Chapter CVIII: Section XXXIII

Having distributed much wealth to the Brahmanas, the Raghavas set out with Sita for the purpose of seeing their father. And the two looked beautiful with a couple of handmaids (following them), taking the weapons that had been decked by Sita with flowery wreaths. Then crowds of elegantly-attired citizens, mounting on the terraces of three- storied and seven-storied houses, looked on the scene with hearts filled with sorrow. And unable to tread the streets because of a vast concourse, they ascending the terraces of the buildings, eyed Raghava with woe-begone eyes. And deprived of their senses by grief, the multitudes,[135] beholding Rama proceeding on foot in company with Sita and his younger brother, said,--"He that used to be followed by the vast body of the four-fold forces, proceeds now along with Sita, followed by Lakshmana alone. Knowing every kind of enjoyment, that magnanimous one who has tasted of every luxury, for maintaining the dignity of morality, does not wish to falsify (his father's) word. And that Sita whom formerly the very rangers of the sky could not see, is to-day beheld by the passers-by. Now summer's heat and winter's cold and the rains of the wet season will speedily stain Sita, whose person is worthy of being dyed, and who used to daub her limbs with red sandal paste. Surely to-day Dacaratha speaks thus, possessed by some evil spirit; for the king ought by no means to banish his beloved son. Who ever exiles his son, albeit he be worthless? And what is to be said concerning a son that has fast secured all men's hearts by his behavior? Universal benevolence, kindness, learning goodness, the restraint of the senses, and the control of the faculties,--these six qualities adorn that best of men, Raghava. Therefore the subjects will be afflicted in consequence of his separation, even as aquatic animals are, when summer dries up the waters of a tank. The entire earth is distressed on account of the distress of this lord of the earth, even like a tree bearing blossoms and fruits, when its roots have been severed. Surely this highly effulgent one with virtue for his chief good, is the root of humanity, and the latter represents its flowers, fruits, foliage, and boughs. Therefore, accompanied by our wives and friends will we like Lakshmana follow the departing Raghava by the same way that he takes. And leaving aside our gardens and fields and abodes, will we, making the righteous Rama's happiness and misery our own, follow him. Let Kaikeyi possess herself of our deserted mansions, deprived of their buried treasures, with their unswept courtyards robbed of kine and wealth, and shorn of all substance, filled with dust, and abandoned by the deities, mansions where rats will run from hole to hole, which will neither emit smoke nor contain water, which will not be swept by broomsticks, from which sacrifices, and the slaughter of sacrificial beasts,and the offering of oblations and the recitation of sacred texts, and _Yapa_, will be absent, and around which will be strewn broken earthenware, as they are on occasions of political commotions or the occurrence of natural calamities. Let the forest to which Raghava repairs resemble a city, and let this city renounced by us be converted into a wilderness. Inspired by the fear of us, serpents will leave their holes, and beasts and birds the caves of mountain, and elephants and lions the forest. Let them occupy the tracts left behind by us, and let them renounce such abounding in serpents, beasts, and birds, as yield grass, meat, and fruits. Let Kaikeyi (reign in this realm) along with her sons and adherents; we, renouncing homes, will dwell in the forest with Raghava."

Raghava heard various words uttered thus by the populace; and having heard them, he did not suffer his mind to be agitated. And that righteous one of the prowess of a mad elephant, from a distance began to make for the residence of his father resembling in brightness a summit of the Kailaca mountain. Entering the king's mansion, he drawing nigh found the heroic Sumantra seated in dejected mood. Seeing that well-wisher of his thus depressed, Rama endeavouring by all means to do his father's bidding, cheerfully went on, desirous of beholding his sire. And with the view of meeting the aggrieved king before repairing to the forest, the magnanimous son of the Ikshwaku race, seeing Sumantra, stayed there,--so that that noble-minded one might inform his father of his visit. And making up his mind to go to the woods in accordance with the command of his father, Raghava seeing Sumantra, said unto him; "Do you inform the king of my arrival."

[135] Another reading is,--_Beholding Rama without his umbrella and
walking afoot_.-- T.