In Ayodhya, there was an illustrious and powerful monarch, the subduer
of foes and the renowned ornament of the exalted house of the sun, named
Dasaratha in whose family, for the purpose of relieving the Earth of her
burden, Bhurisravas (Vishnu) deigned to incorporate his divine substance
as four blooming youths. The eldest, endowed with the qualities of
imperial worth, was Rama.

He goes with his brother Lakshmana to the court of Mithila, to try his
strength in the bending of the bow of Siva, and thereby win Sita for his
bride. The hero triumphs. The bow is broken with a deafening sound which
brings Parasurama there. Rama wins his bride. He tries the bow of
Parasurama and shoots an arrow from it which flies to Swerga or heaven.
The Brahmin hero now acknowledges the Kshatriya hero to be his superior.
Rama is married to Sita. The sweet loves of the happy pair grows with
enjoyment.

Various portents then indicate Rama's impending separation from his
father. The sun looks forth dimmed in radiance. Fiery torches wave along
the sky. Meteors dart headlong through midheaven. Earth shakes. The
firmament rains showers of blood. Around, the horizon thickens. In the
day, the pale stars gleam. Unseasonable eclipse darkens the noon. Day
echoes with the howls of dogs and jackals, whilst the air replies with
horrid and strange sounds, such as shall peal, when the destroying deity
proclaims in thunder the dissolution of the world. Rama is exiled. At
this, the king dies in agony. It is the result of the stern curse
denounced upon the king by the father of the ascetic whom the king,
hunting in his youthful days, had accidentally slain.

Rama fixes his residence at Panchavati. Maricha, a Rakshasa, now appears
as a deer. The supposed animal is chased by Rama and Lakshmana at Sita's