summary of two tales of ramayana, lord rama's wedding with sita and sita's haran
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Sita grew up to be a girl of unparalleled beauty and charm and possessed the greatest of womanly virtues. When Sita became of marriageable age, the king decided to have a Swayamvara which included a contest. The king was in possession of an immensely heavy bow, presented to him by the God Shiva. Whoever could wield the bow and string it, could marry Sita.
After the protection of Vishwamitra’s sacred ritual, on their way back to Ayodhya, Rama and Lakshmana traveled to Mithila. Accompanied by Vishwamitra, they attended Sita’s Swayamvara. Rama successfully broke Shiva's bow as he picked it up and was examining the tautness of its bowstring. The young prince’s strength and courage perplexed all the attendees. And with the breaking of the bow, Janaka proposed Sita to Rama in marriage. On the approval of Sage Vishwamitra, Janaka sent his messengers to Ayodhya to convey the message to Dasharatha. Upon hearing the story of how his son Rama not only lifted the bow of Shiva, but also broke it, Dasharatha was overjoyed. He gladly accepted the marriage proposal of Rama and Sita. The next day, King Dasharatha’s delegation traveled to Mithila to carry out the wedding ceremony.Ravana flew in his ‘magical chariot’ and reached demon Maricha. He asked Maricha, master of disguise, to take the form of a golden deer. Maricha who already had an experience of being punished by Ram refused at first but as he knew that either way he would be killed but since he preferred to be killed by Ram he agreed finally.Maricha disguised as The Golden Deer.Maricha transformed into a golden deer and roamed in-front of Sita. Sita asked Ram to catch it for her. Ram asked Lakshman to look after Sita and went behind the deer. The deer led him deep into the forest and at last when Ram found it impossible to catch it alive, he killed it with a sharp arrow. As the arrow struck, Maricha gained his true form and screamed loudly imitating Ram asking for help to Sita and Lakshman. Ravan’s plan had worked.
Thinking that some problem might have occurred to Ram Sita requested Lakshman to leave her alone and look for Ram.Before he left, he drew a line across
Sita and asked her not to cross until he returned. Ravan watched all
this from a distance disguised himself as a hermit and approached Sita
asking for food. Sita brought some food to offer the holy man standing
within the line. Ravana asked her to come out of that line and offer.Ravan disguised as a sage.But before Sita could realize what she
was doing, Ravana caught hold of her hand and took her away in his
chariot towards Lanka. Sita screamed out loudly for help. As he drove,
Jatayu, the great eagle, objected Ravana and fought with him. But Ravana
mercilessly, cut off his wing and Jatayu fell down.Ravana chopping Jatayu’s wings.Sita’s attempt to escape went all in
vain and as they drove, Sita took of her jewellery and threw it down
hoping that Rama may see it.