Narratives from the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa

The loving service of Guha, king of the Nishādas, to Rāma at Śṛṅgaverapura: the welcome, the night guard and the crossing of the Gaṅgā.

Hanumān flies to the Himālaya for four life-giving herbs and brings back a whole mountain peak to heal Rāma, Lakshmaṇa and the vānaras.

Hanumān climbs Mount Arishṭa, leaps back over the ocean to Mahendra, and tells the waiting vānaras that Sītā has been seen.

Hanumān meets Sītā Devī a last time in the Aśoka Vaṭikā, hears her fears and her message, and takes the crow token for Rāma.

Hanumān comes down from the Śiṃśupā tree, proves to Sītā Devī that Rāma sent him, and takes her cūḍāmaṇi back to Rāma.

At Citrakūṭa, Vasishṭha Maharshi tells the whole line of the Ikshvāku kings, from Brahmā down to Daśaratha and Rāma.

Lakshmaṇa breaks Indrajit's homa at Nikumbhilā and kills him in open combat, after Indrajit had twice laid Rāma and Lakshmaṇa low.

At Citrakūṭa, the ṛshi Jābāli urges Rāma to take the throne, and Rāma refutes his materialist argument.

Bhagavān Śiva burns Kāmadeva, the deva of desire, who becomes Anaṅga, and the land where it happened is named Aṅga Deśa.

Vālmīki Maharshi sees a Krauñca bird slain, speaks the first śloka in grief, and by Brahmā's word composes the Rāmāyaṇa.

Rāvaṇa wakes his huge brother Kumbhakarṇa, who gives honest counsel, fights for him, and falls to Śrī Rāma's astras in the Laṅkā war.

Kuśa and Lava, taught by Vālmīki, sing the Rāmāyaṇa before Bhagavān Rāma in Ayodhyā, and Rāma hears his own story from his sons.

Lakshmaṇa will not stay in Ayodhyā, takes Sumitrā's blessing, and follows Bhagavān Rāma and Sītā into the forest to serve them.

Hanumān's tail is set on fire, Agni stays cool for him, and he burns Laṅkā except the house of Vibhīshaṇa. Sītā is not harmed.

Hanumān, small as a cat, enters Laṅkā at dusk, strikes down its guardian Laṅkinī, and she lets him pass because Brahmā's word has come true.

The great war at Laṅkā between Bhagavān Rāma's army of vānaras and bears and Rāvaṇa's rākshasas, told in the Yuddha Kāṇḍa of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa.

The joyful vānaras break into Sugrīva's forbidden Madhu Vana, and Sugrīva reads their wild joy as proof that Sītā has been found.

While Hanumān crosses the ocean to Laṅkā, the golden mountain Mainaka rises from the sea to offer him rest, and Hanumān touches the peak and flies on.

How Indra was freed from brahmahatyā between the Sarayū and the Gaṅgā, and how the lands Malada and Karūśa got their names.

Indrājit makes an illusion of Sītā, appears to slay her before Hanumān, and Vibhīshaṇa shows it was māyā.

On the road from Mithilā to Ayodhyā, Paraśurāma offers Rāma the Vaishṇava Dhanus to string, and then withdraws to Mahendra mountain.

Hanumān destroys Rāvaṇa's Pramadā Vana in Laṅkā, kills wave after wave of rākshasa warriors, and is bound by Indrajit's Brahmāstra.

Śrī Rāma, Sītā, Lakshmaṇa and the vānara army fly from Laṅkā to Nandigrāma in Kubera's Pushpaka Vimāna, as Rāma names the sites below.

Rāma, Sītā and Lakshmaṇa reach Citrakūṭa, meet Vālmīki Maharshi, build a parṇaśālā on the Mandākinī and settle into forest life.

Rāma returns from Laṅkā, meets Bharata at Nandigrāma, enters Ayodhyā and is crowned king with water from the four oceans.

At Citrakūṭa, Rāma, Sītā and Lakshmaṇa offer piṇḍas for Daśaratha on the bank of the Mandākinī, using what the forest gave.

