The play is a dramatized version of the story of Rama interspersed with
numerous purely descriptive poetic passages. It consists of fourteen
acts and on account of its great length is also called the Mahanataka,
or the great drama.
Tradition relates that it was composed by Hanuman, the monkey general,
and inscribed on rocks; but, Valmiki, the author of the Ramayana, being
afraid lest it might throw his own poem into the shade, Hanuman allowed
him to cast his verses into the sea. Thence fragments were ultimately
picked up by a merchant, and brought to King Bhoja, who directed the
poet Damodara Misra to put them together, and fill up the lacunæ; whence
the present composition originated. Whatever particle of truth there may
be in this story, the "Great Drama" seems certainly to be the production
of different hands.