Valmiki

About Valmiki

Valmiki's life as a poet began with one outburst of grief. On the banks of the Tamasa river, he saw a hunter shoot a male krauncha crane mid-mating, and the female's lament tore a curse from his lips — the verse 'ma nishada pratishtham…' (Ramayana 1.2.14), counted as the first shloka in Sanskrit. He punned that this shloka was born from shoka (sorrow). At Brahma's command he expanded it into the 24,000-verse Ramayana across seven kandas. His forest ashram later sheltered the exiled Sita, where her twins Lava and Kusha were born and learned the epic from him. Devotees honour him on Valmiki Jayanti, the Ashvin full moon.