The story starts off with Narada asking Valmiki to get up and help him Sita needs help. She is about to drown herself, since Rama exiled her due to what people were saying about her. Narada tells him to rescue her and teach the Ramayana to Rama's two unborn sons, who are still in Sita's womb. Valmiki following Narada's instruction teaches the original Ramayana in the poem form to Kusha and Lava, Rama's two sons. Rama organizes a festival in the forest and Kusha and Lava happen to here about it. So, they decide to perform the poem they have learned from Valmiki there.
King Dashratha asks the priest, Vasishtha, what he can do about not being blessed with children. He advises the king to have a religious sacrifice. At this same time, Indra mad because of his defeat to Ravana goes and complains to Brahma, who granted Ravana's boon of protection from gods and underworld demons. Brahma says he has no answers and Indra should go to talk to Narayana or Vishnu. Vishnu tells Indra not to worry and that he will answer Dashratha's sacrifice and also help Indra by incarnating as Dashratha's sons and defeating Ravana. With the sacrifice being completed, Dashratha becomes the proud father of Rama, Bharatha, Lakshmana, and Shataruga.
One day Vishwamitra comes by and asks Dashratha for a favor. He tells him that he is going to be needing assistance because some demons and rakshasas had been disrupting his prayers in the forest. One question that immediately came to King Dasharatha's mind is how did these Rakshasas come about? So Vishwamitra tells Dashratha the story of how Brahma created the Rakshasas and Yakshasas to guard the water. Eventually there becomes too many rakshasas, and they start to get themselves in trouble and flee underground due to Narayana's attack on them.
A sage named Pulastya impregnated the daughter of hermit Trinavindu due to a curse he had placed. Their son is named Vishvarava, who then has a son named Vishvaravana, who becomes the carrier of treasure through great meditation and praying to the lords. Sumali sees this as Vishvaravana is going to Lanka and becomes jealous and tells his daughter to go to Vishvaravas and create kids like these. She follows her father's order and creates Ravana, Kumbhakarna, Vibhishana, and Surpanakha. Ravana sees Vishvaravana and becomes jealous and prays in hope to become like him. Every thousand years, he would cut off one of his heads and sacrifice it to the gods. When he was down to the last head, Brahma came down and asked each of them what they wanted. Ravana wanted protection from the gods and demons, Vibhishana wanted to always remember Dharma, and Kumbkhakarna asked to sleep 6 months for every day awake.
Ravana knowing he couldn't be hurt starts creating problems. He angers Indra, Nandi, Shiva's bull, and one day even shakes the mountain where Shiva is residing. Shiva infuriated imprisons Ravana but later forgives him for his beautiful singing. Once released Ravana creates problems amongst the humans. He challenges all the human kingdom. Out of fear, all of them surrender except King Arjuna's kingdom. When trying to fight King Arjuna, King Arjuna defeats Ravana and is only released due to the pleas of Ravana's grandfather Pulastya. Thinking about the defeat, Ravana wonders what he could do and Narada recommends he defeats the Kind of death. Ravana being powerful achieves that along with a whole bunch of other gods. During this time, Rama is born to King Dashratha and that is why Vishwamithra is there.
He asks the King to allow Vishwamithra to mentor Rama and Lashmana. The king accepts and allows them to go along with Vishwamithra. On their journey, they come across Maricha and Subahu. They defeat Subahu, but allow Maricha to escape. Continuing on their journey, Rama frees Ahalya of her curse that turned her into stone for being unfaithful to her husband with Indra. When reaching Mithila, Rama completes King Janaka's challenge of breaking Shiva bow and gets married to Sita.
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