The Ramayana's Reach

The Ramayana tells the story of Prince Rama, exiled for fourteen years, whose wife Sita is kidnapped by the demon king Ravana. Rama's rescue mission, aided by the monkey god Hanuman, became the foundational tale of devotion and duty across South and Southeast Asia.

It is still performed every year in India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia, with each culture adapting it locally — the Thai Ramakien, the Javanese kakawin, the Balinese dance dramas. No other literary work has been performed so widely, for so many centuries.