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.