Ramayana, Book 2, The

<SPAN name="toc301" id="toc301"></SPAN> <SPAN name="pdf302" id="pdf302"></SPAN> <SPAN name="CantoII-LXXIII" id="CantoII-LXXIII" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Canto LXXIII. Kaikeyí Reproached.</span></h2> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>But when he heard the queen relate</div> <div>His brothers' doom, his father's fate,</div> <div>Thus Bharat to his mother said</div> <div>With burning grief disquieted:</div> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page182"></span><SPAN name="Pg182" id="Pg182" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“Alas, what boots it now to reign,</span></div> <div>Struck down by grief and well-nigh slain?</div> <div>Ah, both are gone, my sire, and he</div> <div>Who was a second sire to me.</div> <div>Grief upon grief thy hand has made,</div> <div>And salt upon gashes laid:</div> <div>For my dear sire has died through thee,</div> <div>And Ráma roams a devotee.</div> <div>Thou camest like the night of Fate</div> <div>This royal house to devastate.</div> <div>Unwitting ill, my hapless sire</div> <div>Placed in his bosom coals of fire,</div> <div>And through thy crimes his death he met,</div> <div>O thou whose heart on sin is set.</div> <div>Shame of thy house! thy senseless deed</div> <div>Has reft all joy from Raghu's seed.</div> <div>The truthful monarch, dear to fame,</div> <div>Received thee as his wedded dame,</div> <div>And by thy act to misery doomed</div> <div>Has died by flames of grief consumed.</div> <div>Kauśalyá and Sumitrá too</div> <div>The coming of my mother rue,</div> <div>And if they live oppressed by woe,</div> <div>For their dear sons their sad tears flow.</div> <div>Was he not ever good and kind,—</div> <div>That hero of the duteous mind?</div> <div>Skilled in all filial duties, he</div> <div>As a dear mother treated thee.</div> <div>Kauśalyá too, the eldest queen,</div> <div>Who far foresees with insight keen,</div> <div>Did she not ever show thee all</div> <div>A sister's love at duty's call?</div> <div>And hast thou from the kingdom chased</div> <div>Her son, with bark around his waist,</div> <div>To the wild wood, to dwell therein,</div> <div>And dost not sorrow for thy sin?</div> <div>The love I bare to Raghu's son</div> <div>Thou knewest not, ambitious one,</div> <div>If thou hast wrought this impious deed</div> <div>For royal sway, in lawless greed.</div> <div>With him and Lakshmaṇ far away,</div> <div>What power have I the realm to sway?</div> <div>What hope will fire my bosom when</div> <div>I see no more these lords of men?</div> <div>The holy king, who loved the right</div> <div>Relied on Ráma's power and might,</div> <div>His guardian and his glory, so</div> <div>Joys Meru in his woods below.</div> <div>How can I bear, a steer untrained,</div> <div>The load his mightier strength sustained?</div> <div>What power have I to brook alone</div> <div>This weight on feeble shoulders thrown?</div> <div>But if the needful power were bought</div> <div>By strength of mind and brooding thought,</div> <div>No triumph shall attend the dame</div> <div>Who dooms her son to lasting shame.</div> <div>Now should no doubt that son prevent</div> <div>From quitting thee on evil bent.</div> <div>But Ráma's love o'erpowers my will,</div> <div>Who holds thee as his mother still.</div> <div>Whence did the thought, O thou whose eyes</div> <div>Are turned to sinful deeds, arise—</div> <div>A plan our ancient sires would hate,</div> <div>O fallen from thy virtuous state?</div> <div>For in the line from which we spring</div> <div>The eldest is anointed king:</div> <div>No monarchs from the rule decline,</div> <div>And, least of all, Ikshváku's line.</div> <div>Our holy sires, to virtue true,</div> <div>Upon our race a lustre threw,</div> <div>But with subversive frenzy thou</div> <div>Hast marred our lineal honour now,</div> <div>Of lofty birth, a noble line</div> <div>Of previous kings is also thine:</div> <div>Then whence this hated folly? whence</div> <div>This sudden change that steals thy sense?</div> <div>Thou shalt not gain thine impious will,</div> <div>O thou whose thoughts are bent on ill,</div> <div>Thou from whose guilty hand descend</div> <div>These sinful blows my life to end.