Balakanda

Bala Kanda (Sanskrit bālakāṇḍa, the book of the childhood) is the first book of the Valmiki Ramayana, which is one of the two great epics of India (the other being the Mahabharata).

Structure

The book consists of seventy-six sargas(sometimes translated as chapters or "cantos") of Sanskrit verse.

Summary

The Bala Kanda begins with the ascetic Valmiki questioning the famous sage Narada if there is any man who is truly virtuous. Narada replies that there is such a man and that his name is Rama. He then goes on to briefly describe Rama's physical characteristics and to briefly summarize the story of the Ramayana.(Sarga 1) Next, the book describes how Valmiki wrote the Ramayana and taught it to Lava and Kusha(Sargas 2, 3 and 4) who soon enough launch into the full story:

The king gets Rishyasringa(Sarga 11), who performs the ceremony. The ceremony goes off very gloriously and well.(Sargas 12,13 and 14)

Meanwhile, the gods are having a problem. The Rakshasa(demon) known as Ravana was causing a huge problem because, due to a boon he had received from Brahma, he was invincible to gods, celestial snakes and devils. The gods ask Narayana(Vishnu) what to do and he decides to incarnate himself on earth as a man - when Ravana had asked for his boon, the foolish demon had forgotten to mention protection from men. Vishnu thereupon incarnates himself as celestial porridge and has himself handed to Dasharatha by a red coloured being who appeared out of Rishyasringa's sacrificial fire. The being(usually taken to be Agni, the god of Fire) tells Dasharatha to give the porridge to his wives. Dasharatha gives the porridge to his three queens and they give birth to four sons between the three of them: Queen Kaushalya gives birth to baby Rama, Queen Kaikeyi gives birth to baby Bharata and Queen Sumitra gives birth to twins: baby Shatrughna and baby Lakshmana.