The book most readers skip
Most editions of the Valmiki Ramayana sold in Indian homes stop at the Yuddha Kanda. The war ends, Ravana falls, Sita passes the agni pariksha, and Rama returns to Ayodhya. The Pushpaka vimana lands. Coronation. Reunion. The story closes the way a story should. The Uttarakanda, the seventh book, is then either bound quietly at the back or left out of the abridged versions given to children entirely. This is not an accident. The Uttarakanda contains the things the tradition found hardest to explain, and chose, for centuries, to explain around.
