How, why and wherefore

This page is dedicated to the life and message of SrIrAma as seen from the eyes of sage vAlmIki and thAgarAja swAmi. SrIrAma is revered as the maryAda purushOttama – the best among men who knows very well his limits in all circumstances and conducts himself accordingly.

Please follow the vAlmIki rAmAyaNam link to read a chapter by chapter account of the life of rAma. I have extensively referred to and drawn from the extremely helpful pages on vAlmIki rAmAyaNam from IIT Kanpur. My gratitude to the amazing people behind this work.

The work on thyAgarAja swAmi is an attempt to construct rAma’s life as seen by the saint through his available kritis.

I largely follow what is known as Harvard-Kyoto convention in writing the names and other samskrit terms. The regular English reader may find it somewhat strange and even annoying. But spare us that liberty to not capitalize names in the beginning as is the convention in English. Accordingly Rama is written as rAma, the first a (secong letter) lasts twice as long as the second a, (fourth letter). So A stands for aa, if you will. Similarly Sita is sIta, since I is the longer letter here and s is the appropriate sa. Please visit the above page to familiarize with the convention. I am sure you will enjoy this way of writing in due course.

Both are ongoing works and frequently updated. Please keep visiting back.