With Diwali playing shadow games with us, the one thing all Hindus are reminded of is the great sage Valmiki's brilliants verse—the story of Ramayana.  Many of Diwali's traditions and all its roots are directly from this book. As such, it's an interesting read all right but in the middle of today's hustle bustle no one has the time to read 24,000 verses spread out over seven different books, we came up with a simpler solution for Ramayana virgins. Here's a short and sweet summarization of the entire ancient scripture. 

The Royal Couple

It all starts off with the description of Ayodhya's ideal royal couple. The brave, wise and dutiful husband Rama and the beautiful, saintly Sita. Janaka, Sita's father organizes a ceremony called Swayamvara to find his daughter a suitable bridegroom wherein the two first meet. All of their best qualities are showcased in this opening sequence. 

Royal Pains

However there was discord in Rama's royal family. His father was King of Ayodhya, Dashratha, and he has three wives and four sons. Rama being the eldest was naturally heir to the throne which was cause for great jealousy with Bharata's (one of Dashratha's other sons) mother Kaikeyi. With her pre-meditated meddling, she manages to get Rama exiled for 14 years to the forest leaving Bharata to be crowned king.

Adventures Of The Banished

Rama, Sita and his brother Lakshmana then live the lives of hermits in a meditative retreat deep within the woods. Having learned of his mother's treachery, Bharata meets him in the forest and pleads him to return, Rama refuses to break the vow given to his deceased father and the former is compelled to return home with nothing but Rama's sandals. 

Buckle up for the climax. Though they're all happy in their little retreat in the woods, tragedy strikes. Sita is abducted by the evil, ten-headed King of Lanka, Ravana and Rama must rescue her from his evil clutches. Aided by his brother and a powerful monkey general Hanuman, he manages to do just this post assembling armies of allies and an intense attack against Ravana. He succeeds in killing the demon King and the ideal Royal Couple is finally reunited. 

Happy Ending

Even after all this strife, Rama only returns to Ayodhya post the completion of his 14 years of exile. The couple receives a warm welcome and they rule happily for many years; they even have two sons Luv and Kush. Unfortunately, Sita's chastity during her capture by Ravana comes under scrutiny and she is forced to prove her purity by trial by fire. However, since she emerged from the Earth at birth, the pure and saintly Sita is swallowed again  by the same Mother Earth that bore her. Thus Sita returns to her true Mother never to return again. 

The End.

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