King Dasharatha wanted Rama to succeed him, but he worried Rama would renounce the world and become a forest rishi. So, he sent Vashishtha, the royal priest, to investigate.

"Tell me, Rama," Vashishtha said, "do you want to renounce the world?"

Rama stared at the priest thoughtfully in silence.

"Do you want to renounce God?" Vashishtha continued.

Rama understood: to renounce the world would be like renouncing God. "Now I see," he said, smiling. "God has become all things everywhere, in the palace and in the forest." Then he added, "Tell my father I am ready to be Ayodhya's king."

When Kaikeyi's maid Manthara heard that King Dasharatha planned to make Rama king, she poisoned Kaikeyi's mind against him.

"Kaushalya will be Queen Mother. You'll be her servant," Manthara hissed, "and your son Bharata will be Rama's servant. Use the boons that Dasharatha promised you: make him exile Rama and crown Bharata king instead."

Kaikeyi confronted Dasharatha. "I demand my two boons!" she said. "You promised!"

The king begged her to relent, but Kaikeyi insisted.

"I am bound to do what you ask," said Dasharatha, stricken with grief.

Thus he sent Rama into exile and agreed to make Bharata king.

When King Dasharatha sent Rama into exile, Rama did not protest.

"A king's promises must be kept," said Rama.

"I'll go with you!" shouted Lakshmana.

"And I will go also," added Sita.

"It's too dangerous, Sita," said Rama.

But Sita insisted. "I am your wife, and I will go with you."

Then Lakshmana's wife Urmila said, "I will go also!"

"I can't protect both my brother and my wife," said Lakshmana. "You will help me most if you stay here."

Urmila wept bitterly, but she did as Lakshmana asked.

Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana went into exile together.

Urmila stayed behind.

Wearing clothes of bark, Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana began their exile. A charioteer drove them to the river, while the people of Ayodhya followed.

"Go home, men and women of Ayodhya!" Rama said. But the people did not leave.

In the night, Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana departed while the people slept. Guha, the chief of the fisher people, ferried them across the river in his boat.

In the morning, the men and the women of Ayodhya saw Rama was gone, and they returned home as Rama had commanded.

The hijras, being neither men nor women, waited devoutly until Rama returned.

During the first night of exile, Rama and Sita went to sleep, while Lakshmana watched over them.

The goddess of sleep, Nidra-Devi, appeared before Lakshmana. "You must sleep," the goddess said.

"I cannot," Lakshmana replied. "I must protect my brother and his wife."

"Then someone else must sleep for you," said the goddess.

"Go ask my wife, Urmila," said Lakshmana. "She stayed behind in Ayodhya."

The goddess spoke to Urmila, and Urmila agreed to sleep in Lakshmana's place. So for all the years of exile, Lakshmana did not need to sleep.

Urmila slept both night and day for her husband.

After Rama departed into exile, Dasharatha was grief-stricken, unable to leave his bed.

"There was a boy," he said in his delirium, remembering the boy he had shot, the son of the blind parents. "All my fault. That is why I have lost Rama."

Tossing and turning, Dasharatha repeated, "Rama. Rama. Rama."

Sitting by Dasharatha's bedside through the night, Sumitra and Kaushalya fell asleep. In the morning, they discovered the king was dead.

All Ayodhya was plunged into grief.

Bharata and Shatrughna were away in Kekaya with their grandfather, and they did not know what had happened in their absence.

When Bharata and Shatrughna returned, they learned that Kaikeyi had sent Rama into exile at Manthara's urging.

"But why did Rama agree to this madness?" exclaimed Shatrughna.

Then he saw Manthara, looking ridiculous in a fine new gown and fancy jewelry.

He grabbed her by the hair. "You'll die for this!" he shouted, dragging her across the floor towards Bharata. "Kill her, brother!" he shouted.

"No," Bharata replied. "Wicked as she is, she is a woman, and women are not to be killed. Otherwise, I would kill my own mother for her wicked deed. Rama forgave them; so must we."

Bharata and Shatrughna went to see Rama in the forest, bringing news of their father's death.

"He was so angry at my mother that he wanted Shatrughna to perform the funeral, not me," Bharata explained, weeping.

"And even after the funeral," said Shatrughna, "his spirit is restless. He won't cross the river of death and comes to me in dreams, demanding that we hunt a wild rhino, his four sons, together."

So Dasharatha's sons hunted and killed a rhino.

A flock of crows feasted on the carcass, and this appeased the spirit of Dasharatha; he no longer troubled Shatrughna's dreams.

Bharata begged Rama to end his exile. "Return to Ayodhya now," he said. "Be our king!"

"I cannot," Rama insisted. "I must remain true to our father's promise, even in death."

"Then let me stay here with you!"

"You cannot," Rama said. "Ayodhya must have a ruler."

"I'll rule, but as regent only," Bharata agreed. "You will return and be our king."

Bharata then handed Rama the king's golden sandals. Rama put on the sandals, took them off, and handed them to Bharata.

Bharata returned to Ayodhya and placed the golden sandals on the throne, waiting for Rama to return.

When Bharata came to beg Rama to return to Ayodhya, Manthara accompanied him.

"Forgive me, Rama!" she said.

"There is nothing to forgive," Rama replied. "Listen: in a previous lifetime you were a celestial gandharvi. You accepted birth as a mortal so that Dasharatha's eldest son would be sent into the forest."

Manthara was even more surprised by what Rama said next. "We will meet again, Manthara! You will be a woman, hunched over as now, and your name will be Kubja. My name will be Krishna. When I embrace you in that next lifetime, your back will become straight."