</div> <div>Now to the forest will I go,</div> <div>Thy cherished plans to overthrow,</div> <div>And bring my brother, free from stain,</div> <div>His people's darling, home again.</div> <div>And Ráma, when again he turns,</div> <div>Whose glory like a beacon burns,</div> <div>In me a faithful slave shall find</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >To serve him with contented mind.”</span></div> </div> <SPAN name="toc303" id="toc303"></SPAN> <SPAN name="pdf304" id="pdf304"></SPAN> <SPAN name="CantoII-LXXIV" id="CantoII-LXXIV" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Canto LXXIV. Bharat's Lament.</span></h2> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>When Bharat's anger-sharpened tongue</div> <div>Reproaches on the queen had flung,</div> <div>Again, with mighty rage possessed,</div> <div>The guilty dame he thus addressed:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“Flee, cruel, wicked sinner, flee,</span></div> <div>Let not this kingdom harbour thee.</div> <div>Thou who hast thrown all right aside,</div> <div>Weep thou for me when I have died.</div> <div>Canst thou one charge against the king,</div> <div>Or the most duteous Ráma bring?</div> <div>The one thy sin to death has sent,</div> <div>The other chased to banishment.</div> <div>Our line's destroyer, sin defiled</div> <div>Like one who kills an unborn child,</div> <div>Ne'er with thy lord in heaven to dwell,</div> <div>Thy portion shall be down in hell</div> <div>Because thy hand, that stayed for naught,</div> <div>This awful wickedness has wrought,</div> <div>And ruined him whom all held dear,</div> <div>My bosom too is stirred with fear.</div> <div>My father by thy sin is dead,</div> <div>And Ráma to the wood is fled;</div> <div>And of thy deed I bear the stain,</div> <div>And fameless in the world remain.</div> <div>Ambitious, evil-souled, in show</div> <div>My mother, yet my direst foe.</div> <div>My throning ne'er thine eyes shall bless,</div> <div>Thy husband's wicked murderess.</div> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page183"></span><SPAN name="Pg183" id="Pg183" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <div>Thou art not Aśvapati's child,</div> <div>That righteous king most sage and mild,</div> <div>But thou wast born a fiend, a foe</div> <div>My father's house to overthrow.</div> <div>Thou who hast made Kauśalyá, pure,</div> <div>Gentle, affectionate, endure</div> <div>The loss of him who was her bliss,—</div> <div>What worlds await thee, Queen, for this?</div> <div>Was it not patent to thy sense</div> <div>That Ráma was his friends' defence,</div> <div>Kauśalyá's own true child most dear,</div> <div>The eldest and his father's peer?</div> <div>Men in the son not only trace</div> <div>The father's figure, form, and face,</div> <div>But in his heart they also find</div> <div>The offspring of the father's mind;</div> <div>And hence, though dear their kinsmen are,</div> <div>To mothers sons are dearer far.</div> <div>There goes an ancient legend how</div> <div>Good Surabhí, the God-loved cow,</div> <div>Saw two of her dear children strain,</div> <div>Drawing a plough and faint with pain.</div> <div>She saw them on the earth outworn,</div> <div>Toiling till noon from early morn,</div> <div>And as she viewed her children's woe,</div> <div>A flood of tears began to flow.</div> <div>As through the air beneath her swept</div> <div>The Lord of Gods, the drops she wept,</div> <div>Fine, laden with delicious smell,</div> <div>Upon his heavenly body fell.</div> <div>And Indra lifted up his eyes</div> <div>And saw her standing in the skies,</div> <div>Afflicted with her sorrow's weight,</div> <div>Sad, weeping, all disconsolate.</div> <div>The Lord of Gods in anxious mood</div> <div>Thus spoke in suppliant attitude:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“No fear disturbs our rest, and how</span></div> <div>Come this great dread upon thee now?</div> <div>Whence can this woe upon thee fall,</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >Say, gentle one who lovest all?”