TALES FROM THE HINDU DRAMATISTS - Awaken Video

He has no other resource. People must be satisfied. He orders his dear
Sita's exile, and the messenger goes away to deliver the order to
Lakshmana to seclude her somewhere in the woods. He is torn by
contending feelings. He is overpowered with grief, withdraws his arm
from his sleeping wife and pours forth pathetic lamentation. Then he
takes up her feet and cries when the announcement of the arrival of
frightened Rishis makes him go out to send Satrughna to their succour.
The messenger Durmukha then enters and takes Sita unsuspectingly to
mount the chariot which is to lead her to exile.
Lakshmana takes Sita to the forest and leaves her there.
She is protected by divine agencies. Her twin sons, Kusa and Lava, are
born and entrusted to the care of the sage Valmiki, the author of the
Ramayana, who brings them up in his hermitage. The boys have no
knowledge of their royal descent.
An incident now occurs which leads Rama to revisit the Dandaka forest,
the scene of his former exile. The child of a Brahman dies suddenly and
unaccountably. His body is laid at Rama's door. Evidently some national
sin is the cause of such a calamity, and an aerial voice informs him
that an awful crime is being perpetrated; for a Sudra, named Sambuka, is
practising religious austerities, instead of confining himself to his
proper vocation of waiting on the twice-born castes. Rama instantly
starts for the forest, discovers Sambuka in the sacrilegious act and
strikes off his head. But death by Rama's hand confers immortality on
the Sudra, who appears as a celestial spirit, and thanks his benefactor
for the glory and felicity thus obtained.
Before returning to Ayodhya, Rama is induced to visit the hermitage of
the sage Agastya in Panchavati. Sita now reappears. She is herself
invisible to Rama through the favour of the Bhagirathi but able to
thrill with emotions by her touch. Rama is greatly distracted.
He faints with old remembrances but revives on the touch of Sita. He
observes, "What does this mean? Heavenly balm seems poured into my
heart; a well-known touch changes my insensibility to life. Is it Sita,
or am I dreaming?"
He vainly seeks for her possession, but at last goes away on the advice
of his companion Visanti.
The sage Valmiki makes great preparations for receiving Vasishtha,
Janaka, Kaushalya, the mother of Rama and other eminent guests. The
pupils are delighted because the visit of the guests affords hopes of a
feast at which flesh meat is to constitute one of the dishes.
As the boys have got a holiday in honour of the guests, they are playing
at some distance from a tree outside the hermitage. Among them,
Kaushalya notices a boy with the features of her son, who is called in
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