Then Bharat to ?atrughna showed

The spot, and eager onward strode,

First bidding Saint Va?ish?ha bring

The widowed consorts of the king.

As by fraternal love impelled

His onward course the hero held,

Sumantra followed close behind

?atrughna with an anxious mind:

Not Bharat's self more fain could be

To look on RÁma's face than he.

As, speeding on, the spot he neared,

Amid the hermits' homes appeared

His brother's cot with leaves o'erspread,

And by its side a lowly shed.

Before the shed great heaps were left

Of gathered flowers and billets cleft,

And on the trees hung grass and bark

RÁma and Lakshma?'s path to mark:

And heaps of fuel to provide

Against the cold stood ready dried.

The long-armed chief, as on he went

In glory's light preËminent,

With joyous words like these addressed

The brave ?atrughna and the rest:

Which BharadvÁja pointed out,

Not far from where we stand must be

The woodland stream, MandÁkinÍ.

Here on the mountain's woody side

Roam elephants in tusked pride,

And ever with a roar and cry

Each other, as they meet, defy.

And see those smoke-wreaths thick and dark:

The presence of the flame they mark,

Which hermits in the forest strive

By every art to keep alive.

O happy me! my task is done,

And I shall look on Raghu's son,

Like some great saint, who loves to treat

Thus Bharat reached that forest rill,

Thus roamed on ChitrakÚ?a's hill;

Then pity in his breast awoke,

And to his friends the hero spoke:

The prince of men, the lord of earth

Has sought the lonely wood to dwell

Sequestered in a hermit's cell.

Through me, through me these sorrows fall

On him the splendid lord of all:

Through me resigning earthly bliss

He hides him in a home like this.

Now will I, by the world abhorred,

Fall at the dear feet of my lord,

And at fair SÍtÁ's too, to win

As thus he sadly mourned and sighed,

The son of Da?aratha spied

A bower of leafy branches made,

Sacred and lovely in the shade,

Of fair proportions large and tall,

Well roofed with boughs of palm, and SÁl,

Arranged in order due o'erhead

Like grass upon an altar spread.

Two glorious bows were gleaming there,

Like Indra's377 in the rainy air,

Terror of foemen, backed with gold,

Meet for the mightiest hand to hold:

And quivered arrows cast a blaze

Bright gleaming like the Day-God's rays:

Thus serpents with their eyes aglow

Adorn their capital below.378

Great swords adorned the cottage, laid

Each in a case of gold brocade;

There hung the trusty shields, whereon

With purest gold the bosses shone.

The brace to bind the bowman's arm,

The glove to shield his hand from harm,

A lustre to the cottage lent

From many a golden ornament:

Safe was the cot from fear of men

As from wild beasts the lion's den.

The fire upon the altar burned,

That to the north and east was turned.

Bharat his eager glances bent

And gazed within the cot intent;

In deerskin dress, with matted hair,

RÁma his chief was sitting there:

With lion-shoulders broad and strong,

With lotus eyes, arms thick and lon