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Thus spake the God who rules the skies,</div> <div>Indra, the Lord supremely wise;</div> <div>And gentle Surabhí, well learned</div> <div>In eloquence, this speech returned:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“Not thine the fault, great God, not thine</span></div> <div>And guiltless are the Lords divine:</div> <div>I mourn two children faint with toil,</div> <div>Labouring hard in stubborn soil.</div> <div>Wasted and sad I see them now,</div> <div>While the sun beats on neck and brow,</div> <div>Still goaded by the cruel hind,—</div> <div>No pity in his savage mind.</div> <div>O Indra, from this body sprang</div> <div>These children, worn with many a pang.</div> <div>For this sad sight I mourn, for none</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >Is to the mother like her son.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>He saw her weep whose offspring feed</div> <div>In thousands over hill and mead,</div> <div>And knew that in a mother's eye</div> <div>Naught with a son, for love, can vie.</div> <div>He deemed her, when the tears that came</div> <div>From her sad eyes bedewed his frame,</div> <div>Laden with their celestial scent,</div> <div>Of living things most excellent.</div> <div>If she these tears of sorrow shed</div> <div>Who many a thousand children bred,</div> <div>Think what a life of woe is left</div> <div>Kauśalyá, of her Ráma reft.</div> <div>An only son was hers and she</div> <div>Is rendered childless now by thee.</div> <div>Here and hereafter, for thy crime,</div> <div>Woe is thy lot through endless time.</div> <div>And now, O Queen, without delay,</div> <div>With all due honour will I pay</div> <div>Both to my brother and my sire</div> <div>The rites their several fates require.</div> <div>Back to Ayodhyá will I bring</div> <div>The long-armed chief, her lord and king,</div> <div>And to the wood myself betake</div> <div>Where hermit saints their dwelling make.</div> <div>For, sinner both in deed and thought!</div> <div>This hideous crime which thou hast wrought</div> <div>I cannot bear, or live to see</div> <div>The people's sad eyes bent on me.</div> <div>Begone, to Daṇḍak wood retire,</div> <div>Or cast thy body to the fire,</div> <div>Or bind around thy neck the rope:</div> <div>No other refuge mayst thou hope.</div> <div>When Ráma, lord of valour true,</div> <div>Has gained the earth, his right and due,</div> <div>Then, free from duty's binding debt,</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >My vanished sin shall I forget.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Thus like an elephant forced to brook</div> <div>The goading of the driver's hook,</div> <div>Quick panting like a serpent maimed,</div> <div>He fell to earth with rage inflamed.</div> </div> <SPAN name="toc305" id="toc305"></SPAN> <SPAN name="pdf306" id="pdf306"></SPAN> <SPAN name="CantoII-LXXV" id="CantoII-LXXV" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <h2 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 2.88em; margin-top: 2.88em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Canto LXXV. The Abjuration.</span></h2> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>A while he lay: he rose at length,</div> <div>And slowly gathering sense and strength,</div> <div>With angry eyes which tears bedewed,</div> <div>The miserable queen he viewed,</div> <div>And spake with keen reproach to her</div> <div>Before each lord and minister:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“No lust have I for kingly sway,</span></div> <div>My mother I no more obey:</div> <div>Naught of this consecration knew</div> <div>Which Daśaratha kept in view.</div> <div>I with Śatrughna all the time</div> <div>Was dwelling in a distant clime:</div> <div>I knew of Ráma's exile naught,</div> <div>That hero of the noble thought:</div> <div>I knew not how fair Sítá went,</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >And Lakshmaṇ, forth to banishment.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Thus high-souled Bharat, mid the crowd,</div> <div>Lifted his voice and cried aloud.