# Kumāra Vālmīki
**Kumāra Vālmīki** (ಕುಮಾರವಾಲ್ಮೀಕಿ, "the younger Vālmīki") is the pen name of Narahari of Torave, a Kannada poet of about 1500 CE who wrote the [Torave Ramayana](https://www.edgepedia.org/torave-ramayana), which the Indosphere describes as the best-known Kannada retelling of the Ramayana, and which a scholarly database calls the first Kannada adaptation of the epic by a Vaidic (Brahmin) poet.[1](https://shastriyakannada.org/database/english/literature/TORAVEYA%20RAMAYANA%20HTML.htm) • [2](https://theindosphere.com/torave-ramayana/) One Kannada literary history records "Kumāra Vālmīki" as his honorific title (birudu), and notes that he took the earlier Kannada poet [Kumaravyasa](https://www.edgepedia.org/kumaravyasa) as his model and praised him.[3](https://kn.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%B2%AA%E0%B3%81%E0%B2%9F:Kannada-Saahitya.pdf/%E0%B3%A7%E0%B3%A8%E0%B3%A9)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Author | Narahari of Torave, pen name Kumāra Vālmīki, also titled Kavirajahamsa; dated approximately 1500 CE[1](https://shastriyakannada.org/database/english/literature/TORAVEYA%20RAMAYANA%20HTML.htm) |
| Home | Torave, a village about 8 km west of Bijapur; little is known of his antecedents[1](https://shastriyakannada.org/database/english/literature/TORAVEYA%20RAMAYANA%20HTML.htm) |
| Signature | Composed in the ankita (poetic signature) of Sarasimha Swami[3](https://kn.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%B2%AA%E0%B3%81%E0%B2%9F:Kannada-Saahitya.pdf/%E0%B3%A7%E0%B3%A8%E0%B3%A9) |
| The work | 112 sections (sandhis), about 5,000 verses (one count gives 5,079), in the Bhamini Shatpadi six-line meter[1](https://shastriyakannada.org/database/english/literature/TORAVEYA%20RAMAYANA%20HTML.htm) • [4](https://www.hindu-blog.com/2022/10/difference-between-kannada-torave.html) |
| Scope | Balakanda to Rama's coronation; the Uttarakanda is omitted[5](https://archive.org/stream/toraveramayanavo0000kuma/toraveramayanavo0000kuma_djvu.txt) |
| Frame | The story is narrated by Shiva to Parvathi, with passages drawn from the Adhyatma Ramayana[1](https://shastriyakannada.org/database/english/literature/TORAVEYA%20RAMAYANA%20HTML.htm) |
| Other work | Airavana Kalaga, a Ramayana-episode poem in four sandhis and 296 poems[1](https://shastriyakannada.org/database/english/literature/TORAVEYA%20RAMAYANA%20HTML.htm) |
## Life and date
Narahari's village was Torave near Bijapur, in the Vijayanagara-era Deccan; one library record describes him as living in 1500 AD in the Vijayanagar kingdom.[1](https://shastriyakannada.org/database/english/literature/TORAVEYA%20RAMAYANA%20HTML.htm) • [6](https://kamat.com/library/holdings/kml2341.htm) The editor of the 1977 [Kannada Sahitya Parishat](https://www.edgepedia.org/kannada-sahitya-parishat) edition observes that the Yuddhakanda is the largest kanda of the poem and that the poet's war descriptions suggest he may have witnessed the wars between the [Vijayanagara](https://www.edgepedia.org/vijayanagara) kings and the Adil Shahis of Bijapur.[5](https://archive.org/stream/toraveramayanavo0000kuma/toraveramayanavo0000kuma_djvu.txt)
The Kannada literary history cited above places him at about 1500 CE (ಕ್ರಿ.ಶ. ೧೫೦೦).[3](https://kn.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%B2%AA%E0%B3%81%E0%B2%9F:Kannada-Saahitya.pdf/%E0%B3%A7%E0%B3%A8%E0%B3%A9) Other datings differ: the Indosphere places his composition in the sixteenth century,[2](https://theindosphere.com/torave-ramayana/) while a publisher's edition of an English translation titles the work as a product of the fifteenth century A.D.[7](https://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/torvey-r-m-ya-composed-by-torvey-narahari-kumara-valimiki-work-of-15th-century-d-uas127/) He composed the work in the ankita of Sarasimha Swami.[3](https://kn.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%B2%AA%E0%B3%81%E0%B2%9F:Kannada-Saahitya.pdf/%E0%B3%A7%E0%B3%A8%E0%B3%A9)
## The Torave Ramayana
The Torave Ramayana (ತೊರವೆ ರಾಮಾಯಣ) is a narrative poem of 112 sandhis and roughly 5,000 verses; one specialist count gives 5,079 verses in the bhamini satpadi meter, a six-line stanza that was the standard vehicle of Kannada narrative verse in the period, with few figures of speech.[1](https://shastriyakannada.org/database/english/literature/TORAVEYA%20RAMAYANA%20HTML.htm) • [4](https://www.hindu-blog.com/2022/10/difference-between-kannada-torave.html) • [2](https://theindosphere.com/torave-ramayana/) The title comes from the poet's village, in the same way as "Gadugina Bharata".[3](https://kn.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%B2%AA%E0%B3%81%E0%B2%9F:Kannada-Saahitya.pdf/%E0%B3%A7%E0%B3%A8%E0%B3%A9)
