The Road to Mithilā

From the Siddhāśrama, Viśvāmitra took the princes to Mithilā, where King Janaka was holding a sacrifice and kept a great bow. On the way he told them the stories of the lands they passed, of his own line and his sister, and of the Gaṅgā and the sons of Sagara, and he led Rāma into the hermitage of the sage Gautama. There Gautama's wife Ahalyā had lived for thousands of years, unseen by any creature, living on air, under her husband's curse, because when Indra came to her in Gautama's form she knew him and lay with him. When Rāma came, the curse ended, and she was seen again and welcomed the princes as her guests.

At Mithilā, Janaka welcomed them and asked what he could do for the sage, and Viśvāmitra told him that the two princes wished to see the bow. Janaka told them the bow's story, and told them that he had promised his daughter Sītā only to the man strong enough to string it; many kings had come, and none could even lift it. Viśvāmitra said to him, Show the bow to Rāma. Five thousand strong men wheeled in the iron chest on its eight wheels, and Rāma lifted the bow and strung it, and it broke in the middle with a sound like a thunderclap. So Rāma won Sītā.

Rāma's three brothers were married too, Lakṣmaṇa to Sītā's sister Ūrmilā and the other two to her cousins, the daughters of Janaka's brother. When the weddings were over and the night had passed, Viśvāmitra took leave of the two kings, Daśaratha and Janaka, and went away to the northern mountain.