In general terms Ananda Ramayana means “The joyful divine epic Ramayana”. If reading the great epic Ramayana itself, is considered to be like that of tasting the divine nectar from the heaven, then if we read the holy text, Ananda Ramayana, we could feel as if we have tasted the entire quantity of the divine nectar available in the heaven!
Ananda Ramayana is a divine text written in Sanskrit and it is believed to have been written by an unknown author during the 15th century AD. Though this wonderful text has received only a small attention from the learned scholars, yet, it must be considered to be a best one! ANANDA RAMAYANA can also be described as Sundara Ramayana, since this text contains very beautiful contents and the presentation is very neat, and we can also get some more additional information, which we can’t find it in the original Valmiki Ramayana!
Most of the incidents which were available from the original Valmiki Ramayana were found in the Ananda Ramayana, but, only with some small changes. However the main story of Valmiki Ramayana had remained unaltered in this Ananda Ramayana. As per this epic, Ravana had once kidnapped Ma Kausalya, since he came to know from a scholar that only through her yet to be born child, Lord Rama, his death would occur. But however due to the intervention of sage Narada, she was safely released, and soon she wedded King Dasaratha.
The same type of incident was also happened in Krita Yuga, to Ma Kayadhu, who was the wife of the Demon King Hiranyakasipu. When Indra came to know that Ma Kayadhu was pregnant, he decided to kill the yet to be born child, Prahalada from the womb of his mother Kayadhu, and hence he tried to kidnap her. Immediately Rishi Narada appeared before Indra, and intervened in the matter, and as a result, Kayadhu was safely released, and soon our noble Bhagavata child Prahalada was also born.
In this Ananda Ramayana, the happiness which was attained by Lord Hanuman was also mentioned in detail. When Lord Hanuman first saw Ma Sita at the Ashokavanam in Lanka, he felt very much happy, and joyful tears came from his eyes, but our Divine mother Sita, was seen pathetically sitting under a tree, and she looked very weak and pale, since she had spent her difficult days in that place, even without consuming food and water. But, however, since Hanuman has traced her in Lanka, he happily narrated the entire incident to Rama, Lakshmana, Sugriva, Jambavan and to other Vanaras after he returned to Kishkinta. After the Lanka war, when Ma Sita was united with Lord Rama, again, Lord Hanuman felt very happy, and he began to move his tail up and down and by this way, he has expressed his pleasant feelings.
Since most of the readers might not have read about “ANANDA RAMAYANA”, for the sake of the readers, I have written this small article, describing about the features of “ANANDA RAMAYANA”, as usual, in my own style of writing!
“OM SRI ANANDARAMA NAMAHA”
Sent By
R.Harishankar
