| The Bharatiya
Vidya Bhavan has added to the debt of gratitude owe it by undertaking the publication of
the English version of my Tamil Ramayana. They achieved great success in the distribution
of my Mahabharata book and I trust this book of the story of Rama and Sita will receive
similar welcome. I wrote the Tamil
original of this book in a series of weekly chapters in KALKI, in writing which I was
greatly encouraged by the warm reception they received in the homes of the Tamil people
all over the country. This book is based on the series that appeared contemporaneously in
the SUNDAY STANDARD for which Sri Ramnath Goenka of the 'Express' papers was responsible.
My friend Sri Navaratna Rama Rao has
thoroughly revised the English rendering and if it is found to be good reading it is due
to his affectionate labour on this book. The faults such as may be noticed are entirely
mine. If readers find pathos and beauty in spite of the defects necessarily involved in
translating such matter into a foreign tongue, it is all Valmiki's magic. The chapters
were written for Tamil readers and followed a pattern of earnest and intimate talk rather
than of written prose. |
