Bharat Milap: The Sandals on the Throne

On the bank of the Ganga, Guha, the Nishad chief, saw the great army and grew suspicious: was Bharata going to kill Ram? He told his men to stand ready in their boats and went himself, with gifts, to meet Bharata. Bharata asked him, "Where did Ram sleep? Show me the place." Guha showed him the flattened grass under the ingudi tree. Bharata wept aloud. "He who never lay down except on silk slept here, and because of me." Guha knew then that there was no deceit in this heart. From that day Bharata too put on bark and slept on the ground.

Lakshmana's suspicion

At Chitrakoot the animals of the forest suddenly began to run and dust filled the sky. Lakshmana climbed a tall sal tree. He saw the army and recognised the banner with the kovidara tree on the chariot. He came down in fury. "Brother, put out the fire and send Sita into the cave. Bharata has the kingdom and is still not satisfied; he comes to kill us. I will not spare him today."

Ram said calmly, "Lakshmana, when has Bharata ever wronged you? He is dearer to me than life. I believe he has come to take us home. And if you want the kingdom so much, I will tell Bharata to give it to you. He will say yes at once." Lakshmana shrank with shame.

The meeting

Bharata halted the army at a distance and went on foot. Outside the hut he saw Ram: matted hair, bark cloth, a seat of kusha grass on the ground. "Brother!" He could say no more, and ran and fell at his feet. Ram raised him and held him to his chest. He had grown so thin that he was hard to recognise.

Ram first asked after the kingdom, and then, "How is my father?" Weeping, Bharata told him that he was no more. Ram fell senseless. Then the four brothers went down to the Mandakini, and Ram offered water to his father, and a cake made from the same ingudi fruit that he himself ate. "Father, what a man eats, that he offers to his gods."

Ram does not yield

The next day an assembly sat. Bharata folded his hands. "What my mother did was not done by my wish. The kingdom is yours. Come home. Or let me live in the forest in your place." The queens said it, Guru Vasishtha said it, the people said it. The sage Jabali even argued that a dead father's word no longer binds.

Ram gave all of them the same answer. "What my father said while he lived, I cannot make false now that he is gone. The moon may give up its beauty and the Himalaya its snow, but I will not give up my father's promise. Bharata, he gave the kingdom to you and the forest to me. Let each of us carry out his share."

Bharata understood that Ram would not return. Then he placed before him a pair of wooden sandals overlaid with gold. "Brother, set your feet on these. From now on they will rule Ayodhya." Ram stepped on them, stepped off, and gave them to Bharata.

Bharata placed them on his head and made his vow: "For fourteen years I will wear matted hair and bark, eat fruit and roots, and live outside the city, entrusting the kingdom to these sandals and watching for you. If I do not see you on the day after the fourteenth year ends, I will enter fire."

Ram embraced him and said one last thing as he left: "Take care of Mother Kaikeyi. Never be angry with her. I bind you by my name and Sita's."

Nandigram

Bharata returned to Ayodhya but did not enter the palace. At Nandigram, outside the city, he set the sandals on the throne and sat below them. Every matter of state was first laid before the sandals and then decided.

At Chitrakoot, meanwhile, every tree reminded Ram of Bharata and his mothers, and people from Ayodhya had begun to come and go. He moved on with Sita and Lakshmana. At the ashram of the sage Atri, the sage's wife Anasuya loved Sita like a daughter and gave her heavenly garments, a garland and fragrant ointment. The next morning the three entered the deep forest of Dandaka.

Here the Ayodhya Kanda ends. The story continues in the Aranya Kanda.