Lava and Kusha Stood Their Ground

Two boys raised in a forest. When a whole army came, they didn't run.

Two twin boys named Lava and Kusha grow up in the quiet forest ashram of the rishi Valmiki. They have never seen a city or a king. One day, a beautiful royal horse wanders into their forest and behind it comes a whole army. The boys do not run. They tie up the horse and stand their ground. They do not yet know that the king they are about to fight is their own father, Rama.

A Forest, a Hut, and Two Singing Brothers

Deep inside a forest by the banks of the river Tamasa, there was a quiet little ashram. It belonged to the great rishi Valmiki. The same Valmiki who would one day write the whole Ramayana.

In the ashram, two boys ran around laughing.

They were twins. Their names were Lava and Kusha.

Lava was the slightly older one, by a few minutes. Kusha was the slightly stronger one. They had the same dark eyes, the same thick black hair tied in tiny topknots, and exactly the same beautiful smile.

They had grown up in this forest. They wore simple bark cloth. They drank water from the river. They knew the names of every bird, every flower, every deer. They had never seen a city. They had never seen a king. They did not even know what a palace looked like.

They did know one thing very well, though.

Music.

Valmiki himself had taught them to sing. He had taught them all the verses of a long, beautiful poem he had written about a great king named Rama. Lava and Kusha could sing the entire Ramayana from beginning to end. Their voices were so sweet that when they sang, even the deer stopped grazing to listen.

They did not know one small thing about that poem.

They did not know that the king Rama in the song was their own father.

The Mother in the Hut

Inside the little hut, their mother was grinding flour for the evening meal.

Her name was Sita.

Yes, that Sita. The same Sita that Rama had crossed the ocean for. The same Sita that Hanuman had found in the Ashoka garden.

Many years had passed since then. After Rama brought her home, things had become hard for her. The people of Ayodhya had whispered. Rama had had to make a difficult choice as a king. Sita had come to Valmiki's ashram, carrying her two unborn babies, to live a quiet life away from the palace.