These might be the coolest 183 seconds you'll spend on the Ramayana. Of course you know the story already, via your grandmother, films, art, comic books and fiction. But not via Snapchat, right?

So here's the first of the kandas – the "Bala Kand", covering the birth of Ram and his his marriage to Sita – told in the inimitable Snapchat way: photos, videos and FILTERS!

The video above features the latest and most tech-savvy of interpretations. Snapchatter Hari Chakyar recently uploaded a mix-media interpretation with photos, short video clips, quirky drawings and some low-budget accessories to Snapchat.

A writer for a digital marketing agency, Chakyar lives in Bengaluru. It's a huge creative challenge, he says, because of a format that only allows 11-second long clips.

There's going to be more episodes, says Chakyar, with the second part having already been written. His script is based on stories his mother told him and the temple art form named Chakyar Koothu from Kerala, which presents comical interpretations of the Ramayana. "My forefathers used to be jesters who performed at temple functions. I am not trained in Koothu but some of that must have seeped in," he said.