This paper reviews the main experimental and theoretical developments in stimulated Raman scattering of light, which has been actively investigated since 1962. The effect cannot be discussed properly without paying attention to related nonlinear effects which include stimulated Brillouin and Rayleigh scattering, self-focusing of light, and modulation of the refractive index. The physical processes are emphasized and no encyclopedic survey of all the data and the research literature is attempted, but a brief historical account is added in the final section.