Devalok
From the epics · 2 tellings · North India, Pan-India

Rama breaks Shiva's bow

At Janaka's court in Mithila no king can lift the bow of Shiva that is Sita's bride-price; the young Rama lifts it, strings it and breaks it in two, and wins Sita. Tulsidas sets it at a crowded contest, and brings in Parashurama, furious at the sound.

Who is in it

Places: Mithila, Janakpur · Texts: Valmiki Ramayana, Ramcharitmanas

The story, beat by beat

  1. Vishvamitra brings Rama and Lakshmana to Janaka's sacrifice at Mithila.
  2. Janaka tells how he found Sita in a furrow and keeps Shiva's bow, which no suitor has lifted, as her bride-price.
  3. The bow is wheeled in on a great cart; Rama lifts it, strings it and draws it, and it breaks with a sound like thunder.
  4. Janaka gives Sita to Rama.
  5. In Tulsidas the bow is broken before an assembly of kings, Sita garlands Rama, and Parashurama comes raging until he knows who Rama is.

marriage strength bow humility

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Primary text (translation)

Valmiki Ramayana, Bala Kanda 66 to 67

Pan-India Vaishnava

Janaka tells the visitors how the gods gave Shiva's bow to his ancestor and how he found Sita in a furrow as he ploughed the sacrificial ground. Kings came for her and could not lift the bow; they made war on him and lost. Vishvamitra asks that Rama see it. Five thousand men drag it in on an eight-wheeled cart. Rama lifts it easily, strings it, and draws it to the ear, and it snaps with a noise like thunder that throws everyone but the king, the sage and the princes to the ground. Janaka gives Sita to Rama, and messengers ride to Ayodhya for Dasharatha.

The Ramayan of Valmiki, tr. Ralph T. H. Griffith (1870 to 1874)

Popular retelling

Tulsidas, Ramcharitmanas, Bala Kand

North India Vaishnava

Tulsidas makes the bow a public trial at Janakpur, with kings from everywhere failing to move it and Janaka in despair that the earth has no heroes left. Rama and Sita have already seen each other in the garden. Rama breaks the bow almost before anyone sees him lift it; Sita puts the garland on him. Then Parashurama arrives, having heard the sound, raging at whoever broke his master's bow, and Lakshmana mocks him until Rama answers gently; Parashurama hands him his own bow, it strings itself to Rama, and he goes away to the forest.

Ramcharitmanas, Wikipedia

Sources: The Ramayan of Valmiki, tr. Ralph T. H. Griffith (1870 to 1874); Ramcharitmanas, Wikipedia

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