How India Knew the Ramayana Without Reading It (Documentary)

11/12/26

When India Stopped to Watch the Ramayana: How the Epic Reached Every Indian

In January 1987, India stopped for the Ramayan on Doordarshan, yet most viewers had never read Valmiki's 24,000 Sanskrit verses. This documentary traces how the epic reached every corner of India: through singers, kings, poets, pilgrim routes, cinema and a television set on a Sunday morning.

What the documentary covers

Before print, the Ramayana existed as palm-leaf manuscripts, each copy months of work, kept in temples, royal libraries and with wandering ascetics. Few people ever held one. The epic travelled by voice instead. Tradition says Valmiki taught it to Rama's twin sons, Lava and Kusha, who sang it until they reached their father's court, and the Kushilavas, travelling bards, kept that practice alive for centuries. Recitations during Navaratri, and King Bhoja's Champu Ramayana in an easy Sanskrit style, kept the story in public hearing.

As regional languages grew, kings paid poets to retell it for their own people. Nagachandra wrote a Jain Ramayana in Kannada, Kamban wrote the Tamil Ramavataram, Krittibas Ojha the Bengali Ramayana and Balarama Dasa the Odia Jagamohana Ramayana. In the 16th century Tulsidas composed the Ramcharitmanas in Awadhi, in chaupais and dohas simple enough to memorise and sing, and kathavachaks carried it to temple steps and village squares across the north.

The story was also mapped onto the land. Pilgrims went to Ayodhya, to Shringverpur where Rama crossed the Ganga, to Chitrakoot, and to Panchavati near Nashik. In the south they visited Kishkindha near Hampi, Bhadrachalam in Telangana, Rameswaram and the Ram Setu. Kingdoms rose and fell, but this network of sites tied the subcontinent together. The epic entered daily speech too: Ram Ram as a greeting, Rama Rajya for just rule, Lakshman Rekha for a line that must not be crossed, and the Ramnamis of Chhattisgarh tattooing Rama's name across their bodies.

Colonial rule weakened the old channels. Travelling performers and mendicants were treated with suspicion, and some communities were listed under the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871, while village schools that taught the Itihasas gave way to English-medium education. Cinema opened a new one: Dadasaheb Phalke's silent Lanka Dahan in 1917 had audiences removing their shoes in the tent. In the 1980s Ramanand Sagar wanted to bring the epic to television. Doordarshan officials worried about secularism, but S.S. Gill, secretary in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, backed the series, and the first episode aired at 9:30 am on Sunday 25 January 1987. Streets emptied and families garlanded their television sets.

The documentary ends with the new Ramayana film released in 2026. It argues that retellings have always taken creative liberties, from Kamban to Tulsidas, but kept the moral conflict at the epic's centre, and it asks whether a version that recasts Ravana as a misunderstood figure changes what the story is trying to say.

Chapters

0:00 Why did India stop for the Ramayan on Doordarshan in 1987?
0:31 How was the Ramayana copied before printing?
0:52 Who were Lava, Kusha and the Kushilava bards?
1:21 How did the Ramayana reach India's regional languages?
2:20 Who was Tulsidas and why did he write the Ramcharitmanas?
2:47 What is the sacred geography of the Ramayana?
3:24 Which Ramayana places are in South India?
3:56 How did the Ramayana shape everyday life in India?
4:37 How did British rule affect the Ramayana tradition?
5:01 What was Lanka Dahan (1917)?
5:16 How did India's post-independence elite see the Ramayana?
5:42 How did Ramanand Sagar get the Ramayan on Doordarshan?
6:21 What happened on 25 January 1987?
6:59 Is the new Ramayana movie true to the epic?

Frequently asked questions

How did people know the Ramayana without reading it?

Mostly by hearing it. Bards called Kushilavas sang it, kathavachaks recited it in temples and village squares, and poets retold it in regional languages such as Tamil, Bengali, Odia, Kannada and Awadhi. Pilgrimage, festivals, folk theatre and later cinema and television carried it further.

When was Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan first broadcast?

The first episode aired on Doordarshan at 9:30 am on Sunday 25 January 1987. The series ran until July 1988 and is often described as the most watched programme in Indian television history.

Who wrote the Ramcharitmanas?

Tulsidas, a 16th-century poet-saint, wrote the Ramcharitmanas in Awadhi, beginning in 1574. Its verses made the Ramayana the most widely sung text in north India.

What are the main regional versions of the Ramayana?

Among the best known are Kamban's Tamil Ramavataram, Krittibas Ojha's Bengali Ramayana, Balarama Dasa's Odia Jagamohana Ramayana, Nagachandra's Kannada Jain Ramayana, Tulsidas's Awadhi Ramcharitmanas and Bhoja's Sanskrit Champu Ramayana.

Which places in India are linked to the Ramayana?

Ayodhya, Shringverpur, Chitrakoot, Panchavati near Nashik, Kishkindha near Hampi, Bhadrachalam, Rameswaram and the Ram Setu are among the main sites on the traditional Ramayana pilgrimage map.