Raam continued south to reach the thick dense Dandaka forest. In that forest, in a place called Panchavati, they made themselves a small hut for their home.
Time passed with difficulty. The princess Sita who used to sleep on the softest of beds, now slept on the hard floor. Instead of clothing made of silk laced with golden embroidery, she wore coarse clothes made of tree barks. The brothers also had to adopt their princely ways to the harsh realities of the forest. However, their love for each other kept them happy. Sita was ever eager to look after the comforts of Rama. Lakshmana was ever vigilant in guarding Rama and Sita from any danger. The forest was home for not just wild and cruel animals; it was also a hunting ground for cannibalistic asuras of all kinds who used their magical powers on unsuspecting humans.
One day an asura lady, Shurpanakha, came upon the hut of Sita, Rama and Lakshmana while wandering about in the forest. She was mesmerized by the beauty of the princes and the princess. She was especially attracted to Rama whose handsome figure had made her lustful. She took on the form of a beautiful damsel and, approaching Rama asked him to take her as his mistress. Rama replied that He was married and can not think of consorting with any woman other than his wife. He was committed to practicing monogamy as his ideal. He directed her to Lakshmana who recognized her true demonic nature and cut off her nose and two ears with his sword. Shurpanakha left the human form and ran off crying in pain.
She went to her brother Ravana in Lanka. There she described to Ravana Sita’s beauty and told him that all his wealth and power equals nothing if he did not possess Sita. It was true, she told Ravana, that he had in possession several hundred women taken from heaven and the three worlds that he had conquered, but their beauty compared to Sita’s was like a candle in front of the midday sun. She further enraged him with her words that the humans, Rama and Lakshmana, had insulted him who was the most powerful man in the three worlds by insulting her, his sister. For her sake, she goaded him, he should take revenge.
Ravana was a proud king. Having done the most severe tapas, he had pleased Lord Shiva and obtained several boons from him. Empowered by the boon, he conquered all the three worlds and subdued all the kings. His capital city was beautiful and prosperous. There was nothing he could not conquer or possess. Besides, he hated the humans. And now the two of them living in the forest are making life miserable to all the asuras of his kind. It is time to teach those two lowly creatures a lesson. The humans believed that taking another man’s wife was a sin. For them sanctity of marriage was unbreakable. If Sita is half as beautiful as Shurpanakha had described her to him, she would be a prize in his possessions. What else would be a more painful insult than taking the man’s wife? Taking Sita away from Rama would insult Rama and enhance his prestige.
He summoned his trusted lieutenants, Khara and Dooshana and sent them off on the mission to kill the two brothers living in the Dandaka forest and bring the lady Sita alive to him. These two asuras were very powerful and experts in magical warfare. They came to the place where Rama and Lakshmana were living and started a war. Rama and Lakshmana killed them both with their arrows along with the army they had brought with them. Ravana came to know of their deaths from the few survivors who fled the scene. It was obvious to him that these two are not to be engaged in a direct fight but a plan had to be devised to take Sita away from them. He called Maricha. Together, they hatched a plan to steal Sita away from Rama.
One morning Sita was admiring the beauty of the forest in front of her hut. There, among the flower bushes, she spotted the most beautiful deer of a bright golden hue roaming about in delightful innocence. How nice would it be to have him for a pet! She tried to catch him but the deer was too nimble for her. He did not run away but hung around as if to be caught. Presently Rama came to her. Sita pointed the golden-hued deer to Rama excitedly and told him that she wanted him caught alive so she can keep him as a pet. Something about the deer did not seem authentic to Rama. He tried to dissuade Sita from wanting the deer saying that the deer probably was not a real deer but some asura roaming around in disguise to snare gullible people. But Sita had fallen in love with the deer and she insisted on having him as a pet. So Rama, in spite of his better judgment, agreed. He called Lakshmana and told him to guard Sita very vigilantly while he went to catch the deer. Under no circumstances was Lakshmana to leave the sight of Sita. Then he tried to catch the deer but now the deer started running away. Rama had chased the deer too deep in to the forest before he realized that he was chasing an asura disguised as a deer. So he drew his arrow and shot the deer fatally which fell assuming the natural form of the asura. He was Maricha sent by Ravana to lure Rama away from the hut. But before he died, Maricha, mimicking Rama, cried loudly, "Help me Lakshmana! Help me Lakshmana!" Rama realized that he had been deceived. He hurried back. But back at the hut, Sita and Lakshmana had heard the cry for help from what seemed to be Rama. Sita became anxious and distraught. Lakshmana tried to reassure her that no harm can come to Rama and that the cry for help probably was a trick from the asura. Lakshmana reasoned that this may be some kind of trick by one of the numerous asuras roaming in the forest. Sita could not be convinced. There was no harm in going for His help, she countered. Even if it turns out to be a hoax, what have they got to loose? She could take care of herself for the brief period he would be away.
Lakshmana reluctantly agreed to go to help Rama but before leaving he drew a line around the perimeter of the hut with his arrow and told Sita that as long as she remained inside of the line, no harm would come to her as he had endowed the area with his protection. But if she stepped out side of the line, she would loose his protection. Sita agreed to remain inside of the line. Lakshmana was off in search of his brother. Sita was waiting anxiously looking towards the way Rama and Lakshmana went. Then there came a sage-like looking man to her hut and said, "Mother, I come to ask you for some food." It was not unusual for forest dwelling munis and monks to live on alms. Sita thought that this man at the door of her hut deserved to be treated as a guest and given food. She offered him some food and asked him to step forward to receive it as it would mean that she would be crossing the line that Lakshmana drew for her protection if she stepped out to meet the stranger. The man insisted that she come out to the perimeter and serve it to him. Otherwise, he would walk away and the sin of turning a guest away would be hers. Sita could not deny the guest and turn him away. She stepped outside of the line to give the alms to the man but the sage-like looking man now turned in to a demon with ten heads and twenty arms. It was Ravana who came in the disguise of the sage. His plan to corner Sita alone had succeeded. Sita looking at his fierce dreadful form at once fainted. Ravana carried Sita to his airplane, Pushpaka, and started flying towards Lanka.
