Bhagavad Gita · Mahabharata Codex

Rama

राम · rāma

Prince of Ayodhya; hero of the Ramayana

He gave up a throne on the morning of his coronation to keep his father's word.

Rama, born in the line of Ikshvaku, is the hero of the other great Sanskrit epic. Exiled to the forest for fourteen years through no fault of his own, he went without complaint. When the demon king Ravana abducted his wife Sita, he crossed the sea with an army of monkeys, Hanuman among them, and won her back. He is revered as the model king and, like Krishna, as a descent of Vishnu.