Kishkindha was the Monkey Kingdom of the Vanara (monkey) King Sugriva; the younger brother of Bali; in the Indian epic the Ramayana. This was the kingdom where he ruled with the assistance of his minister; Hanuman. This kingdom is identified to be the regions around the Tungabhadra river (then known as Pampa Saras) near Hampi in Karnataka.

The Ramayana is a story as old as time and - at least in the Indian subcontinent and across much of Southeast Asia - of unparalleled popularity. More than 2300 years ago the scholar-poet Valmiki sat down to write his definitive epic of love and war.

The poem Valmiki composed is styled the Ramayana; or "Romance of Rama" in Sanskrit. In its present form; the Sanskrit version consists of some 24;000 couplets divided into seven books.