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| Once upon a time,
in the ancient city of Ayodhya lived a King. His name was Dashratha. He was a great and happy King. The King had four sons. Ram was the first-born and was the king’s favourite son. |
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One day, the great holy
man, Vishwamitra, came to the palace of King Dashratha. The King welcomed him. He promised Vishwamitra that he would grant him any wish he wanted. |
| Vishwamitra asked for something
dearer to the king’s heart than his kingdom and all the riches in the world – he
asked for his son Ram. Vishwamitra told the king that he need Ram to help him fight two
demons that King Ravan of Lanka was sending to annoy him.The king was horrified. The
thought of sending his favourite son who was only sixteen years old, to fight two demons,
sent a shiver down his spine.
The king offered to go himself or to send the whole royal army to fight the demons. But Vishwamitra insisted that King Dashrata kept his promise. Ram left the palace of Ayodhya to go with Vishwamitra to fight Ravan’s demons. Prince Laxman, who was Ram’s young brother went too. |
| When they
reached Vishwamitra’s home in the forest, he showed them a huge store of weapons. There were shields, spears, bows and arrows, even tridents. Vishwamitra showed Ram and Laxman how to use these deadly weapons. |
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| Ram and Laxman kept watch day
and night, waiting for the demons, without sleeping a wink. Then one evening, the sky
darkened quickly and two fierce demons appeared. Ram crushed the first demon with a wind arrow and threw it a
distance of 800 miles. Laxman shot a flaming arrow at the second demon.
The demons were no more. |
| Vishwamitra
was pleased… so pleased that he invited the young princes to go with him to visit
King Janak in the neighbouring kingdom of Mithila. King Janak of Mithila had a beautiful daughter called Sita. King Janak was determined that she should marry a good, brave and strong man so he set a test that her future husband would have to pass. The king had a bow, very heavy and almost impossible to lift. He said that he would give his daughter, to the man who could bend this bow and fit a string to it. |
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| People came from far and wide, but no
one could shoot the bow.Ram fell in love with Sita the first time he saw her. If only he
would shoot the bow. Everyone watched in silence as Ram lifted the bow easily. As he bent the bow to fasten the string to it, the bow snapped in two! Everyone was amazed at how strong Rama was and then cheered as King Janak announced that Rama could marry Sita. King Dashrata was told and came to the wedding too. Everyone was happy as Rama and Sita set off to return to Ayodhya to live there happily ever after… for a while at least. |