Rama hears the people of Ayodhya say a king should not take back a wife who lived in another man's house. He has Lakshmana leave Sita by the Ganga; she sends word that she was abandoned for what the people say and not for any wrong. Valmiki takes her in; she bears Kusha and Lava, and the poet teaches them his poem. Years later the boys sing it at Rama's horse sacrifice, and Rama knows them. Valmiki brings Sita. Rama says he was sure of her but feared the people. Sita, dressed in ochre, joins her hands and says that if she has thought of no one but Rama, let Madhavi the Earth give her a place. A throne rises carried by nagas, the Earth takes her in her arms and seats her, and they sink; flowers fall from the sky.
The Ramayan of Valmiki, tr. Ralph T. H. Griffith (Project Gutenberg 24869); Valmiki Ramayana, Uttara Kanda 97, tr. H. P. Shastri (wisdomlib)
Sources: The Ramayan of Valmiki, tr. Ralph T. H. Griffith (Project Gutenberg 24869); Valmiki Ramayana, Uttara Kanda 97, tr. H. P. Shastri (wisdomlib)
Hanuman leaps the ocean to Lanka, passing the mountain Mainaka, the serpent mother Surasa and the shadow-catcher Simhika, searches the city by night, finds Sita in the Ashoka grove and gives her Rama's ring, then lets himself be caught and burns Lanka with his own tail.
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.
On the first night of the exile Rama reaches the Ganga at Shringaverapura, where the Nishada king Guha welcomes him and ferries him across. In Tulsidas the boatman will not let him into the boat until he has washed his feet, in case their dust turns the boat into a woman.
King Janaka, ploughing the ground for a sacrifice, finds a baby girl in the furrow and names her Sita, the furrow; long before, the Rigveda prayed to Sita the furrow herself, for good harvests.
After the war Rama tells Sita before the assembly that he fought for his honour, not for her; she answers him and walks into a pyre, and Agni himself carries her out unburnt; later tellings say the woman in Lanka was only her shadow and the real Sita had waited in the fire.
Rama worships Shiva as a linga on the island of Rameswaram — before the bridge in the Ramayana, or after Ravana's death to expiate the killing of a brahmin in temple tradition, where Sita's sand linga and Hanuman's linga from Kailasa stand side by side.
Rama wishes to worship Shiva on the island before crossing to Lanka, or after killing Ravana, to be cleansed of killing a brahmin.
Vishnu offers a thousand lotuses and his own eye at Kashi; Rama raises a sand linga at Rameswaram before crossing to Lanka; the full record is I-10 in the interactions file.