**Structure and frame.** Narahari follows Valmiki's Sanskrit Ramayana closely but narrates the story as Shiva telling it to Parvathi, and he incorporates dialogue passages from the Adhyatma Ramayana.[1](https://shastriyakannada.org/database/english/literature/TORAVEYA%20RAMAYANA%20HTML.htm) • [5](https://archive.org/stream/toraveramayanavo0000kuma/toraveramayanavo0000kuma_djvu.txt) The poem runs from the Balakanda to Rama's coronation and omits the Uttarakanda.[5](https://archive.org/stream/toraveramayanavo0000kuma/toraveramayanavo0000kuma_djvu.txt) Narahari also wrote Airavana Kalaga, another Ramayana-episode work in four sandhis consisting of 296 poems.[1](https://shastriyakannada.org/database/english/literature/TORAVEYA%20RAMAYANA%20HTML.htm)
## How it differs from Valmiki and other Kannada Ramayanas
**Theological inflection.** The poem is Śaiva-inflected in places, treating Rama within a frame that acknowledges Śiva's supremacy, which follows from the Shiva-to-Parvathi narration.[2](https://theindosphere.com/torave-ramayana/) At the same time, the Adhyatma Ramayana's influence shows in the treatment of Rama's antagonists: in the Torave Ramayana, Kumbhakarna, Atikaya, and Indrajit appear as devotees of Rama rather than as demons, and Ravana at the end appears as a devotee of Rama, with hatred converted into devotion and Ravana attaining moksha (liberation).[4](https://www.hindu-blog.com/2022/10/difference-between-kannada-torave.html) Manthara is portrayed as a representative of maya whose aim was to kill Ravana, an angle not found in the Valmiki Ramayana.[4](https://www.hindu-blog.com/2022/10/difference-between-kannada-torave.html) The character of Atikaya is described as a new creation of Kumara Valmiki, depicted as a Vira Vaishnava devotee of [Rama](https://www.edgepedia.org/rama), with the deviations attributed to the influence of the Adhyatma Ramayana and the Ananda Ramayana.[4](https://www.hindu-blog.com/2022/10/difference-between-kannada-torave.html) Characterisations of Ravana differ between accounts: the scholarly database says Ravana retains shades of a tragic hero,[1](https://shastriyakannada.org/database/english/literature/TORAVEYA%20RAMAYANA%20HTML.htm) while the specialist religious article describes his end as devotee attaining liberation.[4](https://www.hindu-blog.com/2022/10/difference-between-kannada-torave.html)
**Literary lineage.** Narahari took Kumaravyasa as his stylistic model, and the influence of Kumaravyasa and Kalidasa is evident in his style.[3](https://kn.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%B2%AA%E0%B3%81%E0%B2%9F:Kannada-Saahitya.pdf/%E0%B3%A7%E0%B3%A8%E0%B3%A9) • [1](https://shastriyakannada.org/database/english/literature/TORAVEYA%20RAMAYANA%20HTML.htm) His work belongs to the sixteenth-century devotional wave that displaced the earlier Jain Kannada Ramayana tradition, in which Jain poets from the tenth century onward had followed the Paumacariya tradition, portraying Ravana as a vidyādhara king killed by Lakṣmaṇa rather than by Rama.[2](https://theindosphere.com/torave-ramayana/)
## Religious and sectarian context
The Vijayanagara era saw a strong Vaishnava Bhakti influence on [Kannada literature](https://www.edgepedia.org/kannada-literature), which one scholarly account describes as a direct impact of the dvaita philosophy propounded by Madhwacharya of Udupi in the 13th century.[8](https://www.ijcrt.org/papers/IJCRT1704273.pdf) The Torave Ramayana frames its narrative in Śaiva terms through the Shiva-Parvathi narration.[1](https://shastriyakannada.org/database/english/literature/TORAVEYA%20RAMAYANA%20HTML.htm) • [2](https://theindosphere.com/torave-ramayana/)
## Transmission and editions
The text reached print from palm-leaf manuscripts. The early printed editions are:[1](https://shastriyakannada.org/database/english/literature/TORAVEYA%20RAMAYANA%20HTML.htm)
1. **1870**: printed from palm-leaf manuscripts by Krishnarajavilasa Mudraksharashaale, Bangalore, edited by ho.Ramaswamyshastry, Dakshinamurthy Shastry, and Venkataramanashastry.
