66697602-The-Ramayana-R-K-Narayan

my death so that she may place Bharatha on the throne!”
Silence for a while, but once again all his lamentations and
fears would return redoubled.
“Kausalya, my dearest wife, listen. Rama will not change
his aim, but definitely go away, and my life will end. You
know why? It’s an old story.
“Once while I was hunting in a forest, I heard the gurgling
of water—the noise an elephant makes when drinking water.
I shot an arrow in that direction, and at once heard a human
cry in agony. I went up and found that I had shot at a young
boy. He had been filling his pitcher; and water rushing into it
had created the noise. The boy was dying and told me that
his old parents, eyeless, were not far away. He had tended
them, carrying them about on his back. They died on hearing
of this tragedy, after cursing the man who had killed their son
to suffer a similar fate. And so that is going to be my fate… .”
When Rama’s exile became known, the kings and
commoners assembled at the hall broke down and wept; so
did the religious heads and ascetics. Men and women wept
aloud; the parrots in their cages wept, the cats in people’s
homes; the infants in their cradles, the cows and calves.
Flowers that had just bloomed wilted away. The water birds,
the elephants, the chargers that drew chariots—all broke
down and lamented like Dasaratha himself, unable to bear
the pang of separation from Rama. What a moment ago had