa opens with the same frame used through the later khaṇḍas of the Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa. Rāmadāsa speaks to Vishṇudāsa in Daṇḍakāraṇya, the holy forest linked with Rāma’s exile. Rāmadāsa begins this khaṇḍa with the visit of Nārada to Vālmīki.

Nārada is the divine ṛshi who moves freely among all the worlds and is the foremost among the devotees of Bhagavān Vishṇu. He came to Vālmīki’s āśrama. This visit is like the famous opening of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, but different from it. Here Nārada did not come to answer a question about the most virtuous man. He came to give Vālmīki a short essence of the very story that Vālmīki had composed in twenty-four thousand verses.

The one hundred verses

Nārada recited before Vālmīki a Laghu Rāmāyaṇa of a hundred verses, a short poem covering the whole course of Rāma’s story from beginning to end. It includes:

  • The Ikshvāku line and the reign of Daśaratha
  • The birth of Rāma and his brothers through the Putrakāmeshṭi yāga
  • Viśvāmitra’s taking of Rāma and Lakshmaṇa, and the destruction of Tāḍakā
  • The svayaṃvara at Mithilā, the lifting of the divine bow, and the marriage with Sītā
  • The plans for the coronation, Kaikeyī’s varas (boons), and the exile to Daṇḍaka
  • The time in the forest, and Rāvaṇa’s abduction of Sītā
  • Hanumān’s finding of Sītā in Laṅkā, and the building of the setu (bridge)
  • The great battle and the defeat of Rāvaṇa
  • Rāma’s return to Ayodhyā and his coronation as king of Ayodhyā
  • Rāmarājya, the golden age of rule by dharma

Its place as maṅgalācaraṇa

The Laghu Rāmāyaṇa stands at the opening of the Manohara Khaṇḍa, following the Sanskrit custom of beginning a khaṇḍa or major section with an auspicious opening. The Manohara Khaṇḍa thus begins by giving the essence and heart of the Rāma-kathā (the story of Rāma) in short form. The longer khaṇḍas before it gave the wide and detailed telling.

Nārada is the right reciter. In the opening of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, in the Bāla Kāṇḍa, Nārada was the ṛshi who first told Vālmīki about Rāma, and so began the composition of the whole Rāmāyaṇa. In the Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa he comes back to Vālmīki and gives a short form of the same story.

Sources

  • Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, Manohara Khaṇḍa, sarga 1
  • Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa (opening, Nārada’s first telling of Rāma’s story to Vālmīki)