The other meaning, which can be found in the Mahabharata, is 'pleasing, pleasant, charming, lovely, beautiful'. In the Atharvaveda, it means 'dark, dark-coloured, black' and is related to the word rātri which means 'darkness or stillness of night'. Rāma, the name of the main character of the epic, has two contextual meanings. The name Rāmāyaṇa is composed of two words, Rāma and ayaṇa. Its most important moral influence was the importance of virtue, in the life of a citizen and in the ideals of the formation of a state (from Sanskrit: रामराज्य, IAST: Rāmarājya - a utopian state where Rama is king) or of a functioning society. The Ramayana was an important influence on later Sanskrit poetry and the Hindu life and culture, and its main characters were fundamental to the cultural consciousness of a number of nations, both Hindu and Buddhist. There are also Cambodian ( Reamker), Indonesian, Filipino, Thai ( Ramakien), Lao, Burmese and Malay versions of the tale. There are many versions of Ramayana in Indian languages, besides Buddhist, Sikh and Jain adaptations. It belongs to the genre of Itihasa, narratives of past events ( purāvṛtta), interspersed with teachings on the goals of human life. It is one of the largest ancient epics in world literature and consists of nearly 24,000 verses (mostly set in the Shloka/ Anustubh meter), divided into seven Khanda (parts) the first and the seventh being later additions. The scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages extending up to the 3rd century CE, although original date of composition is unknown. The epic follows his fourteen-year exile to the forest urged by his father King Dasharatha, on the request of Rama's stepmother Kaikeyi his travels across forests in the Indian subcontinent with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana, the kidnapping of Sita by Ravana – the king of Lanka, that resulted in war and Rama's eventual return to Ayodhya along with Sita to be crowned king amidst jubilation and celebration.

The epic, traditionally ascribed to the Maharishi Valmiki, narrates the life of Rama, a legendary prince of Ayodhya in the kingdom of Kosala. The Rāmāyaṇa ( / r ɑː ˈ m ɑː j ə n ə/ Sanskrit: रामायणम्, IAST: Rāmāyaṇam) is a Sanskrit epic from ancient India, one of the two important epics of Hinduism, known as the Itihasas (history), the other being the Mahābhārata.

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