The Ramayana in Two Hours

A promise made. A kingdom lost. A war fought across the sea.

On the morning he is to be crowned, Rama of Ayodhya is sent into exile for fourteen years - because his father once made a promise, and a king's word cannot be revised.

What follows is the oldest and strangest version of a story a billion people already know: a wife carried off by a demon king who has made himself immune to gods but not to men. A monkey who leaps an ocean. A bridge of stones. A war that ends in a fire nobody wanted lit. And a homecoming that costs more than the war did.

This is the complete Ramayana - all seven books, from Dasharatha's childless court to the last walk into the Sarayu - retold to be read in a single sitting.

It follows Valmiki, the oldest Sanskrit telling, and it says so plainly wherever the familiar story departs from him. There is no line drawn on the ground. Shabari's berries are not tasted first. Ahalya is not turned to stone. The seventh book - the banishment, the twins, the ending most retellings quietly drop - is here in full. Vali's accusation against Rama stands unanswered on the page, as Valmiki left it. Nothing is softened.

Includes: a route map of the journey south, four family trees, a full cast list with first appearances, a pronunciation guide, and a table of exactly what later tradition changed and where.

About two hours' reading. The whole story, and no summary of it.