10. Rama, Sita and Hanuman

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  • King Rama lived a long, long time ago; so long ago its hard to count! Rama lived in India. His kingdom was called Koshala. The capital city was called Ayodhya.
  • Rama had three step-brothers. His favourite was called Lakshman. Rama married the most beautiful princess. She was named Sita.
  • By trickery, Rama was sent into the forest and the jungle. Sita loved Rama so much, that she went with him to the forest. She liked to be with Rama even if she had to be poor. Before going to the forest, she gave away all her beautiful sarees. She gave away all her golden jewellery.
  • Lakshman also decided to go with Rama and Sita.
  • While in the forest, the wicked king, Ravana, kidnapped Sita. Ravana had ten heads. He wasn’t really very intelligent, even with ten heads. He tried to be clever but was actually very foolish. Ravana placed Sita on his chariot. It was pulled by asses, and could fly in the sky. He flew across the sea to his island, called Lanka.
  • Rama was very upset, but Lakshman helped his brother to be brave. Together they searched for Sita. They couldn’t find her anywhere.
  • Then, the two brothers met a monkey-warrior called Hanuman. He was very strong and could jump huge, huge distances. He collected a large army of bears and monkeys and they looked for Sita everywhere.
  • A vulture told Hanuman that he had seen Ravana taking Sita to Lanka. Hanuman jumped all the way to Lanka. He found Sita, weeping beneath a tree. She was very sad, missing Rama.
  • Hanuman was captured by Ravana, who set fire to the monkeys tail. But Hanuman jumped everywhere and burned Lanka to the ground.
  • Hanuman returned to Rama on the other side of the sea. The monkeys picked up stones and boulders and threw them in the ocean, shouting “Rama”. By magic, they floated. In this way, they made a bridge to Lanka.
  • The monkey army crossed over to Lanka. They fought with Ravana’s soldiers who were very ugly and ferocious and had huge swords, spears and axes. The monkeys threw stones and trees. They defeated Ravana’s army. In the end, Rama shot a special arrow at Ravana and killed him.
  • Rama ruled for thousands if years. When he was king, everyone was healthy and happy. People didn’t even have to die if they didn’t want to!
  • Today Hindu people celebrate this story at Diwali. They hope that one day there will be another king like Rama and that soldiers will be kind and brave just like Hanuman was.