Valmiki Ramayanam is known as the Adi Kavya, the first poetic work in Sanskrit. It is also known as a bhakti Kavya, a poetic work which instils in the minds of its readers unflinching devotion to God, especially Lord Rama.

Srimad Bhagavatam describes it as a work relating to “martyavataram martyasikshartham” — “the incarnation of Lord as a human being to teach a lesson to human beings in the righteous way of living”.