Valmiki’s Ramayana explained: the seven Kandas, book by book

Before Nitesh Tiwari’s two-part Ramayana reaches cinemas (Part 1 on 5 November 2026, Part 2 planned for Diwali 2027), it helps to know the text that sits underneath almost every retelling of Rama’s story: the Sanskrit epic traditionally credited to the sage Valmiki. This guide explains how the epic is organised, what happens in each of its seven books, and why that shape matters on screen. For a quicker plot summary, see our story overview.

Who composed the Ramayana, and when?

Hindu tradition honours Valmiki as the Adi Kavi, the “first poet”, and the Ramayana as the first kavya, or crafted poem. The epic itself tells how he came to write it. In its opening chapters the sage Narada recounts to Valmiki the life of an ideal man, Rama. Soon after, Valmiki sees a hunter shoot one of a pair of mating birds; his grief and anger pour out as a spontaneous couplet, which tradition regards as the first shloka in Sanskrit literature. Valmiki then composes the whole epic in that metre.

Britannica notes that many scholars place the earliest form of the epic in the middle centuries of the first millennium BCE, and that it probably grew within an oral tradition, performed aloud and passed from teacher to pupil, before being written down. No manuscript of the earliest version survives. In its present form the epic runs to roughly 24,000 verses (couplets) arranged in about 500 chapters (sargas) across seven books (kandas). A critical edition, compiled at the Oriental Institute in Baroda from dozens of manuscripts, was translated into English by a team led by Robert P. Goldman, completed in 2016.

The seven Kandas at a glance

1. Bala Kanda – the Book of Youth
2. Ayodhya Kanda – the Book of Ayodhya
3. Aranya Kanda – the Book of the Forest
4. Kishkindha Kanda – the Book of the Vanara kingdom
5. Sundara Kanda – the “Beautiful” Book
6. Yuddha Kanda – the Book of War (also called Lanka Kanda)
7. Uttara Kanda – the Book of Later Events, an epilogue

The books move from court to forest, to the vanara kingdom, across the sea to Lanka, and home.

The seven books in detail

1. Bala Kanda: birth, training and marriage

After a great sacrifice by King Dasharatha of Ayodhya, four sons are born to his three queens: Rama to Kaushalya, Bharata to Kaikeyi, and the twins Lakshmana and Shatrughna to Sumitra. The sage Vishvamitra takes the young Rama and Lakshmana to protect his rituals from rakshasas, and the brothers defeat the demoness Tataka. At Mithila, King Janaka has promised his daughter Sita to whoever can string the great bow of Shiva. Rama breaks it, and the four brothers marry into Janaka’s family.

2. Ayodhya Kanda: the vow and the exile

As Dasharatha prepares to crown Rama, Kaikeyi, urged on by her maid Manthara, calls in two boons the king once promised her: Bharata is to rule, and Rama must live in the forest for fourteen years. Bound by his word, Dasharatha cannot refuse. Rama accepts without protest, and Sita and Lakshmana insist on going with him. The king dies of grief. Bharata refuses the throne and, when Rama will not return, rules only as regent with Rama’s sandals on the throne. This is the “father’s vow” that the film’s official synopsis puts at the heart of the story.

3. Aranya Kanda: the forest and the abduction

In the Dandaka forest the exiles live among hermits and face repeated clashes with rakshasas. Shurpanakha, sister of the Lanka king Ravana, is spurned by Rama and Lakshmana and disfigured by Lakshmana after she attacks Sita. Rama then destroys her brother Khara and his army. Ravana takes revenge through cunning: the rakshasa Maricha takes the form of a golden deer, draws Rama away, and cries out in Rama’s voice so that Lakshmana leaves too. Ravana, disguised as a wandering ascetic, carries Sita off. The vulture Jatayu fights to stop him and is mortally wounded.

4. Kishkindha Kanda: alliances

Heading south, Rama and Lakshmana meet Hanuman, minister to the exiled vanara prince Sugriva. Rama helps Sugriva win back his throne from his elder brother Vali, and in return Sugriva promises to send his armies in search of Sita. Search parties fan out in every direction, and the southern party, which includes Hanuman, learns that Sita is held across the sea in Lanka.

