Ramayana, Book 2, The

<SPAN name="toc355" id="toc355"></SPAN> <SPAN name="pdf356" id="pdf356"></SPAN> <SPAN name="CantoII-C" id="CantoII-C" 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 C. The Meeting.</span></h2> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Then Bharat to Śatrughna showed</div> <div>The spot, and eager onward strode,</div> <div>First bidding Saint Vaśishṭha bring</div> <div>The widowed consorts of the king.</div> <div>As by fraternal love impelled</div> <div>His onward course the hero held,</div> <div>Sumantra followed close behind</div> <div>Śatrughna with an anxious mind:</div> <div>Not Bharat's self more fain could be</div> <div>To look on Ráma's face than he.</div> <div>As, speeding on, the spot he neared,</div> <div>Amid the hermits' homes appeared</div> <div>His brother's cot with leaves o'erspread,</div> <div>And by its side a lowly shed.</div> <div>Before the shed great heaps were left</div> <div>Of gathered flowers and billets cleft,</div> <div>And on the trees hung grass and bark</div> <div>Ráma and Lakshmaṇ's path to mark:</div> <div>And heaps of fuel to provide</div> <div>Against the cold stood ready dried.</div> <div>The long-armed chief, as on he went</div> <div>In glory's light preëminent,</div> <div>With joyous words like these addressed</div> <div>The brave Śatrughna and the rest:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“This is the place, I little doubt,</span></div> <div>Which Bharadvája pointed out,</div> <div>Not far from where we stand must be</div> <div>The woodland stream, Mandákiní.</div> <div>Here on the mountain's woody side</div> <div>Roam elephants in tusked pride,</div> <div>And ever with a roar and cry</div> <div>Each other, as they meet, defy.</div> <div>And see those smoke-wreaths thick and dark:</div> <div>The presence of the flame they mark,</div> <div>Which hermits in the forest strive</div> <div>By every art to keep alive.</div> <div>O happy me! my task is done,</div> <div>And I shall look on Raghu's son,</div> <div>Like some great saint, who loves to treat</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >His elders with all reverence meet.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Thus Bharat reached that forest rill,</div> <div>Thus roamed on Chitrakúṭa's hill;</div> <div>Then pity in his breast awoke,</div> <div>And to his friends the hero spoke:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“Woe, woe upon my life and birth!</span></div> <div>The prince of men, the lord of earth</div> <div>Has sought the lonely wood to dwell</div> <div>Sequestered in a hermit's cell.</div> <div>Through me, through me these sorrows fall</div> <div>On him the splendid lord of all:</div> <div>Through me resigning earthly bliss</div> <div>He hides him in a home like this.</div> <div>Now will I, by the world abhorred,</div> <div>Fall at the dear feet of my lord,</div> <div>And at fair Sítá's too, to win</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >His pardon for my heinous sin.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>As thus he sadly mourned and sighed,</div> <div>The son of Daśaratha spied</div> <div>A bower of leafy branches made,</div> <div>Sacred and lovely in the shade,</div> <div>Of fair proportions large and tall,</div> <div>Well roofed with boughs of palm, and Sál,</div> <div>Arranged in order due o'erhead</div> <div>Like grass upon an altar spread.</div> <div>Two glorious bows were gleaming there,</div> <div>Like Indra's<SPAN id="noteref_377" name="noteref_377" href="#note_377"><span class="tei tei-noteref" ><span style="font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">377</span></span></SPAN> in the rainy air,</div> <div>Terror of foemen, backed with gold,</div> <div>Meet for the mightiest hand to hold:</div> <div>And quivered arrows cast a blaze</div> <div>Bright gleaming like the Day-God's rays:</div> <div>Thus serpents with their eyes aglow</div> <div>Adorn their capital below.<SPAN id="noteref_378" name="noteref_378" href="#note_378"><span class="tei tei-noteref" ><span style="font-size: 60%; vertical-align: super">378</span></span></SPAN></div> <div>Great swords adorned the cottage, laid</div> <div>Each in a case of gold brocade;</div> <div>There hung the trusty shields, whereon</div> <div>With purest gold the bosses shone.</div> <div>The brace to bind the bowman's arm,</div> <div>The glove to shield his hand from harm,</div> <div>A lustre to the cottage lent</div> <div>From many a golden ornament:</div> <div>Safe was the cot from fear of men</div> <div>As from wild beasts the lion's den.</div> <div>The fire upon the altar burned,</div> <div>That to the north and east was turned.</div> <div>Bharat his eager glances bent</div> <div>And gazed within the cot intent;</div> <div>In deerskin dress, with matted hair,</div> <div>Ráma his chief was sitting there:</div> <div>With lion-shoulders broad and strong,</div> <div>With lotus eyes, arms thick and long.</div> <div>The righteous sovereign, who should be</div> <div>Lord paramount from sea to sea,</div> <div>High-minded, born to lofty fate,</div> <div>Like Brahmá's self supremely great;</div> <div>With Lakshmaṇ by his side, and her,</div> <div>Fair Sítá, for his minister.