Ram

Overview

Ram (राम, Rāma) is one of the most widely worshipped forms of the divine in Hindu tradition, and the central figure of the Ramayana — the story of his exile, the abduction of his wife Sita, the war to win her back, and his eventual return to rule as king of Ayodhya. In Vaishnav tradition he is revered as the seventh avatar of Vishnu, an incarnation whose life is held up as a model of dharma: duty carried out faithfully even at great personal cost.

Ram’s story is not confined to one text or one region. It has been told and retold for well over two thousand years, in Sanskrit and in regional languages, in temple sculpture, in shadow puppetry, and in yearly Ramlila performances that re-enact his story in towns across North India. The name “Ram” itself is chanted as a naam in its own right — simply, repeatedly, without further embellishment — which is part of why it appears in the app both as श्री राम and as श्री सीता राम.

This page covers his names, his family, his place in scripture, and how he is worshipped across different regions — not a single, settled account, since traditions vary in what they emphasize.

The name

राम (Rāma) comes from the Sanskrit root ram, meaning “to rest,” “to stand still,” or “to delight in” — depending on which classical grammarian’s gloss is followed, the name is usually rendered as “one who delights” or “one in whom all beings find rest.” It is a name, not a title bestowed later, and it is used both on its own and as the base of several other names and epithets that appear throughout the tradition:

• Raghava (राघव) — “descendant of Raghu,” a patronymic referring to Raghu, an ancestor-king of Rama’s solar dynasty (Suryavansha / Raghuvansha).
• Raghunath (रघुनाथ) — “lord of the Raghu dynasty,” combining Raghu with nātha (“lord”).
• Sitaram (सीताराम) — Sita’s name paired with Rama’s, used devotionally to invoke them together rather than as a separate identity.

Family and relationships

Rama was the eldest son of King Dasharatha of Ayodhya; his mother was Dasharatha’s first queen, Kausalya. His three younger brothers — Bharata, born to Queen Kaikeyi, and the twins Lakshmana and Shatrughna, born to Queen Sumitra — are central to the Ramayana’s narrative in their own right: Lakshmana accompanied Rama and Sita into exile, and Bharata ruled Ayodhya as regent in Rama’s name during it. Rama’s wife is Sita; their twin sons, born after the events of the main narrative, are Lava and Kusha.

Hanuman holds a distinct place in the story — not a blood relation, but Rama’s devoted companion and the one credited with finding Sita after her abduction. The bond between them is one of the most widely referenced relationships in Hindu devotional life, often held up as an example of selfless service (seva).

As an avatar of Vishnu

In Vaishnav tradition, Rama is regarded as the seventh of Vishnu’s ten principal avatars (the Dashavatara) described across Puranic literature — appearing in the world, in this account, to uphold dharma at a time it was under threat. Most Vaishnav lineages frame him this way: a complete incarnation of Vishnu taking on a fully human life, bound by human limits and human grief, which is part of what makes his story a model for how to act rather than a distant myth.

Not every lineage frames it identically. In the Ramanandi Sampradaya specifically — a large Vaishnav tradition centered on Rama across North India and Nepal — Rama is regarded not merely as an avatar but as svayam bhagavan, the source from which Vishnu himself is understood to manifest, a distinction that parallels how some Krishna-centered traditions regard Krishna. This is a lineage-specific theological position, not a claim made uniformly across all Vaishnav traditions.

In scripture

Rama’s story is told at different lengths and for different purposes across several major texts:

• Valmiki Ramayana — the original Sanskrit epic, traditionally ascribed to the sage Valmiki, told across seven books (kandas). It is the source narrative that nearly every later retelling draws from, whether directly or by inherited tradition.
• Ramcharitmanas — Tulsidas’s 16th-century retelling in Awadhi rather than Sanskrit, begun (by tradition) in Ayodhya on Rama Navami in 1574 CE. Where Valmiki’s epic reads as itihasa (a historical narrative), Tulsidas foregrounds bhakti — devotion to Rama — and it is this version that is most widely recited, sung, and performed (in Ramlila) across North India today. Tulsidas drew inspiration in part from the Adhyatma Ramayana, an earlier Sanskrit retelling embedded within the Brahmananda Purana and traditionally attributed to Vyasa, which frames Rama’s story through an Advaita Vedanta lens.
• Ram Raksha Stotra — a shorter protective hymn recited for protection rather than narrative purposes.

Regional worship

Ayodhya and the Hindi belt. Ayodhya, on the banks of the Sarayu river, is traditionally regarded as Rama’s birthplace and remains the centre of his worship in North India. The Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir there was consecrated in January 2024. According to local devotional tradition, the nearby Kanak Bhawan temple is said to have been a gift to Sita from her mother-in-law Kaikeyi — a well-known story among pilgrims, though this page doesn’t treat it as settled history.

Tamil Nadu. The poet Kamban (Kambar) — traditionally dated to around the 12th century, though scholars debate the exact period — composed the Kambaramayanam (also called the Ramavataram), an independent Tamil retelling that shaped how Rama’s story is told in the south. The town of Rameswaram is closely tied to the narrative too — tradition holds that Rama built a bridge (setu) from here toward Lanka, and worshipped Shiva at this spot before crossing; the major temple at Rameswaram today, the Ramanathaswamy Temple, is dedicated primarily to Shiva rather than to Rama.

Nepal. Janakpur is traditionally identified as Sita’s birthplace and the site of her marriage to Rama, and remains a major pilgrimage destination centered on that story, anchored by the Janaki Mandir.

Southeast Asia. Versions of the Ramayana narrative took root well beyond devotional Hinduism, largely as court literature and performance traditions. Thailand’s Ramakien developed from around the 14th century and reached a well-known classical form under King Rama I in the late 18th century — Thai kings have taken the regnal name “Rama” ever since. Cambodia has its own version, the Reamker (“Glory of Rama”), and Indonesia’s Javanese and Balinese traditions stage the story as dance-drama accompanied by gamelan. These are best understood as cultural and literary traditions shaped by each region’s own religious history (including Buddhist-majority contexts) rather than devotional Hindu worship in the Indian sense.