The Princes' First Adventure

The king was very agitated and upset. He turned to his trusted counsellor, Vasishta, for help. The counsellor knew the prince Ram well for he was also the prince's teacher. He advised the king to send Ram with Vishwamitra because he was confident that no harm would befall the young prince. On the contrary, the prince would benefit and learn many useful things in the time spent with the sage. He reminded Dashratha that he could not break his promise and offend the great sage.

And so Ram left the palace of Ayodhya to accompany the sage Vishwamitra. Prince Laxman insisted on accompanying his older brother.

When they reached Vishwamitra's hermitage in the forest, he showed them a huge arsenal of weapons gifted to the sage by the gods as a reward for his severe penance. An array of shields, spears, bows and arrows, tridents lay spread out before their eyes. The sage trained Ram and Laxman in the use of these mighty weapons.

The day of the sacred ritual dawned. Ram and Laxman kept watch day and night, without sleeping a wink. Suddenly, on the last day of the ritual, the sky darkened and two fierce demons appeared. Ram crushed the first with a wind missile that hurled the demon a distance of 800 miles. A flaming discus put an end to the second demon. Laxman vanquished the lesser demons. Vishwamitra was pleased and invited the young princes to go with him to visit King Janak in the neighbouring kingdom of Mithila.