Synopsis The Valmiki-Ramayana is read all over India with great reverence and love as it contains the most authentic story of Lord Sri Rama, one of the two most popular Avataras who lived amongst us thousands of years ago but have left an indelible impression on our lives, which is as fresh today as it was during the time of Valmiki, a contemporary of Sri Rama.  It is one of the world's most remarkable classics and excels all in its moral appeal.  It is full of lessons for all and deserves to be read with interest and benefit by all lovers of healthy literature.  It is noted for its poetic excellences and is the oldest specimen of epic poetry.  An authentic and readable translation of this world-renowned book was published in Hindi, the national language of India, many years ago after critically editing the text with the help of different recensions, and is very widely read all over the Hindi-speaking and adjacent areas.  For the benefit of those who cannot read Hindi and at the sametime who are not so well-versed in Sanskrit as to understand the appreciate original Sanskrit text, an accurate and faithful English translation of this sacred text by scholarly translators has been made by Gita Press.  Some years before we have published the entire Katha of Valmiki-Ramayana in serials under the caption of Valmiki-Ramayana number in our English monthly journal 'The Kalyana-Kalpataru'.  After that as an independent work we published the Valmiki-Ramayana in three volumes:- Part one containing Balakanda and Ayudhyakanda, part two containing Arnyakanda, Kiskindhakanda and Sundarakanda; part three containing Yuddhakanda and Uttarakanda.  But since we received a number of suggestions from our readers to reduce the numbers of volumes as much as possible, we are publishing it in two volumes - Volume one containing Balakanda to Kiskindhakanda and volume two Sundarakanda to Uttarakanda.  In doing so convenience of the readers was the main consideration and at the same time the book has been saved from being unmanageably bulky.