( The L in this name is pronounced soft like 'l'in 'nil'. )
( also, see prachethas.html)
Vaalmeeki was a sage. He was the tenth son of Prachethas who was one of the Prajaapathis ie sons born from intention of the creator Lord Brahma himself. It is a funny thing that Vaalmeeki's original name was not mentioned in the Raamaayanam ( except that he was son of Prachethas). It was said that he was engrossed in penance for so long a period that mole-hills ( valmeeka= ant-hill or mole-hill) formed upon him from which he came out after his penance and so he was known as Vaalmeeki ( born or coming from Valmeeka).
( The popular stories that Vaalmeeki was a hunter by birth and later became a sage from the teachings of the septet of sages etc is only the production of free imagination of learned story-tellers. All this fancy might have come out out from some Puraanic stories like
(1) That Prachethas was once angry with his son for disclosing his flaw - of yielding to the beauty of the divine damsels - openly in the court of the Gods and thereby cursed his son to become a cruel hunter living by hunting and robbing, that his son lived with a tribe of hunters for a long time, that once he tried to rob some sages, that they turned his mind towards peace and meditation, that they taught him the chant of 'Raama', and that the hunter turned out to be a great sage etc..
or
(2)That a hunter was once given the chant of 'Raama' by a sage named Shankha, that the hunter chanted it rigorously thus gaining enormous virtue, that he took the next birth as son of some sage Valmeeka and thereby known as Vaalmeeki (=Valmeeka's son), that he wrot the Raamaayanam for the benefit of mankind ...etc
However, it must be noted that Raamaayabanam itself offers nothing about Vaalmeeki's history except the little mentioned above.)
As far as our Indian literature is concerned, He is the source of the first poetry of the world which he produced in the form of the great Ithihaasa (Epic) of Raamaayanam. Interestingly, Vaalmeeki is not only the composer of the epic but he himself was one of the persons that appear in the epic. And his part too was not little.
The second chapter of Baala-Kaanda says that Vaalmeeki's hermitage was situated on the banks of river thamasa, 'not far away from Ganga'. It was later mentioned in 56 th chapter of Ayodhya-Kaanda that Raama visited, bowed and introduced himself to sage Vaalmeeki in his cottage near the hill Chithrakoota. It might be so that Vaalmeeki lived for some time at Chithrakoota and later lived near Thamasa river by the time he composed the Raamaayanam.
Once Vaalmeeki asked Naarada asto who at that time was an ideal human person with all the virtues embedded in his personality, Naarada replied to the question saying that Raama of the Ikshvaaku dynasty was such a person to answer the said description and he also a gave brief account of Raama's life history too. This was the seed of Raama's history.
After Naarada's departure, Vaalmeeki went to the river Thamasa alongwith his disciple Bhaaradvaaja for bathing. There, he saw a couple of Krouncha birds sporting happily on a branch when an arrow from a hunter hit the male bird to claim its life. Seeing the female bird's bitter sorrow from witnessing the slaying of its dear partner, Vaalmeeki's heart broke out and he instantly uttered a stanza which delivered a hard curse on the hunter too. ( Our scholars dig out some concocted inner meaning of this Shloka but all that gives us nothing.). The sage himself was wondered at the outbirst of his feelings in such a systematic metrical form. even after returning to his hermitage, the sage was pondering over the sad incident that caused the birth of the metrical stanza and the beauty of the stanza itself too.
just then, Lord Brahma appeared before him . After the usual homages are paid, the Lord clarified that the sage really hoisted the divine meter itself onto the earth and that metrical expression should be used to compose the history of Raama which the divine sage Naarada had told him a little while ago. Brahma himself named the work 'Raamaayanam'. He also granted Vaalmeeki such powers to visualize whatever that happened and whatever that would happen in Raama's life. Assuring the sage that the book about Raama, ie the Raamaayanam, will last on the earth so long as the hills and rivers last, the Lord vanished.
with the ordeal from Lord Brahma Vaalmeeki could 'see' the incidents, and 'perceive' thoughts and feelings of all the people in the past and future too . He then composed the great poem in 24000 verses comprising seven books named Kaandas which all together are divided into more than six hundred ( tradition says five hundred , but that is, roughly, upto the first six books only) chapters named Sargas.
