Saptakanda Ramayana

Saptakanda Ramayana is the 14th-15th century Assamese version of the Ramayana attributed to the famous Assamese poet Madhava Kandali.^[1] It is considered to be one of the earliest translations from the Sanskrit into a modern regional language, preceded only by Kambar's translation into Tamil and Ranganatha's translation into Telugu, and the first translation to an Indo-Aryan language. The work is also considered one of the earliest written examples of Assamese.

A particular feature of this work is the non-heroic portrayal of Rama, Sita, and other characters, as explicitly stated by Madhav Kandali himself, which rendered the work unsuitable for religious purposes. This feature disturbed a later poet, Ananta Kandali, who was moved enough to comment on it. The first (Adikanda) and last (Uttarakanda) cantos of Madhava Kandali's work were lost, and were later inserted by Madhavdeva and Sankardeva respectively in the 16th century. The poem has been translated into English.