Rama, conceived miraculously from divine pudding given to his mother by Vishnu, is the second greatest avatar of that god. As a young man he was forced with his wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana into exile to meet the demands of one of his father’s wives. In the forest, a powerful demon fell in love with Rama but was rejected by him, reminding us of Gilgamesh’s similar rejection of Inanna in the Mesopotamian tradition and Cuchulainn’s rejection of Morrigan in Irish mythology. In spite of complications exposed by the events of the epic of Rama, the Rāmāyana, Rama and Sita represent the perfect relationship between husband and wife, and after their deaths they are raised up to heaven into Vishnu and Lakshmi, the deities of whom they had been incarnations on earth.