Rama- Hindu GodDeity"The Perfect Man"

The Bow at Mithila

Rama was born to King Dasharatha of Ayodhya and Queen Kausalya after a fire sacrifice performed by the sage Rishyashringa. Agni emerged from the flames carrying consecrated food for the queens. Dasharatha's three wives bore four sons: Rama, Bharata, and the twins Lakshmana and Shatrughna. All four carried portions of Vishnu's essence, born into mortal form because the demon king Ravana had won a boon making him invulnerable to gods and demons. He had not bothered to ask for protection from humans.

The sage Vishwamitra came to Dasharatha's court and asked for Rama and Lakshmana to guard his sacrifice from demons. In the Dandaka forest, Rama killed the demoness Tataka with a single arrow. On the road to Mithila, he touched his foot to a stone, and a woman appeared. Ahalya, wife of the sage Gautama, had been cursed to become rock for a transgression with Indra. Rama's touch freed her.

At Mithila, King Janaka set a test: whoever could string the bow of Shiva would marry his daughter Sita. Princes from across the land could not lift it. Rama picked it up, bent it, and it broke in his hands. The crack echoed across the kingdom. He married Sita, herself born from the earth when Janaka plowed a sacred furrow.

Fourteen Years

On the eve of Rama's coronation, Kaikeyi invoked two boons Dasharatha had once granted her on a battlefield. She demanded the throne for Bharata and Rama's exile for fourteen years. Rama accepted. His father had given his word, and the word must stand. The ministers and the people of Ayodhya begged him to refuse. He would not.

He left for the forest with Sita and Lakshmana. Dasharatha died of grief within days. Bharata refused the kingdom. He followed Rama into the forest and begged him to return. When Rama would not, Bharata took his sandals and placed them on the throne. He governed as regent for fourteen years, ruling in the name of a pair of shoes.

The Golden Deer

At Panchavati on the Godavari, Ravana's sister Shurpanakha found Rama and desired him. Rejected, she attacked Sita. Lakshmana cut off her nose and ears on Rama's command. She fled to Ravana, and her mutilation became his pretext for war.

A golden deer appeared near their hut. Sita wanted it. Rama went after it. The deer was the demon Maricha. As Rama killed it, Maricha cried out in Rama's voice. Sita forced Lakshmana to investigate. Ravana came disguised as a brahmin and took her.

The vulture Jatayu tried to stop Ravana in the sky. Ravana cut off his wings. Rama found the bird dying on the ground and performed his funeral rites with full royal honors.

Across the Ocean

Searching for Sita, Rama met the exiled vanara prince Sugriva on Mount Rishyamukha. Sugriva's brother Vali had stolen his kingdom and his wife. Rama killed Vali with an arrow from behind a tree while Vali fought Sugriva. It was the one act in Rama's life that looked like adharma.

Sugriva's minister Hanuman leapt across the ocean to Lanka. He found Sita in Ravana's Ashoka grove, gave her Rama's signet ring, and let himself be captured. Ravana's soldiers set his tail on fire. Hanuman used it to burn Lanka, then leapt back across the sea.

The vanara army built a bridge of stones across the ocean. Each stone, inscribed with Rama's name, floated. They crossed.

The Fall of Lanka

Ravana's son Indrajit fought from invisibility and bound Rama and Lakshmana with serpent-arrows. Garuda, Vishnu's eagle, tore the bonds apart. Later, Indrajit struck Lakshmana with the Shakti weapon. He lay dying. Hanuman flew to the Himalayas for the Sanjeevani herb and, unable to identify it, brought back the entire mountain. Lakshmana recovered and killed Indrajit.

Rama faced Ravana. He severed Ravana's ten heads, and they grew back. On the sage Agastya's counsel, Rama fired the Brahmastra into Ravana's heart and navel, where his store of immortal nectar resided. Ravana fell. Rama ordered full funeral rites befitting a king.

Sita and the Earth

After the war, Rama asked Sita to prove her purity. She walked into fire. Agni refused to burn her, rose from the flames, and placed her before Rama unharmed. They returned to Ayodhya in Ravana's flying chariot. The people lit oil lamps to welcome them. The festival of Diwali remembers that night.

Rama's reign was everything a kingdom could hope for. Then a washerman in the city refused to take back his wife after she had spent a night away from home. He said he was not Rama, to accept a woman who had lived in another man's house. The rumor reached the court.

Rama sent Sita into exile. She was pregnant. She gave birth to twins, Lava and Kusha, in the hermitage of the poet Valmiki, who composed the Ramayana and taught it to the boys. Years later they sang their father's story before his court, and Rama recognized them. But Sita had endured enough. She called on Bhudevi, the earth goddess who had given birth to her, to take her back. The ground opened. Sita descended. It closed.

Rama ruled for many more years. Then he walked into the Sarayu River and did not return. Vishnu went home.