Bhagavān Rāma and the vānara king Sugrīva become friends at Ṛshyamūka, with Agni as witness, and each promises to help the other.

Rāma was to be crowned Yuvarāja, but Kaikeyī's two varas sent him to the forest for fourteen years, and Sītā and Lakshmaṇa went with him.

King Daśaratha announces that Rāma will be crowned Yuvarāja the next morning, Ayodhyā prepares with joy, and the plan is undone that same night.

After Rāvaṇa falls, his wives mourn him, Maṇḍodarī names Śrī Rāma as Mahāvishṇu, and Vibhīshaṇa performs the last rites at Rāma's command.

In the Aśoka Vaṭikā Rāvaṇa comes again and again to Sītā Devī, and each time she refuses him with a blade of grass between them.

Śrī Rāma slays the ten-headed Rāvaṇa with the Brahmāstra given by Agastya, as told in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa and the Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa.

Ṛśyaśṛṅga, the ṛshi with a deer's horn, is brought to Aṅga by King Romapāda, ends a drought, and later performs Daśaratha's yajña.

Hanumān leaps a hundred yojanas across the ocean to Laṅkā, meeting Mainaka, Surasā and Siṃhikā on the way.

King Daśaratha kills the young brahmin Śravaṇa Kumāra by mistake, and Śravaṇa's blind parents pronounce a śāpa that Daśaratha will die grieving for his son.

On his flight over the ocean, Hanumān is held back by the rākshasī Siṃhikā, who seizes his shadow, and he kills her from inside her own body.

After Rāvaṇa's death Sītā enters the fire before the armies and Agni gives her back, as told in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, the Kūrma Purāṇa and the Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa.

Hanumān searches Laṅkā all night, then finds Sītā under a Śiṃśupā tree in the Aśoka Vaṭikā, thin with grief and guarded by rākshasīs.

Hanumān gives Sītā's full message to Rāma: the crow Jayanta, her one month left, her wish for rescue by open battle, and her doubt about the ocean.

Rāma strings the bow of Bhagavān Śiva at Mithilā, wins Sītā, and four brothers wed four sisters. On the way home Paraśurāma meets Rāma.

When Rāma goes into forest exile, Sītā insists on following him. Rāma lists the hardships, and Sītā answers each one until he agrees.

Sugrīva is crowned king of the vānaras at Kishkindhā, and Aṅgada is made yuvarāja, while Rāma waits outside the city.

Sumantra leaves Rāma at the Gaṅgā and drives back to Ayodhyā, where he tells Daśaratha and Kauśalyā about the journey.

Over the ocean, the Nāgamātā Surasā tests Hanumān. He grows, then shrinks to a thumb's size, enters her mouth and leaves it, and she blesses him.

On Viśvāmitra's command, young Rāma slays the rākshasī Tāṭakā in the Tāṭakā forest, his first act of battle, as told in the Bāla Kāṇḍa.

Before leaving for the forest, Rāma gives away his wealth, and the poor, pious brāhmaṇa Tṛjāṭa comes to receive his gift.

Trijaṭā, an elder rākshasī, silences Sītā's guards in the Aśoka Vaṭikā and tells her dream of Śrī Rāma's victory, the fall of Rāvaṇa and Vibhīshaṇa's crowning.

Śrī Rāma kills the vānara king Vāli with one arrow, answers Vāli's challenge from rāja-dharma, and Sugrīva is made king of Kishkindhā.

At Brahmā's command the devas, ṛshis and other beings fathered the mighty vānaras who would serve Śrī Rāma against Rāvaṇa, as the Bāla Kāṇḍa tells.

After the war with Rāvaṇa, Śrī Rāma asks Indra for one boon, that all the fallen vānaras and bhallūkas live again, and Indra grants it.

Vibhīshaṇa speaks in Rāvaṇa's court to save Hanumān's life, by the rule that a messenger must never be killed.

