Studio design: drawn with AI image tools to the iconography of Hinduism, checked against that tradition's rules and approved by a person. Captions are set in real type, never generated. Made to order in the USA.
The Deity Project supports the keepers of the world's sacred traditions. See our giving
“A promise is a promise.” Rama, Shyamanga, the Dark-Hued.
The story behind the line. In the Ramayana, King Dasharatha had once promised Queen Kaikeyi two wishes. She asked for her son Bharata to be crowned and for Rama to spend fourteen years in the forest. Rama went without complaint so his father's word would stand. As Tulsidas sings, in Rama's family you may give up your life, but never your word.
Rama (राम) is the prince of Ayodhya whom millions honour as the seventh avatar of Vishnu and as Maryada Purushottama, the ideal of right conduct. The Ramayana follows him through fourteen years of forest exile, the search for Sita and the journey home. He is pictured with deep blue skin, a crown, a yellow dhoti and his bow Kodanda, often with Sita, Lakshmana and devoted Hanuman beside him. Many Hindus keep his birthday on Rama Navami and his victory over Ravana at Dussehra.
The design and its line printed in a single ink on a heavyweight garment-dyed Comfort Colors tee in soft, lived-in colours: gold on the deep dyes, warm ink on the pale ones.
From The Deity Project, a living encyclopedia of the sacred.
Three ways to wear it: the classic tee is soft and lightweight ($29); the garment-dyed tee is heavier, with a softly faded, lived-in colour ($36); the garment-dyed one-ink tee prints the design and its line in a single ink, in soft earthy colours ($34).
