The Final Chapter: Introduction, Translation, and Scholarly Annotation of the Uttarakanda of the Critical Edition of the Valm

FAIN: FT-58369-10

Robert Philip Goldman
University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, CA 94704-5940)

The project is the translation, scholarly annotation and introduction of the Uttarakanda, the seventh and final book of the massive (ca. 50,000 Sanskrit verses) ancient, monumental Sanskrit epic poem, the Valmiki Ramayana which with its innumerable retellings in virtually all of the languages of South and Southeast Asia, has emerged as one of the most influential texts ever written. The project has, to date, borne fruit in the publication of six volumes corresponding to the first six books of the epic comprising over 4000 pages of scholarly introduction, accurate and readable translation, and dense, scholarly annotation of the critical edition of this massively influential text. At its inception the work was adopted as the flagship publication of the Princeton Library of Asian Translations and each of the first five published volumes has been reprinted separately as part of the Clay Sanskrit Library and, in India, by Messrs. Motilal Banarsidass of Delhi.