Ramáyana II: Ayodhya

The king decides to abdicate in favor of Rama; but just as the celebrations reach their climax, a court intrigue forces Rama and Sita into fourteen years banishment; they dutifully accept their fate, and go off to the jungle. The other brothers refuse to benefit from his misfortune, which leaves nobody to run the city; eventually one of them is persuaded to act as regent, but only consents to do so on condition that he lives outside the city and acts in Rama's name.
"Ay�dhya" is Book Two of Valm�ki's national Indian epic, The Ram�yana. The young hero Rama sets out willingly from the capital with wife and brother for a fourteen-year banishment, which will entail great suffering and further difficult choices in the books ahead. Of the seven books of this great Sanskrit epic, "Ay�dhya" is the most human, and it remains one of the best introductions to the social and political values of traditional India.
Co-published by New York University Press and the JJC Foundation
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