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120, it was decided in Queen Kaikeyi's chambers that Bharata must be the Yuvaraja and that Rama must go into exile for fourteen years.

Rama was too obedient and dutiful to resist or even to resent this decision. His faithful half-brother Lakshmana accompanied him, and the gentle Sita would not hear of parting from her lord. Amidst the tears and lamentations of the people of Ayodhya, Rama and Sita and Lakshmana went from Kosala's capital.

The exiles first found their way to the hermitage of Bharadvaja in Prayaga, or Allahabad, and then to that of Valmiki in Chitrakuta, somewhere in modern Bundelkhand. Valmiki is reputed to be the author of the epic Ramayana, just as Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa, the compiler of the Vedas, is said to be the author of the Mahabharata.

Dasaratha died of grief for Rama. The youthful Bharata proceeded at once to Chitrakuta, informed Rama of their father's death, and implored him to return. But Rama felt himself bound by the promise he had made, and it was agreed that he should return after fourteen years and then ascend the throne. Bharata hastened back to Ayodhya, and leaving Chitrakuta, Rama wandered for thirteen years in the Dandaka forest and toward the sources of the Godavari among jungles and non-Aryan tribes, for Southern India had not yet been colonized by the Aryans.

Meanwhile Ravana, the monster King of Lanka, or Ceylon, and of Southern India, heard of the beauty of Sita, who now dwelt in the jungles, and in the