2. **1891**: a further edition.
3. **1956 and 1959**: a two-volume edition by N. Basavaradhya and B.S. Sannaiah of the Oriental Research Institute, Mysore.
4. **1977**: a Kannada Sahitya Parishat edition with prose rendering edited by K.S. Krishnamurthy; its second volume, containing the Yuddhakanda, was first published in 1977 in [Bangalore](https://www.edgepedia.org/bangalore).[5](https://archive.org/stream/toraveramayanavo0000kuma/toraveramayanavo0000kuma_djvu.txt)
5. **1986**: a 1,400-page hardcover edition with Kannada text and Hindi translation.[9](https://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/torave-ramayana-different-ramayanas-of-india-haa414/)
6. An English translation of the work has also been brought out.[7](https://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/torvey-r-m-ya-composed-by-torvey-narahari-kumara-valimiki-work-of-15th-century-d-uas127/)
## Reception and legacy
One scholarly account calls the Torave Ramayana the earliest brahminical Ramayana in Kannada.[8](https://www.ijcrt.org/papers/IJCRT1704273.pdf) The Shastriya Kannada database calls it the first Kannada adaptation of the Ramayana by a Vaidic poet.[1](https://shastriyakannada.org/database/english/literature/TORAVEYA%20RAMAYANA%20HTML.htm) The Indosphere describes it as the best-known Kannada retelling of the epic.[2](https://theindosphere.com/torave-ramayana/)
The text remains in living use. Passages of it are sung in the harikathā and gamaka traditions of recitation with exposition, in which a performer chants a stanza and then expounds it at length, and its episodes are staged in yakṣagāna, the all-night dance-drama of coastal [Karnataka](https://www.edgepedia.org/karnataka).[2](https://theindosphere.com/torave-ramayana/)
## References
1. [Toraveya Ramayana, Shastriya Kannada literature database](https://shastriyakannada.org/database/english/literature/TORAVEYA%20RAMAYANA%20HTML.htm)
2. [Torave Rāmāyaṇa, The Indosphere](https://theindosphere.com/torave-ramayana/)
3. [Kannada Saahitya (Wikisource), page on Narahari](https://kn.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%B2%AA%E0%B3%81%E0%B2%9F:Kannada-Saahitya.pdf/%E0%B3%A7%E0%B3%A8%E0%B3%A9)
4. [Difference Between Kannada Torave Ramayana and Valmiki Ramayana, Hindu Blog](https://www.hindu-blog.com/2022/10/difference-between-kannada-torave.html)
5. [ತೊರವೆ ರಾಮಾಯಣ Vol. II, ed. K.S. Krishna Murthy (Kannada Sahitya Parishat, 1977), digitised full text](https://archive.org/stream/toraveramayanavo0000kuma/toraveramayanavo0000kuma_djvu.txt)
6. [Kamat Research Database: Torave Ramayana of Kumar Valmiki (H.G. Rawlinson, 1975)](https://kamat.com/library/holdings/kml2341.htm)
7. [Torvey Rāmāyaṇa: Composed by Torvey Narahari (Kumara Valimiki), a work of the 15th century A.D., Exotic India Art](https://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/torvey-r-m-ya-composed-by-torvey-narahari-kumara-valimiki-work-of-15th-century-d-uas127/)
8. [Medieval Kannada literature, IJCRT](https://www.ijcrt.org/papers/IJCRT1704273.pdf)
9. [तोरवे रामायण: Torave Ramayana (Different Ramayanas of India), Exotic India Art](https://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/torave-ramayana-different-ramayanas-of-india-haa414/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Literature and written works › Writers and literary biographies › Poets › South Asian poets*
*Initially written Oct 10, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026*
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