</div> <div>And Bharat gazing, overcome</div> <div>By sorrow for a while was dumb,</div> <div>Then, yielding to his woe, he ran</div> <div>To Ráma and with sobs began:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“He who a royal seat should fill</span></div> <div>With subjects round to do his will,</div> <div>My elder brother,—see him here,</div> <div>With silvan creatures waiting near.</div> <div>The high-souled hero, wont to wear</div> <div>The costliest robes exceeding fair,</div> <div>Now banished, in a deerskin dress,</div> <div>Here keeps the path of righteousness.</div> <div>How brooks the son of Raghu now</div> <div>The matted locks which load his brow,</div> <div>Around whose princely head were twined</div> <div>Sweet blossoms of the rarest kind?</div> <div>The prince whose merits grew, acquired</div> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page210"></span><SPAN name="Pg210" id="Pg210" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <div>By rites performed as he desired,</div> <div>Would now a store of merit gain</div> <div>Bought by his body's toil and pain.</div> <div>Those limbs to which pure sandal lent</div> <div>The freshness of its fragrant scent,</div> <div>Exposed to sun, and dust, and rain,</div> <div>Are now defiled with many a stain.</div> <div>And I the wretched cause why this</div> <div>Falls on the prince whose right is bliss!</div> <div>Ah me, that ever I was born</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >To be the people's hate and scorn!”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Thus Bharat cried: of anguish sprung,</div> <div>Great drops upon his forehead hung.</div> <div>He fell o'erpowered—his grief was such—</div> <div>Ere he his brother's feet could touch.</div> <div>As on the glorious prince he gazed</div> <div>In vain his broken voice he raised:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“Dear lord”</span>—through tears and sobbing came,</div> <div>The only words his lips could frame.</div> <div>And brave Śatrughna wept aloud,</div> <div>As low at Ráma's feet he bowed.</div> <div>Then Ráma, while his tears ran fast,</div> <div>His arms around his brothers cast.</div> <div>Guha, Sumantra came to meet</div> <div>The princes in their wild retreat.</div> <div>Vrihaspati and Śukra bright</div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">Their greeting thus rejoice to pay</div> <div>To the dear Lord who brings the night,</div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">And the great God who rules the day.</div> <div>Then wept the dwellers of the shade,</div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">Whose eyes the princes, meet to ride</div> <div>On mighty elephants, surveyed;</div> <div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 4.00em">And cast all thought of joy aside.</div> </div> <SPAN name="toc357" id="toc357"></SPAN> <SPAN name="pdf358" id="pdf358"></SPAN> <SPAN name="CantoII-CI" id="CantoII-CI" 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 CI. Bharata Questioned.</span></h2> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Then Ráma gazed, and scarcely knew</div> <div>Bharat so worn and changed in hue.</div> <div>He raised him, kissed him on the head,</div> <div>Embraced him, and thus kindly said:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“Where was thy father, brother dear,</span></div> <div>That thou art come to seek me here?</div> <div>Unmeet, if he be living yet,</div> <div>Thy feet within the wood to set.</div> <div>I pray thee now the cause declare</div> <div>Why thou hast left the kingdom there,</div> <div>With matted locks and deerskin dress</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >To roam the distant wilderness.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>Thus questioned by the prince, at length</div> <div>Kaikeyí's son regained his strength,</div> <div>And hand to hand in reverence laid,</div> <div>To Ráma thus his answer made:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“The great-armed monarch, O my lord,</span></div> <div>Has dared to do a thing abhorred,</div> <div>Left us, and grieving for his son,</div> <div>A home among the Gods has won.</div> <div>My mother Queen Kaikeyí gave</div> <div>The order to the king her slave,</div> <div>And at the bidding of the dame</div> <div>He wrought the sin which mars his fame.</div> <div>Athirst for sway, her hopes are crossed,</div> <div>She mourns her son, her husband lost,</div> <div>And through her impious crime will go</div> <div>For punishment to hell below.</div> <div>Now O my lord, forgive me all;</div> <div>Be gracious to thy lowly thrall:</div> <div>Anointed king, accept to-day</div> <div>Like Indra's self, the royal sway.</div> <div>Be gracious, Prince, to lord and peer,</div> <div>And widowed queens who seek thee here</div> <div>Accept the kingdom thine by right,</div> <div>And so thy faithful friends delight.</div> <div>Let the broad land no longer be</div> <div>All widowed and forlorn of thee:</div> <div>Let the full moon of autumn reign</div> <div>Triumphant o'er the night again.