Some cultural evidence—such as the presence of sati in the Mahabharata but not in the main body of the Ramayana—suggests that the Ramayana predates the Mahabharata. However, the general cultural background of the Ramayana is one of the post-urbanization period of the eastern part of north India and Nepal, while the Mahabharata reflects the Kuru areas west of this, from the Rigvedic to the late Vedic period.
By tradition, the text belongs to the Treta Yuga, second of the four eons (yuga) of Hindu chronology. Rama is said to have been born in the treta yuga to king Dasaratha in the Ikshvaku vamsa (clan).
The names of the characters(Rama, Sita, Dasaratha, Janaka, Vashista, Vishwamitra) are all known in late Vedic literature. However, nowhere in the surviving Vedic poetry is there a story similar to the Ramayana of Valmiki. According to the modern academic view, Vishnu—who, according to bala kanda, was incarnated as Rama—first came into prominence with the epics themselves and further during the "puranic" period of the later 1st millennium CE. Also, in the epic Mahabharata, there is a version of Ramayana known as Ramopakhyana. This version is depicted as a narration to Yudhishthira.
There is general consensus that books two to six form the oldest portion of the epic, while the first and last books(bala kanda and uttara kanda, respectively) are later additions. The author or authors of bala kanda and ayodhya kanda appear to be familiar with the eastern Gangetic basin region of northern India and with the Kosala and Magadha region during the period of the sixteen janapadas, based on the fact that the geographical and geopolitical data accords with what is known about the region. The knowledge of the location of the island of Lanka also lacks detail. Basing his assumption on these features, archeologist Hasmukh Dhirajlal Sankalia has proposed a date of the 4th century BC for the composition of the text. Historian and indologist Arthur Llewellyn Basham is of the opinion that Rama may have been a minor chief who lived in the 8th or the 7th century BC.
