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Disclaimer

Last updated: July 28, 2026

Accuracy Disclaimer

The Valmiki Ramayana Digital Seeding Project is provided “AS IS.”

While we endeavor to:

  • Preserve Sanskrit text accurately (verified via build script)
  • Synthesize English translations faithfully
  • Protect verse locators from corruption

We make no warranty regarding:

  • Translation fidelity (subject to source translator skill)
  • Completeness (new kandas seeded over time)
  • Academic authority (not a critical edition; suitable for reference only)
  • Religious/cultural accuracy (no theological review)

Users should:

  • Consult scholarly editions for critical textual work
  • Cross-reference translations with original sources
  • Seek expert advice for religious or academic use

Limitations of Liability

The project shall not be liable for:

  • Loss of data, data corruption, or service interruption
  • Misunderstanding of Sanskrit meaning due to translation choice
  • Errors in script conversion (tested, but not guaranteed perfect)
  • Offense taken at content (project is descriptive, not prescriptive)

Sources & Commentary

Per-verse source citations were previously shown on each shloka’s detail page. They now live here instead, as a single consolidated bibliography, ordered from oldest to newest publication rather than alphabetically.

Sanskrit text base editions

  1. Nirnaya Sagar Press critical edition (Govindaraja’s Bhūṣaṇa and other traditional commentaries) — widely published 19th–20th c.
  2. Baroda Critical Edition, Oriental Institute, MS University of Baroda — 1960s–70s
  3. GRETIL electronic edition (Muneo Tokunaga, Kyoto University) — digital
  4. Sanskrit Documents Devanagari and Roman-script text — digital
  5. IIT Kanpur Valmiki Ramayanam (Sanskrit text with English commentary) — 2000s

English translations, oldest to newest

  1. William Carey & Joshua Marshman (1806) — first English translation of any part of the Ramayana (Bala Kanda only)
  2. Ralph T. H. Griffith (1870–1874) — verse translation, via sacred-texts.com / Wikisource
  3. Romesh Chunder Dutt (1898) — condensed verse translation
  4. Manmatha Nath Dutt (1891–1894) — prose translation, via archive.org / Project Gutenberg
  5. Monier Monier-Williams (1875, partial)
  6. Hari Prasad Shastri (1952) — prose translation, via archive.org / wisdomlib.org
  7. N. Raghunathan (1981)
  8. Makhan Lal Sen (1978)
  9. K. M. K. Murthy & Desiraju Hanumanta Rao (valmikiramayan.net) — 2000s, word-by-word meanings with translation
  10. Arshia Sattar (1996, later abridged)
  11. Robert P. Goldman and team, The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki (7 vols.), Princeton University Press, 1990–2016 — based on the Baroda Critical Edition. Cited here as a scholarly reference; not reproduced verbatim (copyrighted).
  12. J. L. & Mary Brockington (2006)
  13. Bibek Debroy, The Valmiki Ramayana (3 vols.), Penguin, 2017. Cited here as a scholarly reference; not reproduced verbatim (copyrighted).

Digital aggregators

ramayana.info is listed separately, without a publication date, as it appears to aggregate content from the dated sources above rather than representing an independent scholarly edition in its own right.

Commentary roster

Scholar commentary on individual shlokas draws on the following confirmed roster. Coverage is intentionally partial and grows verse by verse as real source material is found — a scholar’s name appears on a given shloka only where genuine, traceable commentary exists for it. Nothing is filled in to make coverage look more complete than it is.

  1. Govindaraja — Bhūṣaṇa (Sanskrit)
  2. Rama, traditionally; sometimes attributed to Nagesa Bhatta — Tilaka (Sanskrit)
  3. Śivasahāya — Śiromaṇi (Sanskrit)
  4. Madhava Yogi — Amṛtakaṭaka (Sanskrit)
  5. Tryambakarāyamakhī — Dharmakūṭa (Sanskrit)
  6. Bibek Debroy — The Valmiki Ramayana, 3 vols. (English; bibliography reference only, see above)
  7. Robert P. Goldman and team — The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki, 7 vols. (English; bibliography reference only, see above)
  8. Pullela Sriramachandrudu — Śrīvālmīkirāmāyaṇamu (Telugu)
  9. Sribhashyam Appalacharyulu — Tatva Deepika (Telugu)
  10. Swami Chinmayananda — Ramayana Discourses (English / Hindi)
  11. Chaganti Koteswara Rao — Sampoorna Ramayana Pravachanam (Telugu)
  12. Morari Bapu — Ram Katha (Hindi / Gujarati / English)
  13. Bannanje Govindacharya — Valmiki Kanda Ramayana (Kannada; attribution still under verification)

Full sourcing notes and research status for each of the above are maintained in this project’s working documents and updated as new verses are sourced.

Affiliation

The project is not affiliated with any religious institution, sectarian organization, or commercial entity. It is governed by scholarly principles of textual preservation and fair use, and is a program of Sri Sudarsana Seva Samiti USA Inc.

Questions

Email: accounts@srisudarsana.org

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