| editor

“ Ramayan has conquered for ever the devoted heart of India.
The race that adores partial truth, that pursues material truth with tireless energy, that regards poetry as the mirror of Nature,—such a race is achieving many things in the world; it is peculiarly successful; the whole human kind is indebted to it. ”

“ But, on the other hand, those who have said, "The Great (Bhumá) is the only happiness; the nature of the Great is the only proper object of inquiry,"—those who have directed their devotion to realise the beauty of all parts, the harmony of all conflicts, amidst the fulness of MATURITY;—their debt, too, the world can never repay. ”

“ In the present case we must humbly find out the message that India speaks in the Ramayan, the ideal that India recognises as great in this epic. It is a popular notion that only a heroic poem can be an epic. The reason is that in every country and age where martial greatness has been honoured most, the national epic has naturally been predominantly heroic. ”

“ Nor is it true that it is an epic only descriptive of the exploits of a certain incarnation of the Deity. Scholars will show that Ram was not an avatar but a human personality to Valmiki. Here I may briefly say this that if the poet had described a god instead of a man in the Ramayan, it would have lessened the greatness of his work, it would have taken away from its merits as a poem. Ram's character is glorious only because it is human. ”