</div> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page184"></span><SPAN name="Pg184" id="Pg184" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <div>Kauśalyá heard, she raised her head,</div> <div>And quickly to Sumitrá said:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“Bharat, Kaikeyí's son is here,—</span></div> <div>Hers whose fell deeds I loathe and fear:</div> <div>That youth of foresight keen I fain</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >Would meet and see his face again.”</span></div> <div>Thus to Sumitrá spake the dame,</div> <div>And straight to Bharat's presence came</div> <div>With altered mien, neglected dress,</div> <div>Trembling and faint with sore distress.</div> <div>Bharat, Śatrughna by his side,</div> <div>To meet her, toward her palace hied.</div> <div>And when the royal dame they viewed</div> <div>Distressed with dire solicitude,</div> <div>Sad, fallen senseless on the ground,</div> <div>About her neck their arms they wound.</div> <div>The noble matron prostrate there,</div> <div>Embraced, with tears, the weeping pair,</div> <div>And with her load of grief oppressed,</div> <div>To Bharat then these words addressed:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“Now all is thine, without a foe,</span></div> <div>This realm for which thou longest so.</div> <div>Ah, soon Kaikeyí's ruthless hand</div> <div>Has won the empire of the land,</div> <div>And made my guiltless Ráma flee</div> <div>Dressed like some lonely devotee.</div> <div>Herein what profit has the queen,</div> <div>Whose eye delights in havoc, seen?</div> <div>Me also, me 'twere surely good</div> <div>To banish to the distant wood,</div> <div>To dwell amid the shades that hold</div> <div>My famous son with limbs like gold.</div> <div>Nay, with the sacred fire to guide,</div> <div>Will I, Sumitrá by my side,</div> <div>Myself to the drear wood repair</div> <div>And seek the son of Raghu there.</div> <div>This land which rice and golden corn</div> <div>And wealth of every kind adorn,</div> <div>Car, elephant, and steed, and gem,—</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >She makes thee lord of it and them.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>With taunts like these her bitter tongue</div> <div>The heart of blameless Bharat wrung</div> <div>And direr pangs his bosom tore</div> <div>Than when the lancet probes a sore.</div> <div>With troubled senses all astray</div> <div>Prone at her feet he fell and lay.</div> <div>With loud lament a while he plained,</div> <div>And slowly strength and sense regained.</div> <div>With suppliant hand to hand applied</div> <div>He turned to her who wept and sighed,</div> <div>And thus bespake the queen, whose breast</div> <div>With sundry woes was sore distressed:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“Why these reproaches, noble dame?</span></div> <div>I, knowing naught, am free from blame.</div> <div>Thou knowest well what love was mine</div> <div>For Ráma, chief of Raghu's line.</div> <div>O, never be his darkened mind</div> <div>To Scripture's guiding lore inclined,</div> <div>By whose consent the prince who led</div> <div>The good, the truthful hero, fled.</div> <div>May he obey the vilest lord,</div> <div>Offend the sun with act abhorred,<SPAN id="noteref_350" name="noteref_350" href="#note_350"><span class="tei tei-noteref" ><span style="font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">350</span></span></SPAN></div> <div>And strike a sleeping cow, who lent</div> <div>His voice to Ráma's banishment.</div> <div>May the good king who all befriends,</div> <div>And, like his sons, the people tends,</div> <div>Be wronged by him who gave consent</div> <div>To noble Ráma's banishment.</div> <div>On him that king's injustice fall,</div> <div>Who takes, as lord, a sixth of all,</div> <div>Nor guards, neglectful of his trust,</div> <div>His people, as a ruler must.</div> <div>The crime of those who swear to fee,</div> <div>At holy rites, some devotee,</div> <div>And then the promised gift deny,</div> <div>Be his who willed the prince should fly.</div> <div>When weapons clash and heroes bleed,</div> <div>With elephant and harnessed steed,</div> <div>Ne'er, like the good, be his to fight</div> <div>Whose heart allowed the prince's flight.