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So Bharat to his grandsire went Obedient to the message sent, And for his fond companion chose S'atrughna slayer of h…
Then to the full assembly bowed The monarch, and addressed the crowd With gracious speech, in accents loud As heavenl…
The monarch with the prayer complied Of suppliant hands, on every side Uplifted like a lotus-bed: And then these grac…
The crowd dismissed, to high debate The monarch called his peers of state, And, counsel from their lips obtained, Fir…
Then Saint Vas'ishtha to the king Came ready at his summoning. 'Now go,' exclaimed the monarch, 'thou Enriched by fer…
Then Ráma bathed in order due, His mind from worldly thoughts withdrew, And with big large-eyed wife besought Náráyan…
It chanced a slave-born handmaid, bred With Queen Kaikeyí, fancy-fed, Mounted the stair and stood upon The terrace li…
The damsel's breast with fury burned: She answered, as the gift she spurned: 'What time, O simple Queen, is this For …
As fury lit Kaikeyí's eyes She spoke with long and burning sighs: 'This day my son enthroned shall see, And Ráma to t…
As Queen Kaikeví thus obeyed The sinful counsel of her maid She sank upon the chamber floor, As sinks in anguish, wou…
To him enthralled by love, and blind, Pierced by his darts who shake the mind, Kaikeyi with remorseless breast Her gr…
The monarch, as Kaikeyi pressed With cruel words her dire request, Stood for a time absorbed in thought While anguish…
Unworthy of his mournful fate, The mighty king, unfortunate, Lay prostrate in unseemly guise, As, banished from the b…
The wicked queen her speech renewed, When rolling on the earth she viewed Ikshváku's son, Ayodhyá's king, For his dea…
There slept the Bráhmans, deeply read In Scripture, till the night had fled; Then, with the royal chaplains, they Too…
So through the crowded inner door Sumantra, skilled in ancient lore, On to the private chambers pressed Which stood a…
As Ráma, rendering blithe and gay His loving friends, pursued his way, He saw on either hand a press Of mingled peopl…
With hopeless eye and pallid mien There sat the monarch with the queen. His father's feet with reverence due He clasp…
Calm and unmoved by threatened woe The noble conqueror of the foe Answered the cruel words she spoke, Nor quailed ben…
But in the monarch's palace, when Sped from the bower that lord of men, Up from the weeping women went A mighty wail …
While thus Kaus'alyá wept and sighed. With timely words sad Lakshman cried: 'O honoured Queen I like it ill That, sub…
So Ráma kept unshaken still His noble heart with iron will. To his dear brother next he turned, Whose glaring eyes wi…
Thus Rama to his brother said; And Lakshman bent his drooping head. In turns by grief and pride impelled, A middle co…
But when Kaus'alyá saw that he Resolved to keep his sire's decree, While tears and sobs her utterance broke, Her very…
Her grief and woe she cast aside, Her lips with water purified, And thus her benison began That mother of the noblest…
So Ráma, to his purpose true, To Queen Kaus'alyá bade adieu, Received the benison she gave, And to the path of duty c…
His sweetly-speaking bride, who best Deserved her lord, he thus addressed. Then tender love bade passion wake, And th…
Thus Sitá spake, and he who knew His duty, to its orders true, Was still reluctant as the woes Of forest life before …
Thus Ráma spake. Her lord's address The lady heard with deep distress. And, as the tear bedimmed her eye, In soft low…
The daughter of Videha's king, While Ráma strove to soothe the sting Of her deep anguish, thus began Once more in fur…
When Lakshman, who had joined them there, Had heard the converse of the pair, His mien was changed, his eyes o'erflow…
That speech so noble which conveyed His friendly wish, the chief obeyed. With steps made swift by anxious thought The…
Thus Sítá and the princes brave Much wealth to all the Bráhmans gave Then to the monarch's house the three Went forth…
The dark incomparable chief Whose eye was like a lotus leaf, Cried to the mournful charioteer, 'Go tell my sire that …
Wild with the rage he could not calm, Sumantra, grinding palm on palm, His head in quick impatience shook, And sighed…
Ikshváku's son with anguish torn For the great oath his lips had sworn, With tears and sighs of sharpest pain Thus to…
Thus spake the virtuous sage: and then Ráma addressed the king of men. In laws of meek behaviour bred, Thus to his si…
Then when the people wroth and sad Saw Sítá in bark vesture clad, Though wedded, like some widowed thing, They cried …
Scarce had the sire, with each dear queen, Heard Ráma's pleading voice, and seen His darling in his hermit dress Ere …
