Nandigrāma is the village near Ayodhyā where Bharata lived for the whole fourteen years of Rāma’s exile. He lived there as a forest ascetic and ruled the kingdom from there, keeping Rāma’s pādukās (sandals) on a throne.

Bharata at Nandigrāma

Bharata met Rāma at Citrakūṭa, and Rāma refused to return. Bharata then came back bringing Rāma’s golden pādukās. He did not enter the royal palace of Ayodhyā. He made his home at Nandigrāma, a village near the city, as a sign that the palace and the city truly belonged to Rāma and not to him. At Nandigrāma he placed Rāma’s pādukās on a throne made ready for them. The sandals stood for Rāma’s presence and his rule, and Bharata sat beside them as their guard.

Bharata lived there exactly as a vānaprastha (forest dweller) lives. He wore bark cloth and kept his hair matted in jaṭā. He ate only fruits and roots, slept on the bare ground and kept the austerities that suit the forest life he had chosen out of love for Rāma.

He received ministers, ambassadors and those who came with requests at Nandigrāma. Every decision of the kingdom was made in the name of Rāma’s pādukās. The pādukās were treated as the true ruler, and Bharata was only their servant and protector.

Source: Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Chapters 107–112.

The vow

Bharata’s fourteen years at Nandigrāma were held by a fearful vow. If Rāma did not return on the fourteenth day after the exile was complete, Bharata would enter fire. The vow made Nandigrāma a place of fierce tapas. Each day brought Bharata nearer either to the joyful return of Rāma or to the keeping of his vow in fire.

The return of Rāma

At the end of the fourteen years Rāma came back in victory from Laṅkā, after he had killed Rāvaṇa and won back Sītā. These events are told in the Yuddha Kāṇḍa of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa. Hanumān was sent ahead to Nandigrāma to tell Bharata that Rāma would soon arrive. Bharata’s joy and relief were very great. He had guarded the pādukās on the throne through all fourteen years, and he was ready to return them to Rāma’s own feet.

Nandigrāma in the Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa

The Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa also describes Bharata’s tapas at Nandigrāma in detail. It stresses how great his vow was: that if Rāma did not return by the set day, Bharata would enter fire. The Tulasī tradition holds that this fourteen-year tapas at Nandigrāma weighs as much in spirit as Rāma’s own forest exile. Both were acts of perfect dharma. One was the act of the obedient son who kept his father’s word. The other was the act of the loving brother who would not live otherwise than the absent Rāma.

Source: Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa.

Sources

Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Chapters 107–112
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Yuddha Kāṇḍa (the return of Rāma)
Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa