Editing Ramayana (section)

===Genre===
The ''Ramayana'' belongs to the genre of ''[[Itihasa]]'', narratives of past events ({{IAST|purāvṛtta}}), which includes the epics ''Mahabharata'' and ''Ramayana'', and the ''[[Purana]]s''. The genre also includes teachings on [[Puruṣārtha|the goals of human life]]. It depicts the duties of relationships, portraying ideal characters like the ideal son, servant, brother, husband, wife, and king.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rosen |first=Steven |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gbXOEAAAQBAJ&dq=essential+hinduism&pg=PA20 |title=Essential Hinduism |date=2006-10-30 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-0-313-07155-3 |pages=103 |language=en}}</ref> Like the ''Mahabharata'', ''Ramayana'' presents the teachings of ancient Hindu sages in the narrative [[allegory]], interspersing philosophical and ethical elements.{{efn-la|In ''The Oxford History of India'' (1919) by [[Vincent Arthur Smith|Vincent A. Smith]] ''''',''' The Ramayana'' is presented as '<nowiki/>''neither historical nor allegorical, but a poetic creation based on mythology''<nowiki/>'<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Vincent Arthur |title=The Oxford History of India: From the Earliest Times to the End of 1911}}</ref> [[Hermann Jacobi]], the German [[Indologist]], who was the first European to write a whole book on the Ramayana-''The Ramayana: History, Contents with a Concordance of the Printed Recensions'' (1893, English translation by S.N. Ghoshal, 1960). The book presents ''the Ramayana'' as a work based on mythology.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jacobi |first=Hermann |title=Das Ramayana, Geschichte und Inhalt nebst Concordanz nach den gedruckten Rezensionen |year=1893 |language=de |trans-title=The Ramayana: History, Contents with a Concordance of the Printed Recensions}}</ref> In December
1975, the [[Sahitya Akademi]] organized a five day international seminar on the Ramayana, The consensus on the nature of the material of the epic was that it was mythological.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Noorani |first=A.G. |title=The Babri Masjid Question, 1528-2003 'A Matter of National Honour'}}</ref>}}