Then Ráma, Sítá, Lakshman bent At the king's feet, and sadly went Round him with slow steps reverent. When Ráma of th…
The lion chief with hands upraised Was born from eyes that fondly gazed. But then the ladies' bower was rent With cri…
While yet the dust was seen afar That marked the course of Ráma's car, The glory of Ikshváku's race Turned not away h…
Kaus'alyá saw the monarch lie With drooping frame and failing eye, And for her banished son distressed With these sad…
Kaus´alyá ceased her sad lament, Of beauteous dames most excellent. Sumitrá who to duty clave, In righteous words thi…
Their tender love the people drew To follow Ráma brave and true, The high-souled hero, as he went Forth from his home…
When Ráma. chief of Raghu's race, Arrived at that delightful place, He looked on Sítá first, and then To Lakshman spa…
The people, when the morn shone fair, Arose to find no Ráma there. Then fear and numbing grief subdued The senses of …
When those who forth with Ráma went Back to the town their steps had bent, It seemed that death had touched and chill…
Now Ráma, ere the night was fled, O'er many a league of road had sped, Till, as his course he onward held, The morn t…
So through the wide and fair extent Of Kosala the hero went. Then toward Ayodmá back he gazed, And cried, with supple…
As Lakshman still his vigil held By unaffected love impelled, Guha, whose heart the sight distressed, With words like…
Soon as the shades of night had fled, Uprising from his lowly bed, Ráma the famous, broad of chest, His brother Laksh…
When evening rites were duly paid, Reclined beneath the leafy shade, To Lakshman thus spake Ráma, best Of those who g…
So there that night the heroes spent Under the boughs that o'er them bent, And when the sun his glory spread, Upstart…
The princely tamers of their foes Thus passed the night in calm repose, Then to the hermit having bent With reverence…
Then Ráma, when the morning rose, Called Lakshman gently from repose: 'Awake, the pleasant voices hear Of forest bird…
When Ráma reached the southern bank, King Guha's heart with sorrow sank: He with Sumantra talked, and spent With his …
The king a while had senseless lain, When care brought memory back again. Then straight he called, the news to hear O…
As thus Sumantra, best of peers, Told his sad tale with many tears, The monarch cried, 'I pray thee, tell At length a…
As Queen Kaus'alyá, trembling much, As blighted by a goblin's touch, Still lying prostrate, half awoke To consciousne…
When, best of all who give delight, her rama wandered for from sight, Kausaaly'a weeping, sore distressed, The king h…
The queen's stern speech the monarch heard, As rage and grief her bosom stirred, And by his anguish sore oppressed Re…
But soon by rankling grief oppressed The king awoke from troubled rest, And his sad heart was tried again With anxiou…
The son of Raghu to his queen Thus far described the unequalled scene, And, as the hermit's death he rued, The mournf…
And now the night had past away, And brightly dawned another day; The minstrels, trained to play and sing, Flocked to…
Kaus'alyá's eyes with tears o'erflowed. Weighed down by varied sorrows's load; On her dead lord her gaze she bent, Wh…
That night of sorrow passed away, And rose again the God of Day. Then all the twice-born peers of state Together met …
Vas'ishtha heard their speech and prayer, And thus addressed the concourse there. Friends, Brámans, counsellors, and …
The night those messengers of state Had past within the city's gate, In dreams the slumbering Bharat saw A sight that…
While thus he spoke, the envoys borne On horses faint and travel-worn Had gained the city fenced around With a deep m…
Then Bharat's face was eastward bent As from the royal town he went. He reached Sudámá's farther side, And glorious, …
He entered in, he looked around, Nor in the house his father found; Then to his mother's dwelling, bent To see her fa…
But when he heard the queen relate His brothers' doom, his father's fate, Thus Bharat to his mother said With burning…
When Bharat's anger-sharpened tongue Reproaches on the queen had flung, Again, with mighty rage possessed, The guilty…
A while he lay: he rose at length, And slowly gathering sense and strength, With angry eyes which tears bedewed, The …
The saint Vas'ishtha, best of all Whose words with moving wisdom fall, Bharat, Kaikeyí's son, addressed, Whom burning…
The tenth day passed: the prince again Was free from every legal stain. Ha bade them on the twelfth the great Remaini…
Satrughna thus to Bharat spake Who longed the forest road to take: 'He who in woe was wont to give Strength to himsel…
Now when the sun's returning ray Had ushered in the fourteenth day, The gathered peers of state addressed To Bharat's…
