Vālmīki
Epic age · Ādikavi · Rāmāyaṇa
Maharṣi Vālmīki is honoured as the Ādikavi, the first poet, and his Rāmāyaṇa as the Ādikāvya, the first poem. In about 24,000 verses and seven books (kāṇḍas) it tells the life of Śrī Rāma, and it has shaped the values, art and languages of India and South-East Asia ever since.
In the epic itself Vālmīki gives shelter to Sītā in his āśrama, where her twin sons Lava and Kuśa are born; he teaches them the Rāmāyaṇa, and they sing it before Rāma. A later popular tradition says he was once a highwayman named Ratnākara, transformed by meeting Nārada — a story of how anyone can change.
The Rāmāyaṇa opens with Vālmīki watching a pair of krauñca birds by the river Tamasā. A hunter shoots the male, and the female cries out. Overcome with grief, the sage speaks a curse that comes out in perfect metre — “mā niṣāda…”. From that sorrow (śoka) the śloka was born, and Brahmā asks him to tell the story of Rāma in this new verse.
Ādikavi — the first poet · Rāmāyaṇa, 7 kāṇḍas · Teacher of Lava and Kuśa