When Rama met his brother Lakshmana, his suspicions grew. Sure, this was a trick played on them and now not only he but his brother also fell for it and had left Sita alone. They hurried back to the hut as fast as they could but it was too late. Sita was nowhere. The hut was empty. The food that Sita carried to Ravana lay strewn around at the gate. Rama called out for her as loud as He could, "Sitaaaa! Siiiiiitaaaaa!" The forest echoed back his calls and it seemed like the entire universe fell silent. They searched for her in every direction. There was hope that she might have gone for a walk and would be returning safe soon. Or perhaps she went to fetch some flowers for her daily puja! "O God let it be so," wished Rama but His Sita could not be found anywhere. It was evening and after the initial hope had vanished, grief stricken Rama lost his composure and started crying for Sita. The brothers searched the forest all night and all day. She was not found.
Meanwhile, Jathayu witnessed Sita being carried away in the Pushpaka. Jathayu was a big bird of the hawk family and an admirer and friend of Rama. He flew in to the path of Ravana’s airplane and tried to stop him but he was no match to Ravana. Ravana cut her wings off and he fell to the ground deeply sorry for Rama. He knew he was going to die but he had to keep alive as long as possible in the hope that he could give Rama the news about Ravana. His wish came true, for Rama and Lakshmana came upon him while searching for Sita and found him deeply wounded. Jathayu gave Rama the details of Sita’s abduction by Ravana and told him that Sita is probably somewhere in Lanka. Jathayu offered Rama many prayers and told him that he was sorry that he was not strong enough to stop Ravana and breathed his last. Rama performed the last rites to His loyal friend Jathayu as prescribed by scriptures and continued his search for Sita.
D) KISHKINDHA-KAND
Presently they reached the outskirts of the Rushyashringa mountain. Tired, hungry and thirsty they decided to take a rest when a great ape approached them. "My name is Hanuman. I live here on this mountain with my friends. May I know who you are and what brings you here?" enquired the ape. Rama replied, "We are the princes of Ayodhya. Because of a promise that my father made to my mother, we have to spend time in the forest. My wife Sita has been abducted recently and we reached here searching for her." Hanuman was satisfied that the strangers were not enemies and meant no harm to him or his friends. He recalled the small bundle of jewelry tied in a piece of cloth that he found a few days back. Perhaps that jewelry belonged to this man’s wife? "Dear sirs, please allow me to take you to my friend Sugreeva. I think we may have something that interests you," said Hanuman. He led them to a large cave inside of which they saw an ape with his friends and followers. Hanuman introduced the ape to Rama and Lakshmana as the king Sugreeva. He also told Sugreeva that Rama had lost his wife to some asura and he is in search of her. Hanuman showed Rama the package of jewelry that he had found at the base of the mountain. Rama immediately recognized all the jewelry as those belonging to Sita and the piece of cloth as that of her sari. He could not restrain himself and tears poured out of his eyes profusely. With a voice that was laden with grief he addressed Sugreeva and said, "King! These are my wife’s jewelry and this is my wife’s sari. If you have any information about my wife, I would be grateful if you tell me." Sugreeva then narrated his own story to Rama. He was the king of Kishkindha where he had a wife named Tara. His brother Vali was serving him. One day he and his brother chased an invading asura who lead them to a mountain and entered a cave at its base. "I will go inside the cave and kill the asura. You wait here outside keeping guard to the entrance," Vali had said to Sugreeva. So Sugreeva waited outside while Vali fought the asura inside the cave. Time passed but Vali did not return. There was no sign of Vali’s fight with the asura in the cave either. The cave was silent. After about a year, Sugreeva decided that his brother must have been killed and that there was no point in waiting for him outside anymore. So he placed a large boulder at the entrance of the cave to cover it and went back to his city. But Vali was not dead. He had killed the asura after a long fight. When he tried to exit out of the cave he saw the boulder blocking the entrance. He pushed the boulder aside with great effort and reached Kishkindha where he saw Sugreeva enjoying the palace pleasures. He accused Sugreeva of intentionally trying to kill him by blocking the entrance to the cave. A fight erupted in which Vali defeated Sugreeva and drove him out of the city. He also kept Sugreeva’s wife for himself. Sugreeva had fled to the Rushyashringa mountain along with his key followers – Hanuman, Jambavanta and his son Angada.
"I can help you search and rescue your wife, if you help me regain my kingdom," proposed Sugreeva to Rama. "Vali is powerful. I can not dream of defeating him in direct fight for he gets his strength from his opponents. Whoever fights with him looses a third of his strength and Vali becomes that much stronger. Therefore I need your help."
Rama agreed and sent Sugreeva to challenge Vali to a fight. While they were fighting, Rama standing behind a tree shot an arrow from a distance and killed Vali. Rama then made Sugreeva the king of Kishkindha. Tara now became the queen of Sugreeva once again.
As agreed, Sugreeva sent his army of apes in all directions to search for clues of whereabouts of Sita. In particular, he commissioned Hanuman to look for Sita in Lanka because that is where Ravana probably took her. Rama gave Hanuman the golden hair piece of Sita from the bundle of jewelry that she had dropped so Hanuman can identify himself as the messenger of Rama. Hanuman, along with some other apes, reached the sea shore but faced the problem of crossing the ocean to reach Lanka which was at about one hundred miles away from the shore.
