Tulsidas,
a Hindu poet of northern India, tells an ancient religious story
of duty and devotion.
Prince
Rama is exiled from his father's kingdom for 14 years. Devotion
to Rama leads his wife, Sita, and his brother Lakshmana to
go with him. But the ten-headed demon king Ravana kidnaps
Sita and carries her away to the island of Lanka. Rama allies
with the monkey people in a great war against Ravana. He kills
Ravana and rescues the faithful Sita. At the end of his exile,
Rama returns home in triumph to become king.
The story
of Rama, called the Ramayana, was originally written
in the ancient Sanskrit language of India. Tulsidas's epic
poem retells the deeply devotional tale in a dialect of the
Hindi language. Hindus believe Rama was a human form, or incarnation,
of the god Vishnu. The brave, devoted Rama serves as a model of behavior and devotion for Hindu men; as the loyal, dutiful Sita does for Hindu women.
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