The Legend of Diwali

There are several legends of Diwali but the most romantic is the story of Rama and his beautiful wife Sita.

Thousands of years ago in Ayodhya, the capital of the Kosala kingdom in northern India, there was a good and wise king called King Dasaratha. He had three wives, Kaushalya, Kaikeyi and Sumitra.

The king and his wives had difficulty conceiving children, but after a great sacrifice to the gods, four sons were born. The eldest was Rama, son of Kaushalya. Then came Bharat, son of Kaikeyi and then the twins Lakshman and Shatrughn, sons of Sumitra.

When the handsome Rama was old enough, he married the beautiful princess Sita.

To gain the approval of her father he accomplished a great feat which no one else had been able to do, he strung and broke the great bow of Shiva.

Rama’s brother also married girls from Sita’s family and they all lived happily together in Ayodhya.

As their father King Dasaratha grew older, he decided that it was time to appoint a successor and as Rama was the oldest, he was chosen. And that is where the trouble started!

Up until now Queen Kaikeyi, the mother of second son Bharat, had lived as the favorite queen of King Dasaratha. Her evil servant convinced her that if Rama became the King’s Regent then she would lose her status and that Rama would kill her son Bharat out of jealousy.

Kaikeyi panicked. She demanded that King Dasaratha exile Rama to the forest for 14 years and that Bharat be named the King’s Regent.

King Dasaratha didn’t want to do this, but a long time ago, Kaikeyi had saved his life and he had promised her that she could have two wishes that he would grant no questions asked.

When he initially told Kaikeyi that he wouldn’t do it, she reminded him of her two wishes and the King being bound by his word was forced to exile Rama.

Rama left for the forest and took with him the beautiful Sita and his younger brother Lakshman. When Bharat found out what his mother had done he was mortified and followed Rama and the others into the forest to beg Rama to return. But Rama refused to return and said that he must honor his father’s instructions.

Bharat returned to Ayodhya and told the king that Rama would not return. The king was so distraught that he died of grief shortly after. On his death, Bharat refused to be crowned King and ruled Ayodhya in Rama’s name.

He never sat on the King’s throne, instead he put a pair of Rama’s wooden slippers there to show that Rama was the true King and that this was his place.

Rama, Sita and Lakshman continued to live in the forest for many years…there is no mention of what Lakshman’s wife was doing during this time, but she didn’t go into the forest with them.

A then one day, a rakshasni, a female demon saw Rama and fell in love with him. She begged him to marry her but Rama refused and told her that he was already married.

She then moved on to Lakshman and asked him to marry her but he also refused. The demon then told the brothers that she would attack and eat Sita if neither of the brothers married her. She wasn’t fussy about which one, either would do.

In anger, Lakshman attacked the demon and cut off her nose and her ears. Needless to say, she was furious and went to her brother for help. Her brother, Ravan, was a very powerful demon and was the ruler of the golden city Lanka. He had 10 heads and 20 arms and he could not be killed by gods or other demons.

When he saw the state of his sister, he was furious. He decided that the best revenge would be to kidnap Sita. But he was sneaky and didn’t want to just rush in a grab her. So Ravan got the help of another demon who turned himself into a golden deer and allowed Sita to see him.

Sita fell in love with the deer and decided that she wanted it as a pet. She begged Rama to catch the deer for her and Rama being the devoted husband that he was, set off into the forest to catch it.

But he didn’t come back and Sita and Lakshman started to get worried. Lakshman went into the forest to search for Rama, worried that something may have happened to him. As soon as Sita was alone Ravan appeared. He came disguised as a holy man in need of food.

When Sita stepped outside her house to give him food, Ravan turned into his true self and grabbed her. He threw the struggling Sita into his flying chariot and carried her off to the city of Lanka.

Meanwhile, nothing had harmed Rama and he and Lakshman returned to the house to tell Sita that they had been unable to find the deer. But she was gone. The birds and animals told them that she had been kidnapped by Ravan. Of course they set off immediately to find her.

On the way, they made friends with the bears and the monkeys who agreed to come with them to find Sita. In particular, Rama made friends with a monkey called Hanuman, he became Rama’s closest friend.

Hanuman was not an ordinary monkey, he was the son of the Wind and was able to fly.

By flying over the city of Lanka, Hanuman was able to find Sita who was imprisoned in one of Ravan’s gardens and was guarded by demons. He was able to get close to Sita and let her know that Rama was coming to rescue her. Then he immediately flew back to Rama to let him know of her whereabouts.

Rama, Lakshman and their army of monkeys and bears were joined by a demon called Vibhishan, the brother of Ravan . He joined them because he felt that Ravan had done the wrong thing when he kidnapped Sita.

When the army arrived in Lanka, a great battle ensued. With Vibhishan’s knowledge of the city, they were able to kill hundreds of Ravan’s demons. Rama himself killed Ravan’s fearsome brother Kumbhakaran who was able to eat entire armies! Lakshman killed Indrajit, Ravan’s on who was able to make himself invisible and who had never previously been defeated by anyone.

And then Rama found Ravan.

They fought for 10 days straight. Neither of them could defeat the other and they were near exhaustion. The Gods had been watching the battle and went to Rama. They gave him a special arrow and Rama shot this into the breast of Ravan and killed him.

By now, it was 14 years since Rama, Sita and Lakshman went into the forest. Their exile was over and they decided to return to Ayodhya immediately. Hanuman flew ahead to give Bharat the good news and he spread the news across the kingdom.

The citizens were so excited that they lit candles and oil lamps and placed these in their windows to help guide the rightful King and his beautiful wife home.

On his return, there was a huge celebration with fireworks and special food. Rama was finally crowned as the King of Kosala and he ruled for many many years afterwards.