The Birth and Education of Rama, Lakshmana and Their Brothers

Asleep in her jewel-studded palace, Queen Aparajita, also called Kaushalya, saw in the last watch of the night four wondrous dreams that herald the conception of a great soul: a white elephant like Indra's Airavata, a mighty lion, the sun and the full moon. King Dasharatha, a master of the science of omens, told her she would bear a mighty son bound for moksha (liberation), a conqueror of inner foes such as attachment, aversion and delusion and of outer foes, the wicked kings who trouble the people, and the couple then performed great worship in the Jina temples.

Kaushalya gave birth to Rama, and Dasharatha held a great festival, giving away abundant wealth to supplicants and keeping back only his royal umbrella, chowries and throne. Because the child's complexion was like the rising sun, his eyes like lotuses and his chest embraced by Lakshmi (the goddess of fortune), his parents and the whole family named him Padma (lotus).

Queen Sumitra then dreamt of a great lion, of Lakshmi and Kirti (the goddesses of fortune and fame) bathing her from pitchers of pure water covered with lotus leaves, of herself seated on a high mountain peak surveying the earth to the ocean, of the blazing sun and of a chakra (discus) studded with jewels, and Dasharatha foretold a famous son of matchless strength who would destroy hosts of enemies. After nine months she bore a radiant son, on whose birthday thousands of calamities struck Ravana's city while auspicious events filled the cities of friends, and because he was dark and lovely as a blue lotus and bore auspicious marks (lakshanas), he was named Lakshmana.

With coral-red lips, hands and feet like red lotuses and soft, fragrant bodies, the two princes, smeared with sandal paste and marked with saffron, looked like the white Vijayardha mountain and the dark Anjana mountain side by side, and their love, grown through many births, was like that of the moon and the sun. Charming the queens, the townsfolk and the court alike and served by many warriors and princes, they behaved like Vijaya and Triprishtha, the Baladeva and Vasudeva of former times.

Kaikeyi bore Bharata, divinely handsome and renowned on earth, and Suprabha bore Shatrughna, the conqueror of foes; Rama is also called Padma and Baladeva, and Lakshmana is called Hari, Vasudeva and Ardhachakri (half-chakravarti). Dasharatha's four queens were like the four directions, and he summoned worthy teachers to train his four sons, deep as the ocean and steady as mountains, in both weapons and scripture.

In Kampilya lived the Brahmin Shivi and his wife Ishu, whose son Ari, spoiled by their indulgence, grew unruly and learned nothing, so they turned him out of the house to study abroad. In Rajagriha he became the finest of the thousands of pupils of the archery master Vaivasvata, and King Kushagra of that city, whose own son studied under Vaivasvata, was angered to hear that a foreign Brahmin's son outshone the prince.

Warned by his teacher, Ari shot like a novice when the king reviewed the pupils, so Kushagra decided the praise had been false and sent Vaivasvata home; Vaivasvata married his daughter to Ari, who came with his wife by night to Ayodhya, showed his archery to Dasharatha and was made archery teacher to the four princes. They mastered archery and many other sciences, which unfolded in them like jewels uncovered, and the delighted Dasharatha honoured their teachers and gave them more wealth than they had wished for.