All they who knew the joiner's art, Or distant ground in every part; Each busied in his several trade, To work machin…
Ere yet the dawn had ushered in The day should see the march begin, Herald and bard who rightly knew Each nice degree…
The prudent prince the assembly viewed Thronged with its noble multitude, Resplendent as a cloudless night When the f…
Then Bharat rose at early morn, And in his noble chariot borne Drove forward at a rapid pace Eager to look on Ráma's …
King Guha saw the host spread o'er The wide expanse of Gangá's shore, With waving flag and pennon graced, And to his …
Thus tho Nishadas' king besought: The prince with spirit wisdom-fraught Replied in seemly words that blent Deep matte…
Guha the king, acquainted well With all that in the wood befell, To Bharat the unequalled told The tale of Lakshman m…
That speech of Guha Bharat heard With grief and tender pity stirred, And as his ears the story drank, Deep in his tho…
When Bharat with each friend and peer Had heard that tale so full and clear, They went together to the tree The bed w…
That night the son of Raghu lay On Gangá's bank till break of day: Then with the earliest light he woke And thus to b…
The prince of men a league away Saw where the hermit's dwelling lay, Then with his lords his path pursued, And left h…
Soon as he saw the prince's mind To rest that day was well inclined, He sought Kaikeyí's son to please With hospitabl…
So Bharat with his army spent The watches of the night content, And gladly, with the morning's light Drew near his ho…
As through the woods its way pursued That mignty bannered multitude, Wild elephants in terror fled With all the start…
There long the son of Raghu dwelt And love for hill and wood he felt. Then his Videhan spouse to please And his own h…
Then Ráma, like the lotus eyed, Descended from the mountain side, And to the Maithil lady showed The lovely stream th…
Thus Rama showed to Janak's child The varied beauties of the wild, The hill, the brook and each fair spot, Then turne…
Thus Ráma showed his love the rill Whose waters ran beneath the hill, Then resting on his mountain seat Refreshed her…
Then Ráma nobly calm allayed The wrath that Lakshman's bosom swayed: 'What need have we the sword to wield, To bend t…
Soon as the warriors took their rest Obeying Bharat's high behest, Thus Bharat to Satrughna spake: 'A band of soldier…
'Then Bharat to Satrughna showed The spot, and eager onward strode, First bidding Saint Vasishtha bring The widowed c…
Then Rama gazed, and scarcely knew Bharat so worn and changed in hue. He raised him, kissed him on the head, Embraced…
He spoke: and Bharat thus replied; 'If, false to every claim beside, I ne'er in kingly duties fail, What will my roya…
When Rama heard from Bharat each Dark sorrow of his mournful speech, And tidings of his father dead, His spirits fell…
Vas'ishtha with his soul athirst To look again on Rama, first In line the royal widows placed, And then the way behin…
A while they sat, each lip compressed, Then Bharat thus his chief addressed: 'My mother here was made content; To me …
Good Bharat, by the river side, To virtuous Ráma's speech replied, And thus with varied lore addressed The prince, wh…
Thus, by his friends encompassed round, He spoke, and Ráma, far renowned, To his dear brother thus replied, Whom holy…
Thus Ráma soothed his brother's grief: Then virtuous Jáváli, chief Of twice-born sages, thus replied In words that vi…
By sage Jáváli thus addressed, Ráma of truthful hearts the best, With perfect skill and wisdom high Thus to his speec…
Then spake Vasishtha who perceived That Ráma's soul was wroth and grieved: ' Well knows the sage J'av'ali all The cha…
Thus said Vas'ishtha, and again. To Ráma spake in duteous strain: ' All men the light of life who see With high respe…
High wonder mingled with delight Took the great sages at the sight. Thrilling their breasts who came to view The meet…
Bearing the sandals on his head Away triumphant Bharat sped, And clomb, S'atrughna by his side, The car wherein he wo…
Deep, pleasant was the chariot's sound As royal Bharat, far renowned, Whirled by his mettled coursers fast Within Ayo…
Then when the pious chief had seen Lodged in her home each widowed queen, Still with his burning grief oppressed His …
When Bharat took his homeward road Still Ráma in the wood abode: But soon he marked the fear and care That darkened a…
But dwelling in that lonely spot Left by the hermits pleased him not. 'I met the faithful Bharat here, The townsmen, …
Thus by the holy dame addressed Who banished envy from her breast, Her lowly reverence Sítá paid, And softly thus her…
When Anasúyá, virtuous-souled, Had heard the tale by Sítá told, She kissed the lady's brow and laced Her loving arms …