Bernhard Wessling

The Sarus Crane and
the Indian epic poem "ramayana"

The sage poet Valmiki is cursing the hunter

What is Ramayana about?

„Ramayana“ is an epic poem from ancient India, written in Sanskrit. It is huge, it consists of 24,000 verses, describing the life of Rama. More about this poem here and here.

The myth goes like this (taken from this link): 

When sage poet Valmiki was pondering over how he could write the story of Lord Ram, he came upon a pair of Sarus cranes. As he watched, a hunter’s arrow struck the male bird in the chest and he fell dead. His sorrowful mate wept painfully and Valmiki was filled with grief. He cursed the hunter in fine verse, which when he recalled later, turned out to be in rhyme. It was this rhyme he used to compose the epic poem and the pathos of the grieving female bird is reflected in Sita’s sorrow.

Bernhard Wessling