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 The Ramayana gets repeated, stage by stage, in all the seven cantos of the epic. In the first canto, the Bala Kanda,
sage Narada recounts to sage Valmiki the mini-Ramayana or the Samkshepa Ramayana in 95 verses. Lava and Kusa, the twin sons of Sita and Rama sing in front of (without knowing that Rama is their father and vice versa), the entire epic in the traditional Maarga style and in Sanskrit. The other style is the desi, which is the local vernacular style. The greatness of the epic is the hero himself listens to the narration of his entire biography by his own sons!
In the Ayodhya Kanda the second of the seven cantos, the father, King Dasaratha, the people of Ayodhya, and later Lakshmana, sing the saga of Rama and up to that stage. Sage Vasishta also has occasion to recite the glorious lineage of Rama right from the beginning - from king lkshvaaku to Dasartha Rama. The sage had recited this lineage in the Bala Kanda.to king Janaka, father of Sita, just before the marriage of Rama. There is an interesting point here. In Valmiki Ramayana discourses by exponents over the centuries the lineage of Sri Rama is recounted as detailed in Kalidasa's Raghuvamsa. The lineage proper, according to the emperor of poets Kalidasa is:
Dilipa-Raghu-Aja-Dasaratha Rama-Kusa and Lava and so as to propitiate Agni varna (ch.19).
But the Valmiki Ramayana revered as the supreme original epic (Aadi Kaavya), is totally different. The lineage runs as follows: Dilipa, Bhagiratha, Kakutstha, Raghu, Pravritta, Sankhana, Sudarsana, Agnivarna, Sigrahah, Maru, Prasusrukah, Ambarisha, Nahusha, Yayaathi, Naabhaagah, Aja, Dasaratha, Sri Rama, Lava and Kusa. It may be seen that the 'Raghu' of Kalidasa
 (after whom the lineage is formed as the illustrious 'Raghuvamsa') is the great grandfather of Sri Rama. Whereas the Raghu of sage Valmiki lived fourteen generation earlier and, yet Sri Rama is hailed as 'Raghava' (belonging to the Raghu lineage: 'Raghoh gotrah apatyam pumaan -Raghavah') only. Sri Rama is also known as Kaakutstha - of the race of king Kakutstha. Sri Rama is of course Daasarathi, son of Dasaratha. No other king lends his name to Sri Rama, though now and then references are there to his ancestors like lkshvaku Maandaatha and
Anaranya.
And yet Valmiki Ramayana discourses follow 'only' the Kalidasa's Raghuvamsa lineage traditionally! No one exponent has given me to this day, satisfactory, explanation or for this variation. Kalidasa lists 29 kings from Dilipa onwards to Agnivarna down.Valmiki lists 20 generations only from Dilipa. The only reasonable explanation could be that the Valmiki generation line-up before Sri Rama is very long and hence Kalidasa must have shortened it 'conveniently' following some other version. And this convenient 'generation-gap', I surmise, must have come to stay as the most suitable for all!
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