King Dasaratha of Ayodhya had three wives , Kausalya, Sumitra and Kaikeyi.Although he had three wives he had no children for a long time.He propitiated the gods with special prayers and they blessed him with four sons..Rama was the first son born to first
wife Kausalya.Lakshmana and Shatrughna were sons of second wife Sumitra, Bharata was the son of the youngest wife Kaikeyi
When Rama came of age he was married to
Seetha , the beautiful daughter of Janaka, the
King of Mithila.When the father wanted to anoint eldest Prince Rama as the king, his stepmother Kaikeyi forced Dasaratha to banish Rama to
forest for 14 years and to make her own son Bharata the king. The King was unwilling but he did not have the will to deny Kaikeyi the boon she asked for. So he asked Rama to go to the forest.Obeying his father’s command Rama went to forest with his wife Seetha and another
brother Lakshmana, who insisted on accompanying him. When Rama left ,Dasaratha died heartbroken unable to bear the grief of seeing his son going to forest. Bharata was so affectionate towards his brother that he refused to be King at the expense of his brother but on Rama’s persuasion agreed to reign as Regent until Rama returned returned from exile
When in forest Rama was very popular with the sages, whom he protected from wild animals and demons .The demons used to trouble the sages ,Ravana was the demon king of Lanka , the island beyond the seas. He was enamoured of the beauty of Seetha. He abducted Seetha and kept her prisoner in his palace garden.
Rama and Lakshmana went in search of seetha but could not find her.During their travels Rama made an alliance with the monkey prince Sugreeva, whose brother Vali had driven him out of his kingdom, Sugreeva’s wise minister Hanuman forged the alliance between Sugreeva and Rama.The terms of the alliance were that Rama should kill Vali and get the Kingdom for Sugreeva and in turn Sugreeva should find Seetha for Rama. Rama killed Vali and made Sugreeva the king
Sugreeva sent his hordes in all four directions to search for Seetha.Among them Hanuman went south, jumped across the sea and found Seetha in Ravana’s prison gardenWith the help of Sugreeva and his forces, Rama built a bridge across the sea and crossed over to Lanka. Rama waged war against Ravana, killed him and rescued Seetha. He returned to Ayodhya at the end of the 14 year exile when he was happily received by Bharata and his subjects and had his coronation as the King and ruled happily ever after.
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