The Ramayana is an epic poem which was first written from memory (smriti) by sage Valmiki in the Sanskrit language. Many years later, Goswami Tulsidas, born in the 16th century, wrote the Ramcharitmanas (a different version of the Ramayana written in Avadhi Hindi), which is the scripture used as a basis by Morari Bapu in his kathas.
Through Asia, the Ramayana has served not only as poetry, but as the ideal of life and embodiment of principles, as the basis for festivals, plays and rituals, as the foundation for religion, and as an eternal tale of love and duty.
The Ramcharitmanas is broken up into stanzas called chaupais, passages of which are interposed with dohas or couplets. It is filled with exquisite poetry and consists of seven chapters: Bal Kand, Ayodhya Kand, Aranya Kand, Kiskindha Kand, Sundar Kand, Lanka Kand and Uttar Kand.
All these sections cover the different periods of Lord Rama’s life, taking us right from his boyhood, through his exile and his life in the forest, to the abduction of Sita, the war which follows in Lanka and finally, what happens after the recovery of his wife. Preceding these seven sections, the story of Lord Shiva has also been narrated in the form of a prologue to Ram’s story.