Ramayanam Balakanda |శ్రీ వాల్మీకి శ్రీమద్రామాయణం కావ్యంలో బాలకాండ part...

Viśvāmitra requests Daśaratha to lend him his eldest (but still adolescent) son Rāma to slay the rākṣasas Mārīca and Subāhu, who are disrupting Viśvāmitra's sacrifice. Daśaratha, who is initially reluctant to part with his dearest son, is eventually convinced to send Rāma with Viśvāmitra, along with Lakṣmaṇa. Eventually they reach a terrible, wild forest inhabited by Tāṭakā. Tāṭakā, as Viśvāmitra explains, is a yakṣa woman who gave birth to the rākṣasa Mārīca, and was herself cursed to become a rakṣasa. Rāma kills her with a single shot from his bow, and in reward Viśvāmitra bestows on him numerous divine weapons. The party eventually reaches Viśvāmitra's ashram, where Rāma defeats Mārīca and kills Subāhu while Viśvāmitra completes his sacrifice. The group, successful in their objective, then decide to go to attend king Janaka's sacrifice in the kingdom of Mithilā. There the seers at the ashram say that Janaka has a bow that no one has been able to string. Throughout the entire journey from Ayodhyā to the ashram to Mithilā, Viśvāmitra recounts the lore of the landscape the party travels through, as well as expounding on the deeds of the ancestors of Viśvāmitra and Rāma, respectively.