Abstract

This descriptive exposition of Hindu ethics in the "Rāmāyaṇa", India's most celebrated people's classic, analyzes the Vālmīki version in terms of four ethical questions about mores, ethos, societal structures, and forms of ethical validation. The epic's life-affirming ethos, together with its moral education and esthetical persuasion through model characters, is viewed as a pluralistic alternative to forms of Hindu ethics more known in the West. The latter are those implied in Hindu non-dualistic philosophies, mysticism, and an ascetical ethos of world-denial. Two appendices are provided: one on the classic's historical impact and related textual matters; another on the role of women in Indian society.