Ramayana in Tamil literature  Ramayana is one of the ancient Indian epics, with the first work being dated by scholars to around the 3rd century BC. The story is narrated by the saint poet Valmiki and tells the tale of a North Indian Prince Rama of the city of Ayodhya, who is banished into the forest along with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana. During the exile, Sita gets kidnapped by the demon king Ravana of Lanka, and Rama with the help of a Vanara (primate like forest dwellers) army rescues Sita from Lanka. The tale has parallels to the Greek Iliad, the details however differing The original set in Sanskrit consists of 24,000 verses, and there are several variations in the story narrated in South Asian and South East Asian cultures, across India, Thailand and Indonesia, with several versions re-written in various Asian and Indian languages. The story was first told in the Tamil language, in the 12th century AD, by Kambar as Ramavataram (popularly known as Kamba Ramayanam). However, there are references to the Ramayana story in earlier Tamil literature, dating back as the early Tamil literature in CE, which indicate that the story was known in the Tamil lands much before Kamba Ramayana in the 12th century. The age of Sangam literature (Tamil: சங்க இலக்கியம், caṅka ilakkiyam) refers to the ancient Tamil literature written up to AD 100. The earliest reference to the story of the Ramayana is found in the Purananuru which is dated from early 300BC. Purananuru 378, attributed to the poet UnPodiPasunKudaiyar, written in praise of the Chola king IlanCetCenni. The poem makes the analogy of a poet receiving royal gifts and that worn by the relatives of the poet as being unworthy for their status, to the event in the Ramayana, where Sita drops her jewels when abducted by Ravana and these jewels being picked up red-faced monkeys who delightfully wore the ornaments (Hart and Heifetz, 1999, pp. 219–220). Akanaṉūṟu, which is dated between 400BC and 200BC, has a reference to the Ramayana in poem 70.