Ramayana · Vol 1
The Sandals
Volume 3 of 9Start from Volume 1 →
Bharata is called home from his grandfather's country with word that all is well. In Ayodhya he finds his father dead and his elder brother Rama banished to the forest, and his own mother, smiling, hands the kingdom to him.
- Series
- Ramayana
- Contents
- 13 chapters, 22,902 words
- Transparency
- SI-assisted work
About this work
King Dasharatha is dead, and his body lies in a trough of oil in Ayodhya. The sage Vasishtha sends four riders to Kekaya to fetch Bharata, strictly forbidding them to say what has happened. That night Bharata dreams of his father smeared with oil and carried south in a cart drawn by donkeys. The envoys say only that all is well. For seven nights he drives his chariot home, and what he finds is a silent city and his father's empty room. His mother, Kaikeyi, greets him joyfully and smiles as she tells him of the death. Bharata asks where his elder brother Rama is. Kaikeyi answers that Rama has gone to the Dandaka forest at her request to the king, and that the kingdom now belongs to Bharata. She grips her son's hand and says she did it all for him. This novel retells the final part of the Ayodhya Kanda of Valmiki's Ramayana, in the Indian version.
