Who named Lord Rama Maryada Purush?

I don’t know whether he was boasting or not but his question seemed to carry some weight.

“Do you know who gave the upadhi (honour) of ‘Maryada Purush’ to Lord Rama and when?” I nodded my head left and right, twice in slow motion, trying to think about the answer.

“I know”, he said claiming that even an ardent follower is not aware of this. “Ask anyone and you wont get the right answer. There would be multiple answers to this question,” he said.

I persuaded him to at least part with a hint. I even had to part with my secret – that I have always been weak with dates, historic characters and facts related to them.

“But how did you conclude that very few know answer to this question.”

My friend had been running a cable channel network, which remained an unsuccessful venture since its inception. To rouse the interest of viewers and increase TRPs of his channel, he decided to run an array of question related to Hindu mythology.

“The channel had just started and making it hit amongst masses was a gargantuan task. With every festival on anvil we started asking such questions. It was during Rama Navmi that we asked this question and the answers were surprising, and at times hilarious,” he said.

Out of 330 of answers received just two were correct. Many viewers said it was Laxman, some said it was Sita and others said it was Hanuman.

I interrupted him. His story was going beyond my endurance and I could hardly wait for an answer. Testing my patience, he gave me another ten minutes to at least make a guess. I gave up. But he extracted a promise from me. Not to pass this answer.

“It was Kaikai, stepmother of Lord Rama who gave him upadhi of Maryada Purush. When Lord Rama’s father, Dashrath asked Ramji to leave for vanvas (exile in jungle) for 14 years, he did not questioned his father even once and took his permission to leave. His immediately obeying his father’s orders moved otherwise shrewd Kakaiye, who declared him maryada purush”.

Interestingly, when I put up same question to a section of my Hindu scholar friends, they too had different answer each. Some said it was sage Vasisht others said it was Samudra (ocean) that refused to give way to Lord Rama for going to Ravan’s palace (now Sri Lanka).

If anyone of you has an answer, please oblige.