Rama
greatest and seventh incarnation of God, hero of the Ramayana, protector of Dharma
Rama (; Sanskrit: राम, IAST: Rāma, Sanskrit: [ˈraːmɐ] ), also known as Ram, is a major deity in Hinduism, who is worshipped as one of the prominent avatars of Vishnu. Rama is considered an ideal man (maryāda puruṣottama) and is the heroic protagonist of the Hindu epic Ramayana. In Rama-centric Hindu traditions, he is considered the Supreme Being. Often respectfully referred to as Sri Rama, his life is celebrated through several festivals: birth on Rama Navami, victory in battle on Vijayadashami, and return to Ayodhya on Diwali, which is marked by lights and fireworks. Legends of Rama also feature in the texts of Jainism and Buddhism.
According to the Ramayana of Valmiki, Rama was born to Dasaratha and his first wife Kausalya in Ayodhya, the capital of the Kingdom of Kosala. His half-siblings included Lakshmana, Bharata, and Shatrughna. He married Sita and, after a 14-year exile in the forest, assumed the Kosala throne. Rama's forest exile was filled with difficult circumstances and challenges of ethical questions and moral dilemmas, including the kidnapping of Sita by the demon-king Ravana. Many Hindus see the life story of Rama as illustrating dharma and dharmic living.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Rama” is greatest and seventh incarnation of God, hero of the Ramayana, protector of Dharma. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Rama, greatest and seventh, not as a finished interpretation.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q160213. VIAF identifies the subject as 98149414860989550105. The Library of Congress control number is n2017241692. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Rama” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.