</div> <div>These lords and I before thee bend:</div> <div>O Ráma, to our prayer attend.</div> <div>O do not thou this grace deny:</div> <div>Thy brother, pupil, slave am I.</div> <div>Look on this venerable ring,</div> <div>Advisers of our sire the king,</div> <div>From age to age so honoured: thou</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >Shouldst grant their supplication now.”</span></div> </div> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>As weeping thus the hero prayed,</div> <div>His head at Ráma's feet he laid.</div> <div>Like a mad elephant he sighed:</div> <div>And Ráma gazed and thus replied:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“How, brother, can a man of worth,</span></div> <div>True to his vows, of noble birth—</div> <div>A man like me, commit a sin</div> <div>The lordship of the land to win?</div> <div>No slightest shade of fault I see,</div> <div>O tamer of thy foes, in thee.</div> <div>But ne'er shouldst thou in childish thought</div> <div>The queen thy mother blame in aught.</div> <div>O brother wise and sinless, know</div> <div>The sacred laws would have it so,</div> <div>That from good wife and son require</div> <div>Obedience to their lord and sire.</div> <div>And we are all the king's, for thus</div> <div>The virtuous ever reckon us:</div> <div>Yea brother, be it known to thee,</div> <div>His wives, and sons, and pupils we.</div> <div>His is the right, if he deem fit,</div> <div>To bid me, throned as monarch, sit,</div> <div>Or in a coat of bark expel,</div> <div>And deerskin, in the wood to dwell.</div> <div>And O remember, best of all</div> <div>Who act as claims of duty call,</div> <div>As to a virtuous sire is due,</div> <div>Such honour claims a mother too.</div> <div>So they whose lives have ever been</div> <div>By duty led, the king and queen,</div> <div>Said, <span class="tei tei-q" >“Ráma, seek the forest shade:”</span></div> <div>And I (what could I else?) obeyed.</div> <div>Thou must the royal power retain,</div> <span class="tei tei-pb" id="page211"></span><SPAN name="Pg211" id="Pg211" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN> <div>And o'er the famed Ayodhyá reign:</div> <div>I dressed in bark my days will spend</div> <div>Where Daṇḍak's forest wilds extend.</div> <div>So Daśaratha spoke, our king,</div> <div>His share to each apportioning</div> <div>Before his honoured servants' eyes:</div> <div>Then, heir of bliss, he sought the skies.</div> <div>The righteous monarch's honoured will,</div> <div>Whom all revered, must guide thee still,</div> <div>And thou must still enjoy the share</div> <div>Assigned thee by our father's care.</div> <div>So I till twice seven years are spent</div> <div>Will roam this wood in banishment,</div> <div>Contented with the lot which he,</div> <div>My high-souled sire, has given me.</div> <div>The charge the monarch gave, endeared</div> <div>To all mankind, by all revered,</div> <div>Peer of the Lord Supreme,</div> <div>Far better, richer far in gain</div> <div>Of every blessing than to reign</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >O'er all the worlds I deem.”</span></div> </div> <SPAN name="toc359" id="toc359"></SPAN> <SPAN name="pdf360" id="pdf360"></SPAN> <SPAN name="CantoII-CII" id="CantoII-CII" 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 CII. Bharat's Tidings.</span></h2> <div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em"> <div>He spoke: and Bharat thus replied:</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >“If, false to every claim beside,</span></div> <div>I ne'er in kingly duties fail,</div> <div>What will my royal life avail?</div> <div>Still should the custom be observed,</div> <div>From which our line has never swerved,</div> <div>Which to the younger son ne'er gives</div> <div>The kingdom while the elder lives.</div> <div>Now to Ayodhyá rich and fair</div> <div>With me, O Raghu's son, repair,</div> <div>And to protect and gladden all</div> <div>Our house, thyself as king install.</div> <div>A king the world's opinion deems</div> <div>A man: to me a God he seems,</div> <div>Whose life in virtuous thoughts and deeds</div> <div>The lives of other men exceeds.</div> <div>When I in distant Kekaya stayed,</div> <div>And thou hadst sought the forest shade,</div> <div>Our father died, the saints' delight,</div> <div>So constant in each holy rite.</div> <div>Scarce with thy wife and Lakshmaṇ thou</div> <div>Hadst journeyed forth to keep the vow,</div> <div>When mourning for his son, forspent,</div> <div>To heavenly rest the monarch went.</div> <div>Then up, O lord of men, away!</div> <div>His funeral rites of water pay:</div> <div>I and Śatrughna, ere we came,</div> <div>Neglected not the sacred claim.</div> <div>But in the spirit-world, they say,</div> <div>That gift alone is fresh for aye</div> <div>Which best beloved hands have poured;</div> <div>And thou his dearest art, my lord.</div> <div>For thee he longed, for thee he grieved,</div> <div>His every thought on thee was bent,</div> <div>And crushed by woe, of thee bereaved,</div> <div><span class="tei tei-q" >He thought of thee as hence he went.”</span></div> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />