The Ramayana Part 67

The sacred fires he bade them bring Forth from the chapel of the king, Wherein the priests in order due, And ministers, the offerings threw.

Distraught in mind, with sob and tear, They laid the body on a bier, And servants, while their eyes brimmed o'er The monarch from the palace bore.

Another band of mourners led The long procession of the dead: Rich garments in the way they cast, And gold and silver, as they pa.s.sed.

Then other hands the corse bedewed With fragrant juices that exude From sandal, cedar, aloe, pine, And every perfume rare and fine.

Then priestly hands the mighty dead Upon the pyre deposited.

The sacred fires they tended next, And muttered low each funeral text; And priestly singers who rehea.r.s.e The Saman(352) sang their holy verse.

Forth from the town in litters came, Or chariots, many a royal dame, And honoured so the funeral ground, With aged followers ringed around.

With steps in inverse order bent,(353) The priests in sad procession went Around the monarch's burning pyre Who well had nursed each sacred fire: With Queen Kausalya and the rest, Their tender hearts with woe distressed.

The voice of women, shrill and clear As screaming curlews, smote the ear, As from a thousand voices rose The shriek that tells of woman's woes.

Then weeping, faint, with loud lament, Down Sarju's shelving bank they went.

There standing on the river side With Bharat, priest, and peer, Their lips the women purified With water fresh and clear.

Returning to the royal town, Their eyes with tear-drops filled, Ten days on earth they laid them down, And wept till grief was stilled.

Canto LXXVII. The Gathering Of The Ashes.

The tenth day pa.s.sed: the prince again Was free from every legal stain.

He bade them on the twelfth the great Remaining honour celebrate.

Much gold he gave, and gems, and food, To all the Brahman mult.i.tude, And goats whose hair was white and fine, And many a thousand head of kine: Slaves, men and damsels, he bestowed, And many a car and fair abode: Such gifts he gave the Brahman race His father's obsequies to grace.

Then when the morning's earliest ray Appeared upon the thirteenth day, Again the hero wept and sighed Distraught and sorrow-stupefied; Drew, sobbing in his anguish, near, The last remaining debt to clear, And at the bottom of the pyre, He thus bespake his royal sire: "O father, hast thou left me so, Deserted in my friendless woe, When he to whom the charge was given To keep me, to the wood is driven?

Her only son is forced away Who was his helpless mother's stay: Ah, whither, father, art thou fled; Leaving the queen uncomforted?"

He looked upon the pile where lay The bones half-burnt and ashes grey, And uttering a piteous moan, Gave way, by anguish overthrown.

Then as his tears began to well, Prostrate to earth the hero fell; So from its seat the staff they drag, And cast to earth some glorious flag.

The ministers approached again The prince whom rites had freed from stain; So when Yayati fell, each seer, In pity for his fate, drew near.

Satrughna saw him lying low O'erwhelmed beneath the crush of woe, And as upon the king he thought, He fell upon the earth distraught.

When to his loving memory came Those n.o.ble gifts, that kingly frame, He sorrowed, by his woe distressed, As one by frenzied rage possessed: "Ah me, this surging sea of woe Has drowned us with its overflow: The source is Manthara, dire and dark, Kaikeyi is the ravening shark: And the great boons the monarch gave Lend conquering might to every wave.

Ah, whither wilt thou go, and leave Thy Bharat in his woe to grieve, Whom ever 'twas thy greatest joy To fondle as a tender boy?

Didst thou not give with thoughtful care Our food, our drink, our robes to wear?

Whose love will now for us provide, When thou, our king and sire, hast died?

At such a time bereft, forlorn, Why is not earth in sunder torn, Missing her monarch's firm control, His love of right, his lofty soul?

Ah me, for Rama roams afar, My sire is where the Blessed are; How can I live deserted? I Will pa.s.s into the fire and die.

Abandoned thus, I will not brook Upon Ayodhya's town to look, Once guarded by Ikshvaku's race: The wood shall be my dwelling place."

Then when the princes' mournful train Heard the sad brothers thus complain, And saw their misery, at the view Their grief burst wilder out anew.

Faint with lamenting, sad and worn, Each like a bull with broken horn, The brothers in their wild despair Lay rolling, mad with misery, there.

Then old Vasish?ha good and true, Their father's priest, all lore who knew, Raised weeping Bharat on his feet, And thus bespake with counsel meet: "Twelve days, my lord, have past away Since flames consumed thy father's clay: Delay no more: as rules ordain, Gather what bones may yet remain.

Three constant pairs are ever found To hem all mortal creatures round:(354) Then mourn not thus, O Prince, for none Their close companions.h.i.+p may shun."

Sumantra bade Satrughna rise, And soothed his soul with counsel wise, And skilled in truth, his hearer taught How all things are and come to naught.

When rose each hero from the ground, A lion lord of men, renowned, He showed like Indra's flag,(355) whereon Fierce rains have dashed and suns have shone.

They wiped their red and weeping eyes, And gently made their sad replies: Then, urged to haste, the royal pair Performed the rites that claimed their care.

