" The television serial's immense popularity set the stage for the violent Hindu nationalist campaigns, in which Rama appeared as Rambo, his delicate features and gentle smile replaced by a muscular mien and grimace, and The Ramayana itself became a central text in the the nationalists' attempt to weld Hinduism's plural traditions into a monotheistic religion. "

― R.K. Narayan , The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic