Valmiki Jayanti: Adi Kavi Valmiki- The great sage who gave India the 'Ramayana'

Adi Kavi MahaRishi Valmiki is the author of “Ramayana”, the first ever epic in the Sanskrit language.
Adi Kavi means the first poet. MahaRishi means the great sage. Both honours perfectly fit his character and intellect.
Valmiki belonged to Bhargava Gotra (lineage). He was the tenth son of Prachetasa Rishi. Brigu Rishi was his brother.
A legend says his earlier name was Ratnakara. Due to some circumstances, Ratnakara was raised by a hunter, turned out be a good hunter himself, married a beautiful young lady from the same community.
It was Narada Rishi who took Ratnakara as his disciple and taught him the holy Rama Nama. After many years of great penance, he came out of ant-hill that had grown over him. He thus earned a new name Valmiki. It literally means one that is born out of a Valmika – an ant-hill.
Valmiki learnt the entire story of Rama, the great king of Ayodhya, through Narada Rishi. Later Brahma, the God of creation, appeared before Valmiki and asked him to write the story of Rama as he heard from Narada Rishi. Valmiki obliged.
Ramayana is composed of about 4,80,000 words, being a quarter of the length of the full text of Mahabharata or about four times the length of Iliad.
Also, this epic consists of 24,000 verses (Shlokas). It is divided into 6 cantos (Kandas). The 7th Kanda, namely Uttara Kanda is added later by others to the original epic.
Valmiki uses a lot of imagery and allegory in his work. His epic is very descriptive. He uses a combination of short and long sentences that gives versatility to his work. In one place, 38 lines (19 verses) make a single sentence!
His first disciples to whom he taught the Ramayaṇa were Kusha and Lava, the sons of Rama.
Vishnudharmottara Purana says that Valmiki was born in the Treta Yuga as a form of Bramha who composed Ramayana.
He was later reincarnated as Tulsidas, who wrote Rama Charita Manasa, the Awadhi-Hindi version of the Ramayana.
An area in Chennai, Tiruvanmiyur is believed to derive its name from Valmiki, Thiru-Valmiki-Oor.
There is a temple for Valmiki located in this place. It is believed to be 1300 years old.
In 1963, Valmiki, a Kannada movie was made, starring Dr Rajkumar.
Acc. to a study, there are more than 6000 various versions of Ramayana!
This epic poem is blessed to be in existence as long as there are Sun and moon in the universe.
With its present popularity, no one would dare to challenge that belief for sure!Jai Valmiki!
Jai Ramayana!