Rama

===Birth===
[[File:PM at the Pran Pratishtha ceremony of Shree Ram Janmaboomi Temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh on January 22, 2024 (cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Balak Ram]], the 5-year old form of Rama, is the principal deity of the [[Ram Mandir]] in [[Ram Janmabhoomi]]]]
The ancient epic ''Ramayana'' states in the ''Balakanda'' that Rama and his brothers were born to Kaushalya and Dasharatha in [[Ayodhya]], a city on the banks of [[Sarayu River (Ayodhya)|Sarayu River]].<ref name="Guruge1991p51" /><ref>[https://archive.org/stream/ShrimadValmikiRamayan-SanskritTextWithHindiTranslation-DpSharma10/ShrimadValmikiRamayan-SktHindi-DpSharmaVol01-BalaKanda1927#page/n177/mode/2up ''Valmiki Ramayana''], ''Bala Kanda''</ref> The Jain versions of the ''Ramayana'', such as the ''Paumacariya'' (literally deeds of Padma) by Vimalasuri, also mention the details of the early life of Rama. The Jain texts are dated variously, but generally pre-500 CE, most likely sometime within the first five centuries of the common era.<ref name="cort313">{{cite book|author=Cort|first=John|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MDBpq23-0QoC|title=Framing the Jina: Narratives of Icons and Idols in Jain History|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2010|isbn=978-0-19-973957-8|pages=313 note 9}}</ref> [[Moriz Winternitz]] states that the ''Valmiki Ramayana'' was already famous before it was recast in the Jain ''Paumacariya'' poem, dated to the second half of the 1st century CE, which pre-dates a similar retelling found in the ''Buddha-carita'' of Asvagosa, dated to the beginning of the 2nd century CE or prior.<ref>{{cite book|first=Moriz|last=Winternitz|author-link=Moriz Winternitz|title=A History of Indian Literature, Volume 1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JRfuJFRV_O8C&pg=PA491|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited|isbn=81-208-0264-0|year=1981|pages=491–492|access-date=19 May 2020|archive-date=31 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240131062238/https://books.google.com/books?id=JRfuJFRV_O8C&pg=PA491#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Dasharatha]] was the king of [[Kosala]], and a part of the [[Kshatriya]] [[solar dynasty]] of [[Ikshvaku|Iksvaku]]s. His mother's name [[Kausalya|Kaushalya]] literally implies that she was from Kosala. The kingdom of Kosala is also mentioned in [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] and [[Jain literature|Jain texts]], as one of the sixteen ''[[Mahajanapadas|Maha janapadas]]'' of [[ancient India]], and as an important center of pilgrimage for Jains and Buddhists.<ref name="Guruge1991p51">{{cite book|author=A. W. P. Guruge |title=The Society of the Ramayana |url=https://archive.org/details/trent_0116402264364 |url-access=registration |year=1991|publisher=Abhinav Publications|isbn=978-81-7017-265-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/trent_0116402264364/page/51 51]–54}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=John Cort|title=Framing the Jina: Narratives of Icons and Idols in Jain History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MDBpq23-0QoC|year=2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-973957-8|pages=160–162, 196, 314 note 14, 318 notes 57–58}}, Quote (p. 314): "(...) Kosala was the kingdom centered on Ayodhya, in what is now east-central Uttar Pradesh."</ref> However, there is a scholarly dispute whether the modern Ayodhya is indeed the same as the Ayodhya and Kosala mentioned in the ''Ramayana'' and other ancient Indian texts.<ref name="veer157">{{cite book|author=Peter van der Veer|title=Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p29ArJ7j6zgC&pg=PA157|year=1994|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-08256-4|pages=157–162}}</ref>{{refn|group=lower-greek|Kosala is mentioned in many Buddhist texts and travel memoirs. The Buddha idol of Kosala is important in the Theravada Buddhism tradition, and one that is described by the 7th-century Chinese pilgrim Xuanzhang. He states in his memoir that the statue stands in the capital of Kosala then called Shravasti, midst ruins of a large monastery. He also states that he brought back to China two replicas of the Buddha, one of the Kosala icon of Udayana and another the Prasenajit icon of Prasenajit.<ref>{{cite book|author=John Cort|title=Framing the Jina: Narratives of Icons and Idols in Jain History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MDBpq23-0QoC|year=2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-973957-8|pages=194–200, 318 notes 57–58}}</ref>}}

Rama's birth, according to ''Ramayana'', is an incarnation of God (''Vishnu'') as human. When demigods went to ''Brahma'' to seek liberation from Ravana's menace on the Earth (due to powers he had from Brahma's boon to him), ''Vishnu'' himself appeared and said he will incarnate as ''Rama'' (human) and kill ''Ravana'' (since ''Brahma''<nowiki/>'s boon made him invincible from all, including God, except humans).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rosen |first=Steven |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/70775665 |title=Essential Hinduism |date=2006 |publisher=Praeger |isbn=0-275-99006-0 |location=Westport, Conn. |pages=68–69 |oclc=70775665 |access-date=9 April 2023 |archive-date=31 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240131062808/https://search.worldcat.org/title/70775665 |url-status=live }}</ref>