5. Sundara Kanda: Hanuman's journey

This much-loved book belongs to Hanuman. He leaps across the ocean, searches Lanka by night, and finds Sita in the Ashoka grove, refusing every advance from Ravana. He gives her Rama’s ring, confronts Ravana’s court and sets the city ablaze before returning. It is often recited on its own in homes and temples.

6. Yuddha Kanda: the war for Lanka

Ravana’s righteous younger brother Vibhishana urges him to return Sita, is rejected, and crosses over to Rama. The vanara engineers Nala and Nila build a bridge to Lanka, and a long war follows. Ravana’s son Indrajit (Meghanada) binds Rama and Lakshmana with serpent-arrows; Hanuman carries a herb-covered mountain peak from the Himalayas to revive the wounded; the giant Kumbhakarna is woken from his deep sleep to fight. Lakshmana slays Indrajit, and Rama finally kills Ravana. Sita undergoes the trial by fire (agnipariksha), Vibhishana is crowned king of Lanka, and Rama returns to Ayodhya to be crowned at last.

7. Uttara Kanda: the epilogue and its debates

The final book goes back to tell the origins of Ravana and his clan, then moves forward to Rama’s reign. Hearing that his subjects doubt Sita’s purity, Rama sends the pregnant queen away; she gives birth to the twins Lava and Kusha in Valmiki’s hermitage. Years later they recite the Ramayana at Rama’s court, and Sita, asked again to prove her fidelity, calls on the Earth, her mother, to receive her.

This is where traditions part most sharply. Many scholars, following Hermann Jacobi, treat books two to six as the oldest core and see the Bala and especially the Uttara Kanda as later additions, citing differences in style and content. Many devotees receive all seven books as Valmiki’s work. Later retellings also handle the ending differently. Tulsidas’s sixteenth-century Awadhi Ramcharitmanas keeps seven books, but its Uttar Kand is largely given over to devotional teaching, including the story of the crow-sage Kakbhushundi. Popular adaptations, such as the 1970 Amar Chitra Katha comic, have ended with Rama and Sita crowned in Ayodhya.

The themes that hold the epic together

• Dharma. Righteous conduct and duty: Rama keeping his father’s promise, Bharata refusing an unearned throne, Vibhishana choosing right over family.
• Loyalty and devotion. Lakshmana’s service, Sita’s steadfastness and Hanuman’s bhakti give the epic its emotional force.
• Kingship. What makes a good ruler, from Dasharatha’s binding word to the ideal of Rama Rajya.
• Desire against obligation. Britannica describes the epic’s moral axis as one each character moves along through their own choices. Ravana, learned and devoted to Shiva yet ruined by pride, shows how complex they can be.

The Diwali connection

Two major festivals are tied to the epic. Dussehra (Vijayadashami) marks Rama’s victory over Ravana and is often celebrated with Ramlila performances and the burning of Ravana effigies. Diwali, the festival of lights, is widely celebrated as Rama’s return to Ayodhya with Sita and Lakshmana after the war, when the city was lit up to welcome him home. Diwali carries other meanings in other regions and communities, but Rama’s homecoming is among the best known.

How screen adaptations choose what to show

No film can hold 24,000 verses. Some choices are about length, such as trimming the Bala Kanda’s side stories or the Yuddha Kanda’s many battles. Others are interpretive: whether to include the Uttara Kanda at all, how to stage the agnipariksha, and whether to follow Valmiki’s more human Rama or the openly divine Rama of devotional works like the Ramcharitmanas. Regional retellings such as Kamban’s Tamil epic and Krittivas’s Bengali version offer further choices.

The makers of the new film have not said which episodes each part covers, and we will not guess. What has been released is the official synopsis:

When Rakshasa emperor Ravana, invincible to all but man, conquers the three worlds, Lord Vishnu descends as noble prince Rama. Bound by his father’s vow, Rama enters perilous exile with virtuous Sita and devoted Lakshmana. When Ravana abducts Sita, God in human form rises to fight the greatest war ever.

That framing draws on threads running across several Kandas, from Ravana’s boon and the father’s vow to the abduction and the war. The film stars Ranbir Kapoor as Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita, Yash as Ravana, Sunny Deol as Hanuman and Ravie Dubey as Lakshmana; see our cast and crew guide and character guide for more, and our release page for confirmed dates.

Knowing the seven books will not spoil a story told for over two thousand years. It will help you notice what this adaptation keeps, compresses, or reimagines.