</div> <div>Though taught with care by one expert</div> <div>May he the Veda's text pervert,</div> <div>With impious mind on evil bent,</div> <div>Whose voice approved the banishment.</div> <div>May he with traitor lips reveal</div> <div>Whate'er he promised to conceal,</div> <div>And bruit abroad his friend's offence,</div> <div>Betrayed by generous confidence.</div> <div>No wife of equal lineage born</div> <div>The wretch's joyless home adorn:</div> <div>Ne'er may he do one virtuous deed,</div> <div>And dying see no child succeed.</div> <div>When in the battle's awful day</div> <div>Fierce warriors stand in dread array,</div> <div>Let the base coward turn and fly,</div> <div>And smitten by the foeman, die.</div> <div>Long may he wander, rags his wear,</div> <div>Doomed in his hand a skull to bear,</div> <div>And like an idiot beg his bread,</div> <div>Who gave consent when Ráma fled.</div> <div>His sin who holy rites forgets,</div> <div>Asleep when shows the sun and sets,</div> <div>A load upon his soul shall lie</div> <div>Whose will allowed the prince to fly.</div> <div>His sin who loves his Master's dame,</div> <div>His, kindler of destructive flame,</div> <div>His who betrays his trusting friend</div> <div>Shall, mingled all, on him descend.</div> <div>By him no reverence due be paid</div> <div>To blessed God or parted shade:</div> <div>May sire and mother's sacred name</div> <div>In vain from him obedience claim.</div> <div>Ne'er may he go where dwell the good,</div> <div>Nor win their fame and neighbourhood,</div> <div>But lose all hopes of bliss to-day,</div> <div>Who willed the prince should flee away.</div> <div>May he deceive the poor and weak</div> <div>Who look to him and comfort seek,</div> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page185"></span><SPAN name="Pg185" id="Pg185" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <div>Betray the suppliants who complain,</div> <div>And make the hopeful hope in vain.</div> <div>Long may his wife his kiss expect,</div> <div>And pine away in cold neglect.</div> <div>May he his lawful love despise,</div> <div>And turn on other dames his eyes,</div> <div>Fool, on forbidden joys intent,</div> <div>Whose will allowed the banishment.</div> <div>His sin who deadly poison throws</div> <div>To spoil the water as it flows,</div> <div>Lay on the wretch its burden dread</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >Who gave consent when Ráma fled.”</span><SPAN id="noteref_351" name="noteref_351" href="#note_351"><span class="tei tei-noteref" ><span style="font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">351</span></span></SPAN></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Thus with his words he undeceived</div> <div>Kauśalyá's troubled heart, who grieved</div> <div>For son and husband reft away;</div> <div>Then prostrate on the ground he lay.</div> <div>Him as he lay half-senseless there,</div> <div>Freed by the mighty oaths he sware,</div> <div>Kauśalyá, by her woe distressed,</div> <div>With melancholy words addressed:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“Anew, my son, this sorrow springs</span></div> <div>To rend my heart with keener stings:</div> <div>These awful oaths which thou hast sworn</div> <div>My breast with double grief have torn.</div> <div>Thy soul, and faithful Lakshmaṇ's too,</div> <div>Are still, thank Heaven! to virtue true.</div> <div>True to thy promise, thou shalt gain</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >The mansions which the good obtain.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Then to her breast that youth she drew,</div> <div>Whose sweet fraternal love she knew,</div> <div>And there in strict embraces held</div> <div>The hero, as her tears outwelled.</div> <div>And Bharat's heart grew sick and faint</div> <div>With grief and oft-renewed complaint,</div> <div>And all his senses were distraught</div> <div>By the great woe that in him wrought.</div> <div>Thus he lay and still bewailed</div> <div>With sighs and loud lament</div> <div>Till all his strength and reason failed,</div> <div>The hours of night were spent.</div> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />