- Dasharatha could not have any sons. His chief wife and him conduct a horse sacrifice that promises him for heirs.
- Rama became the most favored child for he was the most beautiful. A brahmin decided he has the markings of Vishnu.
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| Vishnu, a central God in Hinduism |
- Rama and his brother went to defeat Thataka. But it was only Rama who slayed her and her son who came for her revenge.
- Wow. Talk about an epic love story between Rama and Sita. Or should I call them Vishnu and Lakshmi.
- Rama bends an epic bow to win King Janaka's permission to marry Sita.
- Isn't it convenient that King Janaka had four maidens for King Dasharatha's sons?
- Everyone agrees that Rama should take over his father's throne except Manthara who despises him. She was an old nurse of Bharata and had his mother paranoid that Rama was going to be an awful king to her own son.
- Kaikeyi asks her king to make her own son the king and exile Rama for fourteen years. The king is not happy about it.
- Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana all go into exile in the forest.
- It is interesting that the story includes the king's karma. Like how he killed the beloved son of an old man, his own beloved son was banished to exile, where he may never see him again.
- So much sadness in the first part of this story. I think the only happy parts were when Rama and Sita find love. I wonder what happened to Lakshmana's wife when he goes into exile with them.
I also wonder about Lakshmana's wife, Mary! You could maybe write a story about her! There is an AMAZING legend about her: since Lakshmana has to be wakeful and on guard all the time during the exile, his wife Urmila agreed to sleep all the time while he was gone, paying a sleep debt as it were. You can read about that story at Wikipedia: Wikipedia: Urmila. It's really cool to see how the characters we are curious about are also the ones that people have been curious about for thousands of years, often making up stories to fill in the gaps in the traditional Ramayana. :-)
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