Dasaratha being asked in court to banish Rama by Kaikeyi and her humpbacked female slave Manthara. Chromolithograph.

Rama is an incarnation of Vishnu who chose Dasaratha, King of the Solar race as his human father. Dasaratha was childless and performed many sacrifices to the gods to obtain one, during one of these sacrifices, Vishnu appeared giving Dasaratha a pot of nectar to make his wives conceive which was split between the three wives. Dasaratha split the nectar in one half and two quarter portions between Kausalya who gave birth to Rama, and Kaikeyi who gave birth to Bharata, and the last quarter to Sumitra who brought forth twins, Lakshmana who was devoted to Rama and Satrughna who was devoted to Bharata. When all four had grown up, Kaikeyi who was Dasaratha's favourite wife and who had been kind to Rama during his childhood, listened to her spiteful humpback servant Manthura, who persuaded Kaikeyi to quarrel with Dasaratha until he banished Rama to the forest