Sita, Rama, and Laksman depart palace for forest exile (Thai Ramayana mural)

Sita, Rama, and Laksman depart palace for forest exile (Thai Ramayana mural)

On this mural detail at the Emerald Buddha Temple, Sita, Rama, and Laksman depart the palace in Ayudhya for fourteen years of forest exile. Here they are shown with Sita's skin painted white on the left, Rama's painted green in the middle, and Laksman's painted tan on the right. They all are dressed in royal gold clothes with crowns, and walk with bare feet across the palace's blue tiled floor.

Sita and Rama both walk with their hands raised upward, palms forward, while Laksman jumps at their side on his left leg, his right leg flexed outward to his right and his arms holding a royal gold scepter out to his left.

In the Ramayana, when Rama's father felt he was approaching death, he decided to declare that his eldest son Rama should succeed him. Rama toured in a procession around the kingdom of Ayudhya as the public announcement was made. All the people rejoiced because Rama was known as a just and virtuous prince.

Just before the king died, however, his second wife reminded him of an old promise to grant her two wishes. The king remembered and agreed. This wife then asked that Rama be exiled to the forest for fourteen years and that her son, Bharata, be allowed to rule in his place. The king was in anguish but felt required to fulfill his promise. Rama left for the forest, accompanied by Sita and Laksman. Rama's father then died of grief.