When the ten days had gone by, the king's son, his uncleanness
(consequent on the demise of his father) removed, performed the
_sraddha_ on the twelfth day. On the occasion of the ceremonies for the
welfare of the departed spirit, the son of the king conferred on
Brahmanas wealth and gems, and rice in abudance, and herds of goats, and
silver in profusion, and countless kine, and maid-servants and
man-servants, and vehicles and spacious mansions. And on the thirteenth
day, the long armed Bharata, overwhelmed with grief, burst into
lamentation. And coming to the foot of the funeral pyre for gathering
the bones of the departed, he overcome with grief, with his throat
obstructed with the sounds of lamentation, said, "my father, on brother
Rama, to whom I had been consigned by thee, having gone to the forest, I
have been cast by thee into vacancy. My father, forsaking forlorn mother
Kaucalya, whose stay her son, had gone to the forest, where hast thou
gone, O king?" And seeing the spot where lay the bones of his father
mixed with ashes and embers, Bharata looking at the place where occurred
the dissolution of his father's frame, carried away by emotion, indulged
in sorrow. And seeing this, he exceedingly distressed, crying fell down
to the ground. And raised up (by others) he looked like an uplifted
banner of _Sakra_ bound to an engine. And his counsellors rushed towards
that one of pure vows, like the saints making towards Jayati as he was
falling on the extinction of his merit. Seeing Bharata plunged in grief,
Satrughna remembering the king, fell down to the ground deprived of
consciousness. And devoid of sense and like a madman, he in grief of
heart began to lament remembering all the virtues of his father again
and again. "This terrible sea of grief owing its origin to Manthara,
containing its ferocious aquatic animal in the shape of Kaikeyi, and
incapable of being disturbed in consequence of the bestowal of the boon
drowns (us). O father, where hast thou gone, leaving the tender and
youthful Bharata fondled by thee, to lament (thy loss). Thou didst use
to confer on us eatables and drinkables and attires and ornaments. Who
will now do so? Deprived of thee, the high souled king cognisant of
duty, the earth albeit her time of riving is come, is not yet riven. My
father having gone to heaven and Rama having sought the woods, how can I
live? I will enter fire. Bereft of my brother and sire, I will not enter
the empty Ayodhya governed by the Ikshwakus. I will repair to the forest
of asceticism." Hearing his lamentations and seeing that disaster, all
the followers became all the more distressed. Then depressed and
exhausted, both Satrughna and Bharata rolled on the earth like two bulls
with their horns fractured. Then the all-knowing priest of their father
possessed of sterling worth, Vasishtha, raising Bharata, said unto him,
"O Lord this is the thirteenth day since the cremation of thy sire. Why
dost thou delay, when thou hast to collect the bones? Three couples[169]
pertain in especial to all creatures and these being inevitable, thou
ought not to bear yourself thus. And Sumantra also versed in the nature
of things, raising up Satrughna and pacifying him, discoursed the birth
and death of all beings. Being raised up, those renowned chiefs of men
looked like Indra's banner stained by shine and shower. And as the
princes stood there shedding tears, with reddened eyes, and speaking
sadly, the courtiers urged them on in behalf of the rites that remained.
[169] Hunger and thirst, ignorance and grief, sickness and death.