Canto LXXVIII. Manthara Punished.

Satrughna thus to Bharat spake Who longed the forest road to take: "He who in woe was wont to give Strength to himself and all that live- Dear Rama, true and pure in heart, Is banished by a woman's art.

Yet here was Lakshma?, brave and strong, Could not his might prevent the wrong?

Could not his arm the king restrain, Or make the banished free again?

One loving right and fearing crime Had checked the monarch's sin in time, When, va.s.sal of a woman's will, His feet approached the path of ill."

While Lakshma?'s younger brother, dread Satrughna, thus to Bharat said, Came to the fronting door, arrayed In glittering robes, the hump-back maid.

There she, with sandal-oil besmeared, In garments meet for queens appeared: And l.u.s.tre to her form was lent By many a gem and ornament.

She girdled with her broidered zone, And many a chain about her thrown, Showed like a female monkey round Whose body many a string is bound.

When on that cause of evil fell The quick eye of the sentinel, He grasped her in his ruthless hold, And hastening in, Satrughna told: "Here is the wicked pest," he cried, "Through whom the king thy father died, And Rama wanders in the wood: Do with her as thou deemest good."

The warder spoke: and every word Satrughna's breast to fury stirred: He called the servants, all and each.

And spake in wrath his hasty speech: "This is the wretch my sire who slew, And misery on my brothers drew: Let her this day obtain the meed, Vile sinner, of her cruel deed."

He spake; and moved by fury laid His mighty hand upon the maid, Who as her fellows ringed her round, Made with her cries the hall resound.

Soon as the gathered women viewed Satrughna in his angry mood, Their hearts disturbed by sudden dread, They turned and from his presence fled.

"His rage," they cried, "on us will fall, And ruthless, he will slay us all.

Come, to Kausalya let us flee: Our hope, our sure defence is she, Approved by all, of virtuous mind, Compa.s.sionate, and good, and kind."

His eyes with burning wrath aglow, Satrughna, shatterer of the foe, Dragged on the ground the hump-back maid Who shrieked aloud and screamed for aid.

This way and that with no remorse He dragged her with resistless force, And chains and glittering trinkets burst Lay here and there with gems dispersed, Till like the sky of Autumn shone The palace floor they sparkled on.

The lord of men, supremely strong, Haled in his rage the wretch along: Where Queen Kaikeyi dwelt he came, And sternly then addressed the dame.

Deep in her heart Kaikeyi felt The stabs his keen reproaches dealt, And of Satrughna's ire afraid, To Bharat flew and cried for aid.

He looked and saw the prince inflamed With burning rage, and thus exclaimed: "Forgive! thine angry arm restrain: A woman never may be slain.

My hand Kaikeyi's blood would spill, The sinner ever bent on ill, But Rama, long in duty tried, Would hate the impious matricide: And if he knew thy vengeful blade Had slaughtered e'en this hump-back maid, Never again, be sure, would he Speak friendly word to thee or me."

When Bharat's speech Satrughna heard He calmed the rage his breast that stirred, Releasing from her dire constraint The trembling wretch with terror faint.

Then to Kaikeyi's feet she crept, And prostrate in her misery wept.

Kaikeyi on the hump-back gazed, And saw her weep and gasp.

Still quivering, with her senses dazed, From fierce Satrughna's grasp.

With gentle words of pity she a.s.suaged her wild despair, E'en as a tender hand might free A curlew from the snare.

Canto LXXIX. Bharat's Commands.

Now when the sun's returning ray Had ushered in the fourteenth day, The gathered peers of state addressed To Bharat's ear their new request: "Our lord to heaven has parted hence, Long served with deepest reverence; Rama, the eldest, far from home, And Lakshma?, in the forest roam.

O Prince, of mighty fame, be thou Our guardian and our monarch now, Lest secret plot or foeman's hate a.s.sail our unprotected state.

With longing eyes, O Lord of men, To thee look friend and citizen, And ready is each sacred thing To consecrate our chosen king.

Come, Bharat, and accept thine own Ancient hereditary throne.

Thee let the priests this day install As monarch to preserve us all."

Around the sacred gear he bent His circling footsteps reverent, And, firm to vows he would not break, Thus to the gathered people spake: "The eldest son is ever king: So rules the house from which we spring: Nor should ye, Lords, like men unwise, With words like these to wrong advise.

Rama is eldest born, and he The ruler of the land shall be.

Now to the woods will I repair, Five years and nine to lodge me there.

a.s.semble straight a mighty force, Cars, elephants, and foot and horse, For I will follow on his track And bring my eldest brother back.

Whate'er the rites of throning need Placed on a car the way shall lead: The sacred vessels I will take To the wild wood for Rama's sake.

I o'er the lion prince's head The sanctifying balm will shed, And bring him, as the fire they bring Forth from the shrine, with triumphing.

Nor will I let my mother's greed In this her cherished aim succeed: In pathless wilds will I remain, And Rama here as king shall reign.