The structure of the Raamaayanam is as following ( According to Gorakhpoor Edition of the Geetha Press, Gorakhpoor). Other recensions and their traditions give varried number of Shlokas and Sargas. The manner of division of Sargas too differ with recension.
| Serial Number | Name of the Book | Story covered by the book | Number of Sargas | Number of Shlokas |
| 1 | Baala or Aadi Kaanda | Upto the marriage of Raama | 77 | 2 276 |
| 2 | Ayodhya Kaanda | Upto Raama's entering the Dandaka forest | 119 | 4 279 |
| 3 | Aranya or Aaranya Kaanda | Upto Raama's reaching the Pampa lake | 75 | 2 479 |
| 4 | Kishkindha Kaanda | Upto the Vaanaras' reaching the Southern sea | 67 | 2 486 |
| 5 | Sundara Kaanda | Upto Hanumaan's return from Lanka | 68 | 2 832 |
| 6 | Yuddha or Lanka Kaanda | Upto Raama's coronation | 131 | 5 798 |
| 7 | Uththara Kaanda | Upto Raama's Renunciation | 111 | 3 543 |
| Total | 648 | 23 693 |
As Vaalmeeki himself said, the Raamaayanam became to be known as the Raamaayanam ( Raama's lifehistory) or Seethaacharitham (seetha's history) or Poulasthyavadham ( Raavana's slaying) .
Vaalmeeki was also a person involved in the incidents of Raamaayanam. When Raama went to forest on exile, he met Vaalmeeki near Chithrakoota and bowed to him. The sage too wished and blessed him.
Again, when Raama was affected by public talk about Seetha and sent her to be left in the hermitages of sages near Thamasa river beyond the other shore of Ganga, Vaalmeeki took care of her in the protection of ascetic women in the hermitages around. He supervised the birth ceremonies of her sons and named them Kusha and Lava. He also imparted to them all the normal education and princely instructions too. Besides, he taught them the Raamaayanam and how to recite it too. It appears that Vaalmeeki spent some at Chithrakoota and some time at Thamasa river.
While going to Madhupuram to kill the demon Lavana, Shathrughna halted for one night at Vaalmeeki's hermitage. The same day, Seetha gave birth to her two sons, Kusha and Lava. On that occasion, Vaalmeeki also narrated to Shathrughna about one of the latter's ancestors named Mithrasaha who was also known as Mithrasakha or Soudaasa or Kalmaashapaada. After twelve years again, when Shathrughna returned to Ayodhya to see Raama, then too, he halted at Vaalmeeki's cottage. It was then that he and his followers heard Kusha and Lava nicely recite the Raamaayanam.
During Raama's Ashvamedha sacrifice on the banks of Gomathi river in Nymisha forest, Kusha and Lava first sung the Raamaayanam which pleased Raama. When Raama asked Vaalmeeki to bring Seetha to the sacrifice hall to prove her chastity before all, Vaalmeeki brought her there and spoke out in clear words that Seetha was as pure as the fire. But, Seetha, of course, decided not to prove again herself and avowed that the earth would take her into itself if ever she was sincere to Raama. No sooner did she say so than a resplendent seat popped out from the earth whereupon the mother earth was sitting. She took Seetha into her hands and vanished into the Paathaalam, the nether world. A grief-struck Raama was consoled by Vaalmeeki and Lord Brahma. finally, Vaalmeeki entrusted Kusha and Lava to Raama and went away. That was the crucial role of Vaalmeeki in the Raamaayanam.
Thus Vaalmeeki stood to be the first poet of the world with the great work Raamaayanam to his credit. He is the pioneer in many styles of poetry, especially in the depictions of natural scenes.
It is wonderful to note that nearly half the classical literature in almost all the Indian languages has Raamaayanam as its basis. It is just impossible to find a substitute to Raamaayanam.