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Yuddha Kand · Episode 9
Rama flies home on the Pushpaka, and Bharata, who ruled in the name of Rama's sandals, welcomes him at Nandigrama.
A retelling of Valmiki's Ramayana, not a translation. Where a later tradition adds to the story, we mark it.
The war was over, and the Pushpaka Vimana, the flying chariot of Kubera, king of wealth, carried Rama and Sita north. In Valmiki's telling, the flight home is a journey Rama narrates for Sita, place by place.
"Look, Sita," he said. He pointed down to Lanka, built on the peak of Mount Trikuta, and to the battlefield below it, still wet with the war. He showed her the shore where the army had spent a night after crossing, and the bridge. "Here is the bridge called Nala Setu," he said. "I built it across the sea for your sake." (Valmiki names Nala as the builder; that the stones floated because they bore Rama's name is a later tradition.)
The chariot flew on. Rama showed her Kishkindha, where Vali had fallen, and Mount Rishyamuka, where he had first met Sugriva and made their pact. He showed her the place in the Janasthana forest where Jatayu had died, the hermitage of Agastya, and the hill of Chitrakuta, where Bharata had come to find him. Then came the Yamuna and the hermitage of Bharadvaja, then the Ganga and the Sarayu. At last he said, "That is my father's capital. Bow to Ayodhya."
At Kishkindha the chariot came down. Sita asked Rama to take Tara and the wives of the other vanara chiefs with them to Ayodhya. Rama agreed. Sugriva sent Tara to gather the women, and they boarded.
Fourteen years had passed. Rama landed at the hermitage of the sage Bharadvaja, who welcomed him and gave him news of Ayodhya: Bharata, with matted hair and a body smeared with mud, was waiting for him with Rama's wooden sandals placed in front of him. Rama stayed one night. Bharadvaja gave him a boon, and Rama asked that the trees along the route bear fruit and flow with honey out of season, so that the vanaras could feast on the way.
Then Rama made a careful choice. He sent Hanuman ahead, first to Guha, king of the Nishadas and Rama's friend, and then to Bharata at Nandigrama. Rama told Hanuman to read Bharata's face and his intentions. "If Bharata wants the kingdom," Rama said, "let him rule all of it." He would not arrive and take it from a brother who wished to keep it.
Hanuman took human form and found Bharata in bark clothes and matted hair, ruling in the name of the sandals. "You will soon meet Rama, your elder brother," Hanuman said. Bharata fainted from joy. When he woke, he offered Hanuman a hundred thousand cows and a hundred villages. Hanuman told him everything that had happened in the forest and in Lanka.
Bharata ordered Shatrughna to prepare the city. The shrines were to be worshipped, the roads levelled and sprinkled with water, and flags and flowers set out. The citizens came out to Nandigrama, with Kausalya, Sumitra and Kaikeyi among Dasharatha's widows. At first Bharata did not see Rama. Hanuman pointed to the cloud of dust over the grove, and then to the Pushpaka in the sky.
The chariot landed. Rama lifted Bharata onto his lap. Bharata greeted Lakshmana and Sita, and embraced Sugriva as a fifth brother, and then Jambavan, Angada and the others. Rama went to his mother and bowed to Sumitra, to Kaikeyi, and to all his mothers.
Then Bharata took the wooden sandals and set them at Rama's feet. "This whole kingdom of yours was kept with me as a deposit," he said. "I give it back to you." He added that he had left the treasury and granaries ten times fuller than before.
Rama turned to the Pushpaka and said, "Serve Kubera. I allow you to go." The chariot rose and flew north to its owner.
Bharata begged Rama to take back the kingdom. Rama agreed. The barbers of Shatrughna groomed Rama and his brothers, and Kausalya and the other queens dressed Sita and the vanara wives. Rama rode in procession into Ayodhya with Bharata and Shatrughna. Many vanaras rode on elephants.
(Later tradition, especially the festival of Diwali, imagines the city lit by countless clay lamps for his return. The lamps are not in Valmiki, but they are how the story is celebrated in India today.)
The sage Vasishtha and seven other sages consecrated Rama, who sat with Sita on a jewelled seat. Water was brought from the four oceans and from five hundred rivers. Vasishtha placed the crown on Rama's head. Shatrughna held the royal parasol, and Sugriva and Vibhishana held the whisks.
Gifts were given. Brahmins received cows, horses and gold. Sugriva received a golden chaplet set with gems, and Angada an armlet. Sita received a pearl necklace, and she kept looking from the necklace to her husband and to the vanaras. Rama understood and told her to give it to the one in whom qualities like firmness, skill, modesty and wisdom were always present. Sita gave the necklace to Hanuman, and he shone, the text says, like a mountain wrapped in a white cloud.
Rama gave gifts to the other vanara leaders too, and they left glad. The vanaras went home to Kishkindha and Vibhishana to Lanka. Lakshmana declined to be named heir, so Rama named Bharata heir apparent instead.
Then Valmiki describes the reign of Rama. There were no widows to mourn, no danger from beasts or disease, and no thieves. No one's child died before the parents. The rains came in their season and the trees bore fruit. Each person kept to their own duty, and no one lied. Valmiki says Rama ruled for ten thousand years, and the verses give another figure of a thousand elsewhere, so the number is not fixed.
In later tradition that reign became the ideal against which kings were measured, and people still say Rama Rajya when they mean a just and gentle rule.
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