Rāma Pādukā

When Rāma refused to return to Ayodhyā, Bharata asked for Rāma’s pādukā (sandals) at Citrakūṭa. This is one of the best known moments of the Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa. Bharata took the sandals back to Ayodhyā as the sign of Rāma’s rule and placed them on the throne. He then governed as regent in their name. He wore bark cloth and jaṭā (matted hair) like an ascetic and lived at Nandīgrāma instead of the palace, for the full fourteen years until Rāma came back.

The gift of the pādukā

The meeting at Citrakūṭa ended with Rāma’s firm refusal to go back to Ayodhyā. Bharata accepted that his brother’s decision could not be moved. He could not bring Rāma back in person, so he made one last request. He asked for Rāma’s pādukā, to carry home as the sign of Rāma’s rule.

Rāma gave Bharata his golden pādukā. The sandals now carried the weight of Rāma’s authority. By accepting them and placing them on the throne, Bharata told the whole kingdom three things. Rāma was still the true king of Ayodhyā. Everything done was done in Rāma’s name and for Rāma’s sake. Bharata himself was only a caretaker waiting for the king to return. (Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, chapter 100)

Bharata’s vow

When Bharata received the pādukā, he made a binding vow. If Rāma did not return on the fourteenth day after his fourteen years of exile were complete, Bharata would enter fire and give up his life. He made this vow with Rāma as witness, and with the ministers, ṛshis and queens standing by. It showed how complete his devotion was and how firmly he held to Rāma’s return.

Nandīgrāma

Bharata did not go back to live in the palace of Ayodhyā. He made his home at Nandīgrāma, a village outside the city, and lived as a forest ascetic. He wore bark cloth and jaṭā, ate forest food, slept on the ground and gave up every royal comfort. He ruled the kingdom of Ayodhyā from Nandīgrāma. Rāma’s pādukā were set on a throne beside him, and he made every decision of government in the name of the pādukā, as if Rāma were present in the sandals themselves.

The king was absent, his sandals were on the throne, and his devoted brother ruled as their keeper. This was Bharata’s way of keeping the kingdom in a situation with no easy answer, without taking what belonged to Rāma. (Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, chapters 107–112)

The pādukā as a sacred sign

The Rāma-pādukā became one of the most sacred signs of the Rāmāyaṇa tradition. Placed on the throne in place of the king, the sandals show that rule rests on dharma and authority and not only on the king being there in person. Bhagavān Rāma’s authority went on governing Ayodhyā even when he was away, through his pādukā, kept by his most devoted brother.

The tradition of pādukā-pūjā (honouring the sandals of a guru or a deva as the same as their presence) traces its sanctity to this act of Bharata.

Sources

• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, chapters 99–112
• Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, chapter 100 (the gift of the pādukā)
• Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, chapters 107–112 (Nandīgrāma)