01Into the Dandaka
The rishis of the Dandaka came out of their ashramas to see Rama and greeted him as their king, though he carried no crown. On the first day the rakshasa Viradha seized Sita; the brothers broke his arms and buried him in a pit, and he rose freed from a curse as the gandharva Tumburu. Maharshi Sharabhanga waited only to see Rama and then entered the fire.
The ascetics showed Rama a field of bones, the remains of sages eaten by rakshasas, and Rama gave his word to protect them. Sita gently questioned whether he should carry arms in a forest of peace against those who had done him no wrong. He answered that a kshatriya who has given his word to the helpless may give up his life, or her, or Lakshmana, but not that word.
02Ten years and Agastya
Ten years passed going from ashrama to ashrama, a few months here, a year there. Then Rama went south to Maharshi Agastya, who had once drunk the ocean and made the Vindhya bow. Agastya gave him the bow of Vishnu made by Vishvakarma, an arrow given by Brahma, two quivers that never empty and a sword in a golden sheath.
He told Rama to live at Panchavati on the Godavari, a place of flowers and deer and clear water, two yojanas away. On the road an enormous vulture stopped them. He was Jatayu, friend of Dasharatha, and he offered to guard Sita whenever the brothers were away. Panchavati is still shown at Nashik, where the Kalaram temple stands near the five banyans.
03Shurpanakha and Janasthana
Lakshmana built the hut at Panchavati and winter came. One day Ravana’s sister Shurpanakha saw Rama and wanted him. Rama said he was married and teased her towards Lakshmana, who teased her back. She rushed at Sita to devour her, and at Rama’s word Lakshmana cut off her nose and ears.
She ran screaming to her brother Khara at Janasthana. He sent fourteen rakshasas, then came himself with Dushana, Trishira and fourteen thousand. Rama sent Lakshmana with Sita into a cave and met the whole army alone. In a muhurta and a half, Valmiki says, about seventy minutes, it was over. Akampana, one survivor, fled to Lanka, and Shurpanakha followed, describing Sita to Ravana as a prize fit for him.
04Maricha and the golden deer
Ravana went to Maricha, the same Maricha Rama had flung into the sea years before, now living as an ascetic. Maricha begged him to turn back. “Rama is dharma in a body,” he said, and he still trembled at the memory of that arrow. Ravana threatened to kill him on the spot, and Maricha chose death at Rama’s hand.
He became a golden deer dappled with silver and grazed near the hut. Sita wanted it. Lakshmana said plainly that no such deer exists and it must be Maricha. Rama went anyway, chased it far into the forest, and shot it. Dying, Maricha took his own shape and cried out in Rama’s voice, “Ha Sita! Ha Lakshmana!”
05The empty hut
Sita heard the cry and begged Lakshmana to go. He refused: no being in the three worlds could harm Rama, and his brother had told him not to leave her. Frightened, she said terrible things, accusing him of wanting her for himself. Lakshmana, stung, joined his palms, commended her to the devas of the forest and went.
Valmiki’s Lakshmana draws no line on the ground. The Lakshmana Rekha comes from later tellings; Tulsidas has Mandodari remind Ravana that he could not cross even the little line Rama’s brother drew. Ravana came as a wandering sannyasi asking for alms. Sita offered him water and food as a guest. Then he showed his ten-headed form and seized her.
06Jatayu
Jatayu was asleep in a tree when Sita’s cries woke him. He was sixty thousand years old, he told Ravana, and Ravana was young, armed and in a chariot, but he would not let a woman be carried off while he lived. He smashed the chariot, killed the asses that drew it and the charioteer, and tore at Ravana with beak and claws until Ravana cut off his wings and feet.
Ravana rose into the sky holding Sita. Over a hill she saw five vanaras sitting, and dropped her ornaments wrapped in her yellow upper cloth among them. In Lanka he showed her his gold, offered her his kingdom, and when she refused him he set her in the Ashoka grove under guard of rakshasis and gave her twelve months.
07Rama’s grief, Kabandha, Shabari
Rama met Lakshmana on the path and knew at once. The empty hut broke him. He asked the trees and the Godavari where she had gone. They found Jatayu dying in his blood; he told them Ravana had taken her south, and died. Rama cremated him with the rites due to a father.
Further on, the headless giant Kabandha caught them in his arms. They cut them off, and freed from a curse he told them to make friends with Sugriva on Rishyamuka hill. Last came Shabari, the old disciple of Matanga, who had waited at Pampa for years because her gurus told her Rama would come. She gave him fruits she had gathered and then entered the fire to join them. The berries she tastes first belong to later devotion.
Famous verses
रामो विग्रहवान् धर्मः साधुः सत्यपराक्रमः। राजा सर्वस्य लोकस्य देवानामिव वासवः॥
Maricha warning Ravana: Rama is dharma in bodily form, good, his strength is truth. He is king of the whole world, as Indra is of the devas.Valmiki Ramayana, Aranya Kanda 37.13