Agastya Muni gives Rāma the Vaishṇava bow, Brahmā's arrow, two endless quivers and a golden sword, and tells him to settle at Pañchavaṭī.

King Anaraṇya, dying in battle, gives Rāvaṇa a śāpa: a son of the Ikshvāku line will kill him and end his whole clan.

King Daṇḍa wrongs the daughter of his guru Śukra, and Śukra's śāpa destroys his kingdom, which becomes Daṇḍakāraṇya.

The Uttara Kāṇḍa tells of Hanumān's birth, his leap at the sun, Indra's vajra, the varas of the devas, his study under Sūrya and his promise to Sugrīva.

King Ila of the Ikshvāku line entered Śiva's grove, became a woman, and later lived alternate months as a man and as a woman.

Meghanāda, son of Rāvaṇa, was born with a thunderous cry, captured Indra, and became Indrajit with a vara that depended on the Nikumbhilā yajña.

Bhagavān Rāma performed the full funeral rites for the eagle Jaṭāyu, who then rose from the pyre in a shining form and went to Vishṇuloka.

The old eagle Jaṭāyu fought Rāvaṇa in the sky to save Sītā, until Rāvaṇa cut off his wings and legs.

Rāma and Lakshmaṇa cut off the arms of the dānava Kabandha, burned his body, freed him from his śāpa, and heard his advice to seek Sugrīva.

Bhagavān Rāma alone destroys Khara's army of 14,000 rākshasas at Janasthāna, with Dūshaṇa and Triśiras, in about an hour.

How Viśvakarma built Laṅkā, how Kubera ruled it, and how it passed to the rākshasas Mālyavān, Sumāli and Māli, and then to Rāvaṇa.

At Rāma's Aśvamedha yajña, Kuśa and Lava sing the whole Rāmāyaṇa, and Sītā then enters the earth.

Śatrughna kills the rākshasa Lavaṇāsura at Madhurā, founds the city of Mathurā and rules it for twelve years.

Rāvaṇa's family line from Brahmā through Pulastya and Viśravas, his brothers and sister, and the boons they won, as told in the Uttara Kāṇḍa.

The three rākshasa sons of Sukeśa who held Laṅkā before Rāvaṇa, fell to Bhagavān Vishṇu, and led to Rāvaṇa's birth.

The devas send five apsarasas to break the tapas of the ṛshi Māṇḍakarṇi, but the apsarasas become his wives and a tīrtha is named for them.

Rāvaṇa forces Mārīca to become the golden deer, and Mārīca's dying cry in Rāma's voice draws Lakshmaṇa away from Sītā.

Nalakūbara's śāpa after Rāvaṇa violated Rambhā: if Rāvaṇa touches an unwilling woman, his ten heads will split into a thousand pieces.

King Nṛga, a great giver, receives a brāhmaṇa's śāpa and lives as a lizard in a well until Śrī Kṛshṇa lifts him out at Dvārakā.

How Brahmā's first beings became Rākshasas and Yakshas, and how Heti and Praheti began the line that led to the Rākshasa kings of Laṅkā and to Rāvaṇa.

After Sītā's bhūpraveśa, Kāla comes to Rāma, Lakshmaṇa gives up his life, and Rāma walks into the Sarayū and returns to Bhagavān Vishṇu.

Rāma returns to Pañcavaṭī, finds Sītā gone, and searches the Daṇḍakāraṇya in grief, asking the trees, birds and rivers where she is.

With Brahmā's vara, Rāvaṇa conquers the earth, Yama's realm, Varuṇa's realm and pātāla, and becomes Lokatrayeśvara, lord of the three worlds.

Rāvaṇa tries to lift Mount Kailāsa, is pinned by Bhagavān Śiva's toe for a thousand years, sings the Śiva-Tāṇḍava Stotra, and receives the sword Candrahāsa.

Rāvaṇa goes to Kishkindhā to challenge Vālī, is carried under his arm across the four oceans, and ends by making a pact of friendship with him.

