Bharata and Rāma at Citrakūṭa
The meeting of Bharata and Rāma at Citrakūṭa is one of the best loved episodes of the Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa. Daśaratha had died in Ayodhyā, and Rāma was living in exile in the forest. Bharata refused the throne that Kaikeyī’s scheming had won for him. He set out with ministers, ṛshis, citizens, queens and a great army to find Rāma and give the kingdom back to its rightful heir. They met on the bank of the Mandākinī at Citrakūṭa. Bharata begged Rāma to return, and Rāma firmly refused, because he held Daśaratha’s word above everything else.
Bharata’s journey to the forest
Bharata came back from Kekaya and found his father dead and Rāma in exile. His grief and his condemnation of Kaikeyī were total. He refused absolutely to be crowned. The throne belonged to Rāma and to Rāma alone.
He gathered a vast procession. It included Vasishṭha and the royal teachers, and the queens: Kauśalyā, Sumitrā and a reluctant Kaikeyī. It also included the ministers, the citizens who loved Rāma, and a great army of soldiers, horses, elephants and carriages.
The procession travelled south along the route Sumantra had described. They crossed the Gaṅgā at Śṛṅgaverapura, where Guha told Bharata everything about Rāma’s passing. Then they went on to Prayāga. There Bharadvāja Maharshi pointed them to Citrakūṭa. Bharadvāja also used his yogic power to give the whole army a night of wonderful hospitality, a feast of divine abundance, before they went on. (Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, chapters 80–90)
The meeting
The procession reached Citrakūṭa. Bharata saw Rāma dressed as a forest ascetic in bark cloth and jaṭā (matted hair), seated at his āśrama in the forest. Grief and love overwhelmed Bharata. He ran forward and fell at Rāma’s feet. The two brothers embraced in tears. After the pain of their parting and the disaster of Daśaratha’s death, their reunion was full of grief and love together.
Rāma asked Bharata about Daśaratha. Through his tears Bharata told him that Daśaratha had died. The king could not live through the separation from Rāma, and the śāpa (curse) of Śravaṇa’s parents was fulfilled at last. Rāma, Lakshmaṇa and Sītā mourned Daśaratha together at Citrakūṭa. On the bank of the Mandākinī they made the ritual offerings and the piṇḍa-dāna (offering of rice balls) for the dead king. (Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, chapters 91–95)
Bharata’s plea
When the first mourning had passed, Bharata made his great plea to Rāma. He asked Rāma to return to Ayodhyā, accept the throne, and be the king that Ayodhyā needed and dharma required. He said that Kaikeyī’s boons were got by deception, in the setting of Mantharā’s scheming. They were not a true expression of Daśaratha’s will, and so they were not binding. He said that Rāma, as the eldest son, was the rightful king. He said that the people of Ayodhyā, the ministers, the prajā (subjects) and the army, refused to be ruled by anyone else. He made his whole case with feeling and with strong argument.
The ministers and ṛshis who were present also pressed Rāma. Jābāli was a nāstika (one who does not accept the Vedas) ṛshi in the assembly. He argued from a rationalist view that Rāma should return. He said the exile served no real purpose, and that a king’s duty is to his kingdom and his people, not to a promise made under pressure. These arguments are recorded in the famous Jābāli-vivāda (the debate with Jābāli). (Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, the Jābāli chapters)
Rāma’s refusal
Rāma heard every argument with patience and love, but his answer did not change. He would not return. Daśaratha had given his word, the boons had been granted, and Kaikeyī had asked within her right. To return on the ground that the boons were given under emotional pressure or through Mantharā’s scheming would destroy the sacred strength of satya (the given word). It would also weaken the whole structure of dharma on which royal life and social order stand. Once Daśaratha had given his word, it became Rāma’s own dharma. He would spend the full fourteen years in the forest and return to Ayodhyā at the set time, and not one day earlier.
Rāma also answered Jābāli’s nāstika arguments. He said the path of dharma, the honour of the ancestors, the authority of the Vedas and the first place of pitṛ-vākya (the father’s word) are the foundations of civilisation. They cannot be put aside for convenience. His refusal was gentle, firm and complete. (Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, chapters 96–99)
Bharata’s acceptance and the pādukā
Bharata saw that Rāma would not move. He accepted his brother’s decision, though his own grief did not grow less. He asked Rāma for his pādukā (sandals) to carry back as the sign of Rāma’s rule. The pādukā would be placed on the throne of Ayodhyā. Bharata would rule as regent, as Rāma’s representative, until Rāma came back at the end of the fourteen years.
Rāma gave Bharata his golden pādukā. The brothers parted in grief and love. Bharata took the sandals, and Rāma stayed in the forest. The farewell at Citrakūṭa ended Bharata’s hope of changing Rāma’s mind. It also began his own vow: to live as an ascetic at Nandīgrāma, outside Ayodhyā, dressed in the clothes of a forest ascetic, and wait for Rāma’s return. (Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, chapters 99–100)
Sources
- Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, chapters 80–100
- Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, chapters 80–90 (the journey), 91–95 (the meeting), 96–99 (Rāma’s refusal), 99–100 (the pādukā), and the Jābāli chapters