Sri Ramchandra is the seventh incarnation of Narayana born in the Treta yuga
as son of King Dasratha (the one with Ten Chariots). He was born on the month of
Chaitra in the ninth day of the Sukla Pakcha in the city of Ayodhya in present day
Uttar Pradesh. Ramnavami is celebrated on his birthday.
He was the eldest of the four sons and the crown prince and his destiny was to rid
the world of the great demon Ravana who lived and ruled in the island of Sri Lanka.
Among his many acts of valour, he travelled on foot to the Kingdom of Janakpur in
Mithila (present day Darbhanga in Bihar and about two hundred miles from Ayodhya) to participate in a Swayamvar organized by the King of Janakpur for her daughter Sita. In the full aseembly of many suitors Ramchandra and won the hand of the princess Sita by threading a very heavy bow which no one could lift and eventually breaking it in two. Ramchandra married Sita in a Swayamvar ceremony and then they went back to Ayodhya where the throne of Ayodhya awaited.
However on the eve of Ramchandra's coronation, his step mother Kayekayi
asked King Dasratha to send Ramchandra on a Vanavas (life of a hermit in a forest) for fourteen years.
Ramchandra accepted the decision of his father and step mother and went to live in
the forest with his wife Sita and brother Lakchmana. They lived in a hut in the forest a
life of hermits. One day Ram was lured away as he tried to capture a golden deer that
caught the fancy of Sita. The deer was Ravana himself. Ravana abducted Sita and
took her to the island of Lanka.
Sita is considered the greatest role model of a Hindu wife who remained devoted to
Ram through many trials and tribulations. She was born in the present state of Bihar near the Nepal border in a place presently called Sitamarih. She was the daughter of Raja Janki, the king of Janakpur. At that time this place was called Mithila which is near Darbhanga and Muzaffarpur.
When she was kept imprisoned in Lanka, the consorts of Ravan tried to convert her to marry Ravan. She remained undaunted. After she was freed from Lanka, she was met with doubts and questions in Ayodhya. As a result she was banished to live in the forest where she gave birth to Laba and Kusha the sons of Rama at the Ashram of the sage Agasthya. The two sons became great warriors and they later captured unknowingly the horse of their father Ram which was let loose in an Asvamedha yagna. Ramchandra had to acknowledge the valour of his two sons and bring them and Sita back to Ayodhya. Sita later committed self sacrifice in order to save the kingdom of Ayodhya from further rumours and strife. Her birthday is celebrated on the ninth day
of the Sukla Pakcha in the month of Vaisakha.
In the Lanka Kanda (the Lanka episode) Ram and his brother Lakchman crossed the sea and attacked Lanka with the help of
the monkey army led by the monkey King Hanuman and his brother Sugriva who were
great warriors themselves. A great battle ensued. Lakchman was hurt and fell in a
coma.Ram asked Hanuman to find the Sanjivani jari (the root of a Himalayan plant) to revive
Lakchman. Hanuman not being knowledgeable about plants could not decide and
he picked up the entire mountain and carried it on his back to Lanka. The
birthday of Hanuman is celebrated on the Purnima of Chaitra month. Hanuman is
considered the greatest devotee of Ram and Sita and also a mentor of those who like
to develop physical prowess. He is the God of all athletes.
Soon Lakchman was revived by the smell of the plants. The battle continued. Ravana
and his brother Kumbhakarna waged a major battle. Ravana assumed his ten headed form
which he had acquired through a boon from the God Shiva. He was a great devotee
of Shiva.
Ram killed Ravana the ten headed giant and his brother Kumbhakarna and brought Sita
back to a victorious Ayodhya. On this day which falls on the tenth day of Ashwina
Sukla Pakcha Dusserah or the death of the ten headed demon is celebrated.
Throughout North India, ten headed statues are made and burnt with fire crackers.
Actually it is also said to be the vanquishing of one's bad feelings acquired by all men and women during the year through the
ten sensual doors: the mouth, two nostrils, two ears, two eyes, touch or skin, the genitals and the anus.
Ramchandra's life and exploits are the basis of the Hindu epic the Ramayana attributed
to the poet Valmiki written in Sanskrit. Since then there have many regional versions
of Ramayana the principal among them being the Ramcharitmanas by Tulsidas in Hindi
or Khari boli and Ramayana by Krittibas Gosain in Bengali. In Tulsidas's Ramayana,
Ramachandra asks the sage Agasthya to describe where in the forest he can live for
fourteen years. The sage Agasthya knowing that Ram is the incarnation of Vishnu,
replies: "Tell me where God does not live and I will tell you to live there."
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