The bow in Mithila
Episode 4 of 20 in Ramayana: Valmiki's story, told gently.
Narrated with an AI voice.
- Reading time
- 6 min
- Listening time
- 9 min
- By
- DharmikStudio Originals
- Narration
- AI voice
Read along
Namaste. Welcome back. Last time Rama and Lakshmana walked with the sage Vishwamitra, learned the Bala and Atibala, and at Gautama's ashram Rama bowed to Ahalya. Now they have reached **Mithila**, the city of King **Janaka**.
One breath together. In. And out.
**
Janaka is a king, but he is also known as a man of deep learning and a quiet, steady mind. He is in the middle of a great yajna, and the city is full of sages and guests. When he hears that Vishwamitra has come, he walks out to receive him with his priest **Shatananda**, and he notices the two young men beside the sage. Who are these boys, he asks, who walk like lions and look like gods?
Vishwamitra tells him. These are the sons of Dasharatha. They have protected my yajna, and they have come to see your bow.
Shatananda, by the way, is Ahalya's son. When he hears that Rama honoured his mother and that she is with his father again, he is overjoyed, and he thanks Vishwamitra again and again. It is a small, warm moment. A son hearing good news about his mother.
**
The next morning Janaka tells them the story of the bow.
Long ago, he says, this was the bow of **Shiva**. The gods gave it to one of my ancestors, King **Devarata**, to keep, and it has been worshipped in our family ever since.
And then he tells another story, and his voice changes, the way a father's voice changes when he speaks of his child.
Once, he says, I was ploughing a field to prepare the ground for a yajna. As the plough turned the earth, a baby girl rose up from the furrow. I took her as my own daughter. Because she came from the furrow, the **sita** of the plough, we named her **Sita**. She was not born from a mother's womb. She came to me from the earth.
I decided that she would be given in marriage only to someone who showed real strength, and I set a test. Whoever can string Shiva's bow. Many kings have come. Not one has been able even to lift it.
Vishwamitra says, show the bow to Rama.
**
Janaka sends for it. It is kept in a great iron chest on eight wheels, and the poem says it takes five thousand strong men to pull it into the hall. The chest is set down. People gather, whispering.
Rama looks at Vishwamitra. With the sage's permission, he opens the chest. He looks at the bow for a moment. Then, in front of thousands of people, he lifts it as if it were light, bends it, and strings it. As he draws the string back to his ear, the bow breaks in the middle.
The sound is like thunder, like a mountain splitting. The poem says everyone in the hall falls down in shock, except four people. Vishwamitra, Janaka, Rama and Lakshmana.
Janaka joins his hands and speaks. I have seen the strength of Dasharatha's son. My Sita will marry Rama. My promise is kept.
**
Here I want to add something many of you will remember. In the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas, Rama and Sita first see each other in a flower garden before the bow ceremony, and the whole event is sung as Sita's **swayamvara**. Those scenes are much loved. In Valmiki the telling is simpler. There is no garden meeting, and the bow is a test set by a father. Both tellings sit side by side in our homes, and each has its own sweetness.
**
Janaka sends fast riders to Ayodhya. After three nights on the road, they arrive. Dasharatha hears the news with great joy and sets out at once with Vasishtha, the ministers and a great procession.
In Mithila the two families meet. Vasishtha recites the long line of the Ikshvaku kings, one after another. Janaka recites the line of his own family. And then Janaka makes an offer that brings the two houses even closer. He gives his second daughter, **Urmila**, to Lakshmana. And Vishwamitra suggests that the two daughters of Janaka's brother **Kushadhvaja**, **Mandavi** and **Shrutakirti**, should marry Bharata and Shatrughna. Everyone agrees happily. Four brothers from one house, four sisters from another. It is hard to imagine a happier day for two families.
On the wedding day, Janaka places Sita, dressed in all her jewels, before the sacred fire, and speaks to Rama. These are words that many families still say at weddings.
**इयं सीता मम सुता सहधर्मचरी तव** (iyaṃ sītā mama sutā sahadharmacarī tava)
"This is Sita, my daughter. She will walk the path of dharma with you." Take her hand in yours, Janaka says, and may all be well with you.
The four brothers walk around the fire with their brides, and flowers fall from the sky, the poem says, and music plays in the heavens.
**
The next morning Vishwamitra blesses them all and leaves for the northern mountains. The families set out for Ayodhya.
On the road, the birds cry out strangely and the wind rises. And there appears **Parashurama**, the warrior sage, with an axe on his shoulder and a bow in his hand. He has heard about the breaking of Shiva's bow, and he has come to test Rama. Dasharatha is afraid and begs him to spare his sons.
Parashurama holds out another bow, the bow of Vishnu, and says, if you are so strong, string this one.
Rama takes it calmly from his hands, strings it, and sets an arrow to it. Then he asks Parashurama gently where the arrow should go, since a drawn arrow cannot be wasted. At that moment Parashurama understands who Rama truly is. His pride falls away. He lets the arrow take away the merit of the worlds he had won, walks around Rama with respect, and goes back to the Mahendra mountain in peace.
I love that it ends without anyone being hurt. Two strong men meet, one recognises the other, and they part in respect.
**
The procession reaches Ayodhya. The city is decorated, the queens welcome their four new daughters. A little while later Bharata leaves with Shatrughna to visit his mother's family in the kingdom of **Kekaya**. Keep that in mind. He will be far away when the storm comes.
And Valmiki ends the Bala Kanda with a quiet line about Rama and Sita. Their love grew each day, he says. Sita was dear to Rama, and her heart understood his even when he did not speak.
**
Let us gather what we heard tonight.
King Janaka told how he found baby Sita in a furrow while ploughing ground for a yajna, and how he promised her to whoever could string Shiva's bow. Rama lifted and strung the bow, and it broke with a sound like thunder. Rama and Sita, Lakshmana and Urmila, Bharata and Mandavi, and Shatrughna and Shrutakirti were married, and on the way home Parashurama's challenge ended in peace.
**One thing to take with you.** Before he touched the bow, Rama looked at his teacher and waited for his nod. Strength did not make him forget respect. This week, before you take on something big, pause and thank one person who helped you get there.
In our next sitting, Ayodhya prepares for a joyful morning, and one conversation in a queen's chamber changes everything.
**
**Credits (read out):** Written by the DharmikStudio team from the Sanskrit text of the Valmiki Ramayana, Bala Kanda. Narrated with an AI voice. If you hear a mistake, please use "Report a mistake" on this episode.