Geet Ramayan

Geet Ramayan (Marathi: गीत रामायण, English: The Ramayana in Songs) is a collection of 56 Marathi language songs chronologically describing events from the Indian Hindu epic, the Ramayana. It was broadcast by All India Radio, Pune in 1955–1956, four years before the television was introduced in India. Written by G. D. Madgulkar, with songs composed by Sudhir Phadke, Geet Ramayan was acclaimed for its lyrics and music, including singing. It is considered a "milestone of Marathi light music" and the most popular Marathi version of Ramayana.

The team of poet Madgulkar and composer Phadke presented a new song every week for a year with every song aired first on a Friday morning and then again on Saturday and Sunday morning, between 8:45 AM and 9:00 AM IST. The program's first song "Kuśa Lava Rāmāyaṇ Gātī" was aired on 1 April 1955. Though Geet Ramayan is based on sage Valmiki's epic Ramayana, Madgulkar chose a different narrative format and was praised for the lyrics, and called "Ādhunik Valmiki" (the modern Valmiki). The Geet Ramayan is considered as "the crescendo of Madgulkar's literary vigour". The composer Sudhir Phadke mainly used ragas of Hindustani classical music to compose the songs. He also selected the raga and the Tāla of a song to suit the time of the incident and the narrative mood. The poet and composer were praised for their contribution to the series.

With increasing popularity since its release, Geet Ramayan has been translated into nine other languages: five Hindi translations and one each in Bengali, English, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani, Sanskrit, Sindhi and Telugu. It has also been transliterated into Braille.