Whether the story of the Raamaayana had really happened or it is a creation of the human imagination is difficult to argue. But the story is unusually (and at the same time, beautifully) structured ñ original in content, and with remarkable characters and stunning events - that it is more likely that it is all happened fact and not fabricated fiction. Mixed with divine and human elements, the story has had an irresistible appeal from time immemorial. The oldest and the most complete version of the Raamaayana is by Sage Vaalmeeki. Legend has it God Brahma Himself had ordained that Vaalmeeki should write the Raamaayana and the gist of the story was narrated to Vaalmeeki by sage Naarada. It is amazing how from a brief narration, Vaalmeeki could fill in all the details to compose a monumental epic of about 22,000 verses. It shows the power of Vaalmeekiís vision. Over the years, there had been other versions of the story in other Indian languages, two of the more famous ones being Ramacharita Manas by Saint Tulsi Das in Hindi and Kamba Raamaayana by Poet Kamban in Tamil. It has been a popular theme for musical compositions (by St. Thyagaraja in Telugu and Arunachala Kavi in Tamil) and also for dance-drama presentations in the medium of Yakshagaana and Kathakali. The story has also migrated to countries in South East Asia, where it appeared with the local colour. In the modern period, scholars like Sri C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) and Rt. Honíble V.S. Srinivasa Sastry, have responded to the literary, intellectual and spiritual appeal of the story to present their own studies of the epic. Most recently the serialised television production of the Raamaayana by Ramananda Sagar, had demonstrated the strong hold that the story had on the Indian psyche irrespective of religion, caste or creed. The present work by Sri. L. Swaminathan, is an analytical study to bring out the beauty and the power of the Vaalmeeki epic. In the last section of the book, he has given lots of information. He has even written about metric system of numbering of very large numbers. He has written about trees listed by Vaalmeeki and so on.