Attributed to Valmiki, thought to be India’s first poet, the Ramayana’s origins date back thousands of years when it was first committed to Sanskrit. Since then, generations of children the world over have grown up with its story of Rama’s quest to recover his wife Sita from her abduction by Raavana, the Lord of the Underworld. The tale has been celebrated in many languages and has spread to many other countries including Nepal, Tibet, Thailand, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia. It is used as a Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Islamic, Sikh as well as a secular text, and lives in in many art forms too: in drama and dance, in sculpture and painting, in prose and in poetry.

Daljit Nagra was captivated by the versions his grandparents regaled him with as a child. Now an award-winning poet of dazzling gifts, he has chosen to bring the story to life in a vivid and enthralling version of his own. Accessible and engaging, and bursting with energy, Nagra’s Ramayana is a distillation and an animation for readers of all ages, whether familiar with or entirely new to this remarkable tale.