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Ramayana

American  
[rah-mah-yuh-nuh] / rɑˈmɑ yə nə /

noun

  1. an epic of India, one of the Puranas attributed to Valmiki and concerned with the life and adventures of Ramachandra and his wife Sita.

Ramayana British  
/ rɑːˈmaɪənə /

noun

  1. a Sanskrit epic poem, composed about 300 bc , recounting the feats of Ramachandra

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Formed in 2007 during an era of political upheaval, the group looked to escape to their own figurative island, drawing name inspiration from the Hindu epic of  Ramayana, a tale where good triumphs over evil.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 31, 2025

Islam does not appear in the Ramayana, having arrived in India only 1,000 years ago.

From New York Times • Jan. 22, 2024

The most popular representation of the "Ramayana" today is producer-director-writer Ramanand Sagar’s serialization that aired on India’s national television channel Doordarshan in the late 1980s.

From Salon • Nov. 11, 2023

The Ramayana depicts the victory of Hindu god Ram over the demon king Ravana after the latter kidnaps his wife, Sita.

From BBC • Jun. 19, 2023

“The Mahabharata is about the time after the Ramayana period.”

From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.