Ramayana: Hinduism and India The Ramayana by Valmiki has influenced and shaped all aspects of Indian society. The Ramayana was written at around 550 B.C. in Sanskrit. The story is composed of twenty-four thousand verses, divided into seven books. The books are called kanda (Mack 576). Every Indian person knows the story of Ramayana. The story is read to all young children in India. Children are told the ancient tale in Sanskrit and boys are told to act like Rama and girls are told to act like Sita (Nair). The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are regarded as the cornerstone of the classic Hindu religion we know today. These two ancient Sanskrit texts together compromise all Hinduism beliefs and teachings. The Hindu religion effects all aspects of the political and social norms that exist in India.The first appearances of Hinduism appeared with the introduction of Sanskrit. Sanskrit is a sacred language and the first recorded writings of this language appeared in the ancient Vedas (scriptures). These ancient scripture appeared between 1500-1200 B.C.(Pandian 62). These writings were the beginnings of the Hindu religion and had great influence on Valmiki when he was writing the Ramayana. Pre-Hindu religion before the writing of the Ramayana involved several similarities to the Hindu religion. The most influential similarity that Valmiki kept in his text was the focus on the individual. David R. Kinsley in his book Hinduism says this about the Vedic (pre-Hindu) beliefs "The realization of…truth wins the adept liberation…from the shifting world of constant flux and the endless cycle of rebirth, which is…determined by all one's action."(13) The Ramayana kept this central idea, but also focused on political aspectsof the society at the time. Kinsley states that the Ramayana also introduced the idea of "tension between a religion aimed at supporting…the world order and one aimed at isolating a person from soci...
