A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.1965

c5.1965

VĀLMĪKI. The author of the Rāmāyana, which he in Vedic phrase is said to have “seen.” He himself is represented as taking part in some of the scenes he describes. He received the banished Sītā into his hermitage at Chitra-kūta, and educated her twin sons Kusa and Lava. “Tradition has marked a hill in the district of Banda in Bundlekand as his abode.” The invention of the sloka is attributed to him, but it cannot be his, because the metre is found in the Vedas.