While Rama grew toward manhood in Ayodhya, a second thread of the story was being spun in the neighbouring kingdom of Mithila, ruled by the sage-king Janaka — a man so given to wisdom that he is remembered as a rajarshi, a royal seer, a king who ruled while remaining inwardly free.

Janaka's daughter had come to him by a marvel. While ploughing a field in preparation for a sacrifice, the king's blade had turned up an infant girl from the furrow itself. He named her Sita — a word that means precisely that, "the furrow" — and raised her as his own. Born not of a womb but of the earth, she is understood in the tradition as Bhumija, daughter of the earth-goddess, and as an avatara of Lakshmi, Vishnu's eternal consort, descended to accompany him in his human birth. Her composure, her rootedness, her quiet unbreakable strength all flow from this origin.

In Janaka's keeping rested an extraordinary bow, the Pinaka, the bow of Shiva, entrusted to his ancestors. So vast and heavy was it that no ordinary man could shift it. Janaka set it as the condition of his daughter's marriage: only the suitor who could lift and string this bow was worthy of Sita.

Rama came to Mithila in the company of the sage Vishvamitra, who had already led the young prince through his first trials against the demons of the forest. At the assembly of suitors, prince after prince failed even to budge the weapon. Then Rama approached. The Ramayana lingers on the moment: he lifts the bow with grace, draws it to string it — and the bow, unable to bear that strength, snaps with a report like a thunderclap that is heard for leagues.

The breaking of Shiva's bow is more than a feat of arms. It signals that here, in this one man, divine power and perfect restraint meet. Sita garlands him in the rite of svayamvara, and the marriage of Rama and Sita is celebrated — the union, the tradition says, of Vishnu and Lakshmi walking the earth in human form. Yet the snapped bow carries a shadow too: its sound will draw the wrath of Parashurama, and far ahead, in a southern forest, Sita's earth-born serenity will be tested past all bearing.