In the city of Ayodhya, King Dasharatha is talking with his ministers about his four sons. Then a great sage comes to the palace door. “Tell the king that Vishvamitra has come,” he says.

The king goes out to meet him, full of joy, and offers him water. “Your coming is like rain on a dry land,” he says. “Tell me why you have come. Whatever it is, I will do it.” The sage is very glad.

“Then keep your promise, O king,” says Vishvamitra. “I am doing a yajna, a holy fire offering. When it is nearly done, two demons, Maricha and Subahu, pour unclean things on my fire. While my yajna goes on, I must not grow angry or curse them.”

“So lend me your eldest son, Rama, the boy with hair as black as a crow’s wing. He can stop those demons, and I will keep him safe. I will give him good gifts. Send him, if Vasishta, your priest, agrees.”

The king shudders and faints. When he wakes, he is afraid. “Rama is not even sixteen,” he says. “He has never fought a battle. I cannot live one moment without him.”

“Take my army instead,” the king says. “I will come myself, bow in hand. Rama was born to me when I was old. But who are these demons?” The sage answers, “Ravana, a mighty demon king, sends them.” The king begs, “Do not take Rama.”

Vishvamitra’s anger flares up like a holy fire when butter is poured on it. “You promised, and now you turn back,” he says. “Then I will go as I came.” The whole earth trembles, and even the gods are afraid.

Then wise Vasishta, the family’s priest, speaks. “King, you are like the god of what is right, here on earth,” he says. “A man who breaks his promise loses all the good he has done. Let go of Rama.”

Vasishta goes on. “No demon can harm Rama while Vishvamitra guards him, as a wall of fire in heaven guards the gods’ nectar, their heavenly drink. He knows every great weapon, and he came to do your son good.” The king’s heart grows calm, and gladly he says yes.

The king brings Rama, and Rama’s brother Lakshmana too. Queen Kausalya, Rama’s mother, blesses Rama first, and then his father does. Vasishta chants holy words for the road. Glad at heart, the king kisses Rama’s forehead and gives him to the sage.

As Rama follows the sage, a soft, clean breeze blows. Flowers fall from the sky, and conch shells sound in Ayodhya. The sage walks first, then Rama, then Lakshmana, bows in hand. The two brothers shine so brightly that they light up every direction.

After a long walk, they reach the bank of the Sarayu river. “Rama, sip some water,” says the sage, “and learn two mantras, bala and atibala. With them you will never be tired, hungry or thirsty. No demon can attack you, even while you sleep.”

Rama touches the water and learns them, his face shining with joy. He glows like the sun in a clear autumn sky. That night they sleep on a bed of grass by the river. The sage’s kind words make the night pleasant.

At dawn the sage calls, “Get up, Rama! The dawn is here.” They walk on to where the Sarayu meets the great river Ganga. There they spend the night with the sages who live between the two rivers. The next morning, those sages bring a boat.

As they cross the Ganga, Rama hears a roar of rushing water. “What is that sound?” he asks. “The Sarayu is crashing into the Ganga,” says the sage. The boys bow to both rivers. On the far bank, they walk into a forest and stay the night.

The next morning, the sage smiles. “I am very pleased with you, Rama.” He gives Rama all the divine weapons, and they come and stand before him. One is the Manava weapon. “Come to my mind when I need you,” Rama says. He learns to call them back, too.

Soon Rama sees a grove like a cloud, full of animals and singing birds. “Whose home is this?” he asks. “Where will the demons come? Where must I guard your yajna?”

“Long ago, the great god Vishnu lived here,” says the sage. “Later he came as Vamana, a small boy, and crossed the three worlds in three steps. This is Siddhashrama, my hermitage, and it is your home too. The demons will come here.”

As they walk in, the sage shines like the moon with two stars beside him. The sages there hurry to greet them. “Begin your yajna today,” Rama says, “and let the word you gave my father come true.” The sage begins, and keeps silent, as his vow asks.

“When will the demons come?” the boys ask. “Guard the yajna for six days and six nights,” the sages say. So the brothers stay awake. Day and night they keep watch by the holy fire with their great bows.

On the sixth day, Rama says, “Lakshmana, be ready!” At once the yajna fire leaps up, high and bright. Then a loud and fearful noise comes from the sky.

Like huge rain clouds, the demons fill the sky. They pour unclean things down on the holy fire. Rama runs and looks up at them. “Watch, Lakshmana,” he says. “The Manava weapon will blow them away, as the wind blows away clouds.”

Rama fits an arrow of the Manava weapon, the sage’s gift, to his bow and lets it fly. It strikes Maricha and carries him a hundred yojanas, into the rolling sea. “See, Lakshmana,” says Rama. “It carries him away, but it does not take his life.”

Rama’s arrows stop Subahu and the other demons, and the sages praise him. “My yajna is done,” says Vishvamitra. “You have made your father’s word come true, and mine.” That night the brothers rest, glad at heart. In the morning, they set off north with the sage, toward the Ganga.