The ṛshis of the Daṇḍakāraṇya show Rāma the bones of slain ascetics, and he vows to destroy every rākshasa there and free them from fear.

Śarabhaṅga Muni waits to see Rāma, enters a fire in his presence, and rises from it as a radiant young man to Brahmaloka.

A brāhmaṇa brings his dead son to Rāma's court. Nārada names the cause, Rāma finds the tapasvin Śambūka, and the child lives again.

Agastya tells Rāma of King Śveta of the Ikshvāku line, whose great puṇya kept him between worlds because one part of his dharma was left undone.

After a washerman's words reach him, Rāma sends the pregnant Sītā to the forest near Vālmīki's āśrama, where she bears Kuśa and Lava.

At Rāma's Aśvamedha yajña, Sītā calls on Bhūmi Devī, the earth, who opens, takes her on a throne, and receives her back.

Rāvaṇa comes to the empty Pañchavaṭī āśrama as a bhikshu, seizes Sītā, and carries her to Laṅkā while Jaṭāyu fights to stop him.

Rāvaṇa's sister Śūrpaṇakhā is refused by Rāma and Lakshmaṇa at Pañcavaṭī, loses her nose and ears, and sets off the war at Janasthāna and the taking of Sītā.

Vedavatī, who was doing tapas to win Bhagavān Vishṇu as her husband, is seized by Rāvaṇa, gives up her body in yoga fire and is later born as Sītā.

Rāma, Sītā and Lakshmaṇa meet the rākshasa Virādha in Daṇḍakāraṇya; weapons cannot kill him, so they bury him, and he is freed as the gandharva Tumburu.

Agastya Maharshi comes to the battlefield and gives Rāma the Āditya Hṛdayam, a stotra to Bhagavān Sūrya, before the last duel with Rāvaṇa.

Śrī Rāma frees Ahalyā from the śāpa of her husband Gautama Maharshi, which followed Indra's deceit, in the Bāla Kāṇḍa of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa.

King Daśaratha performs two yajñas for sons, and Bhagavān Vishṇu is born as Rāma and his three brothers.

Rāma, Sītā and Lakshmaṇa meet Atri Maharshi and Anasūyā, who teaches Sītā and gives her divine gifts.

The people of Ayodhyā run after Rāma's chariot, and Rāma leaves them quietly at the Tamasā river.

Bharadvāja Maharshi welcomes Rāma at Prayāga, points him to Citrakūṭa, and later feeds Bharata's whole army.

Bharata returns from Kekaya to Ayodhyā, finds Daśaratha dead and Rāma in exile, rejects the throne and sets out to find Rāma.

Bharata travels to Citrakūṭa with the people of Ayodhyā and begs Rāma to return; Rāma refuses and gives him his pādukā.

Bharata takes Rāma's sandals from Citrakūṭa, places them on the throne of Ayodhyā and rules in their name from Nandīgrāma for fourteen years.

After Sītā enters the fire, Brahmā and the devas come to Laṅkā and Brahmā declares that Rāma is Mahāvishṇu, the eternal Paramātmā.

Hanumān gives Sītā's crest-jewel, the Cūḍāmaṇi, to Bhagavān Rāma at Kishkindhā, and Rāma weeps with grief and joy.

After Rāvaṇa's fall, King Daśaratha comes down from svarga in a vimāna to embrace Rāma, bless Lakshmaṇa and Sītā, and send them home to Ayodhyā.

King Daśaratha cannot bear the loss of Rāma, tells Kauśalyā of the curse of Śravaṇa Kumāra's blind parents, and dies calling Rāma's name.

Oppressed by Rāvaṇa, the devas go to Brahmā, who sends them to Bhagavān Vishṇu. He agrees to be born as the four sons of Daśaratha.

How the asura Dundubhi challenged the ocean, Himavat and Vāli, and how Mataṅga's śāpa made Ṛshyamūka safe for Sugrīva.

How Bhagīratha's tapas brought the Gaṅgā down to earth through Bhagavān Śiva's jaṭā to free the sixty thousand sons of Sagara.