''The Ramayana'' is a mythological book by

R. K. Narayan Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayanaswami (10 October 1906 – 13 May 2001), better known as R. K. Narayan, was an Indian writer and novelist known for his work set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He was a leading author of early ...

. It was first published by

Chatto and Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his business ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1972. The book is a shortened, prose adaptation of the

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

Kamba Ramayanam The ''Ramavataram'', popularly referred to as ''Kamba Ramayanam'', is a Tamil epic that was written by the Tamil poet Kambar during the 12th century. Based on Valmiki's ''Ramayana'' (which is in Sanskrit), the story describes the legend of ...

''. In 1938, Narayan made a promise to his dying uncle that he would translate the ''Kamba Ramayana'' to English, however, he did not think about this promise until 1968 when he began work on this effort. He later wrote ''The Mahabharata'', published in 1978.

References

1973 books Books by R. K. Narayan Works based on the Ramayana Chatto & Windus books {{Hindu-book-stub