Dussehra is mainly associated with the story of Rama based on the Ramayana, one of the two great Indian epics. Said to be set around 1000 BCE in India, this epic attempts to establish the social ideals and modeled Rama as the main hero and Sita, his wife as the heroine of the whole narration. Rama, the hero, has been presented as an ideal son, ideal husband and an ideal king for whole of his life. Originally, Ramayana had 24,000 couplets composed by the famed Sanskrit poet, Maharshi Valmiki, when it was in oral form. However, it is said that it was noted in the written form only at the beginning of the Common Era and has since been a part of the culture and religion of the South and Southeast Asia. It has been staged and depicted in all the art and craft forms including dances, dramas, puppet shows, songs, paintings, sculptures and movies innumerable times in Asia and the world over.

According to legend, Rama was the eldest son of King Dashrath and was beloved of all because of his genial ways. The king decided to hand over his throne to him and retire. However, Rama's stepmother wanted her own son Bharata to be the king and forced the king to banish Rama from Ayodhya, the kingdom and give him fourteen years of exile. Rama gladly accepted the stepmother's wishes and left the palace and the kingdom with his wife Sita, and brother Lakshmana. The grief-stricken father soon died. However, when Bharata who was on a visit to his maternal grandfather came back and came to know what his mother had done, he immediately set out to being his brother back from the forest. "However, though Rama was glad to welcome his brother, he refused to go back to the kingdom before the term expired. However, Rama had another loss at hand as the demon-king Ravana, kidnapped his wife Sita and took her away to his kingdom. This became the reason behind the long search and the various events that in time, led to the destruction of Ravana by the hands of Ravan with the help of the monkey army he had befriended on the way. Dussehra is the day, when Rama killed Ravana and won back his wife (Hence also called Vijayadashmi) who had managed to save her honor from the dirty hands of Ravana and was waiting anxiously to meet her husband.