The deity Vishnu's seventh incarnation, the crown prince of the Solar Line and the protagonist of the Ramayana, one of India's two major epics.
Rama is created to slay a creature powerful enough to knock the universe out of balance, in this instance Ravana, the demon-king of Lanka, as with all of Vishnu's avatars.
Rama's attempt to reclaim his wife Sita, who has been kidnapped by Ravana, is the central struggle in the Ramayana.
Rama's conflict with Ravana, Ravana's death, and the reestablishment of cosmic equilibrium, symbolized by Rama's accession to celestial kingship, make up the epic's finale sequence.
Rama is a cornerstone of society, unlike the deity Krishna, whose divine play (lila) sometimes subverts or ignores established societal standards.
The Ramayana as a whole tends to promote and defend traditional social ideals like as religious obligation (dharma), social hierarchy (varna), and life phases (ashrama).
Rama, the epic's protagonist, embodies all of these ideals.
He is dependable, steady, righteous, and consistent.
In Hindu tradition, Rama is seen as the ideal son, and he demonstrates this by being completely committed to his parents and placing considerably more emphasis on his responsibilities as a son than on his responsibilities as a spouse.
Rama is married and faithful, unlike Krishna, who has countless liaisons with his female followers (bhakta) all in the name of divine play.
When it comes to battle, he is the most fearsome of fighters, embodying the warrior (kshatriya) ethos of utilizing power to preserve justice, protect the good, and punish the bad.
He personifies some of Hindu culture's most deeply ingrained beliefs in all of these ways.
However, there are also disturbing occurrences, especially in the Valmiki Ramayana, the epic's first edition.
These occurrences either show Rama acting out of character or highlight significant contradictions in traditional Hindu norms.
Rama shoots Bali in the back from a hidden location in order to aid monkey-king Sugriva fight his rival Bali, a conduct that is incompatible with the concept of fair and honorable combat.
His activities in upholding the current social order demonstrate the repressive and restricted character of the system.
In one episode, Rama murders a low-status shudra who is seen practicing physical asceticism (tapas), a privilege reserved for his superiors, and pours molten lead into the ears of another shudra who is caught lis tening to the holy Vedas, which is a forbidden act for such a person.
Both episodes demonstrate the hierarchical character of idealized Hindu society, as well as the king's role in maintaining and protecting it.
When Ravana's sister Shurpanakha approaches Rama and his brother Lakshmana, they first deceive and insult her, then mutilate her by chopping off her ears and nose.
Ravana kidnaps Sita in retaliation for these deeds, which appear incompatible with the kshatriya ideal of respect for women and the just use of force.
Rama's treatment of his wife Sita raises some of the most unsettling questions.
She undergoes an ordeal by fire shortly after being freed from servitude, from which she emerges unharmed, proving her assertion that she stayed chaste while imprisoned.
Despite this conclusive evidence, Rama insists on a second test, in which Sita is swallowed by the soil in protest.
As a result, the epic paints a picture of Rama as a character who was virtuous by his time's standards yet strict and uncompromising at times.
This depiction significantly transforms in later versions of the Ramayana, especially the Ramcharitmanas by poet-saint Tulsidas (1532–1623? ), probably in an effort to soften or erase these troubling episodes.
Tulsidas' passage has been altered to emphasize the primacy of devotion (bhakti) above all other religious emotions.
Rama is more clearly shown as God incarnate in Tulsidas' Rama, a person who is conscious of his divine position and whose acts are carried out for the benefit of his believers.
This Rama is still concerned with societal values, especially the kshatriya responsibility to defend and safeguard religious duties (dharma).
The centrality of bhakti, which is depicted as the ultimate religious ideal, is in contrast with — and occasionally in antagonism to — this ethic.
These small modifications in the later text allude to a clash between two opposing ideals—dharma and bhakti—both of which are accepted as necessary.
For more on Rama, see the Ramayana texts (the Valmiki Ramayana, Kamba Ramayana, and Ramcharitmanas) or translations from the Sanskrit puranas, such as Cornelia Dimmitt and J.
A. B. van Buitenen (eds. and trans. ), Classical Hindu Mythology, 1978; secondary sources include V.
