Recalling Ram
Suman K Sharma
Bharat and Shatrughan were similar to their more prominent pair of brothers, Ram and Lakshman. Bharat, like Ram, was of dark complexion, while Shatrughan was fair like Lakshman. Again, Bharat had a Ram-like poise. He lost his temper only when Kaikeyi, with a touch of pride for what she had achieved, revealed to him why his father, Raja Dashrath, had died suddenly and why Ram, Lakshman and Sita were not to be seen in Ayodhya. Shatrughan, in sharp contrast, had a short fuse, much like Lakshman. When he saw Kaikeyi’s hunchback maid Manthara flaunting her newly acquired prosperity – thanks to Queen Kaikeyi’s generous compensation for her terribly insular advice – young Shatrughan dragged her mercilessly on the ground till Kaikeyi herself had to intervene to save the hag from the vengeful prince.
Bharat – a guileless suspect
Bharat evinced his general conduct when his maternal uncle Yudhajit proposed that he accompany him to Kekeya Desh. Keen he might have been to meet his grandfather, but Bharat did not leave Ayodhya without seeking permission not only of his father, Raja Dashrath, and all his mothers, but also of his elder brother, Ram (Balmiki Ramayan, Balkand, Canto 77(xviii). It was during his absence that Raja Dashrath realized he had grown too old and it was time he abdicated in favour of his eldest son, Ram. In a father-and-son meeting behind doors, the aging king explained to Ram why he was in a hurry to do so:
Viproshitshch Bharto yaavdev puraditah/
Taavdevabhishkaste praptkalo mato mam//
Till such time as Bharat is away from this town, living with his maternal uncle, I think it would be appropriate to anoint you.
– Ibid, Ayodhya Kand, Canto 4(xxv)
Dashrath was clear about his intent. He had no doubt about Bharat’s conduct. Yet he feared that the mind of people seldom remained constant. He believed that even the righteous people got carried away by feelings of passion and jealousy (ibid, verse xxvi).
But the king had not reckoned how Kaikeyi would react to Ram’s proposed elevation in preference to her own son. When she bound him with his own vows to declare Bharat as his heir apparent and banish Ram to the Dandakaranya for fourteen years, Dashrath begged her pathetically to relent. He was prepared even to concede to her the first demand –
Avsi dootu mein pathib prata/Aihahin begi sunat dou bhrata//
Sudin sodhinsabu saaju sajaai/De-aun Bharat kahun raju bajaai//
I shall certainly send across my messengers in the morning. Both the brothers (Bharat and Shatrughan) will arrive forthwith on hearing my message. Having ascertained an auspicious date and making all the preparations I shall hand over the reign to Bharat with great pomp and show.
Ramcharitmanas, Ayodhya Kand, 30(iv)
But that was not to be. Kaikeyi did not budge from her stand, nor could Dashrath withstand his grief of separation from his doted son, Ram. He died in tears. Bharat returned home with Shatrughan to that rude awakening.
He was guileless. His father’s death had hurt him. More than that, the banishment of Ram had given him a shock of his life. He wished his mother dead for what she had done in his name. Yet, all that did not absolve him of guilt in the eyes of Ram’s mother, Kaushalya. Casting her eyes on him, she protested: “Son! You wanted to rule, isn’t it? Now this trouble-free realm is yours; but my only regret is that Kaikeyi, in her haste, has got it by an act of extreme cruelty (Balmiki Ramayan, Ayodhya Kand, Canto 75(xi).” It took Bharat all his sincerity and love for Ram to assure his step-mother that he had absolutely no intention to misappropriate his elder brother’s right to succeed his father.
Even so, the situation in Ayodhya demanded otherwise. Raja Dashrath’s demise and banishment of his choice-successor, Ram, had created a void in the capital. The raj-purohit, Muni Vashisht, who held the position of a mentor to the royalty in matters secular and spiritual, organised an elaborate durbar and asked Bharat to hold reins of the state. Bharat refused him point blank. In presence of the assembled elite of the land, he told Vashisht that his first and the only priority was to bring back Ram and entreat him to occupy the vacant throne. Countermanding his revered guru, he issued orders that preparation should be urgently made for the journey of the entire court to the Dandkaranya to persuade Ram to return. The army was also to march along with court (ibid, Canto 82).
But the shadow of suspicion did not leave Bharat even while he traversed the countryside to bring back Ram. He stayed overnight at Shringverpur on the banks of the Ganga. The territory was under the control of the chief of fishermen, Guh. Guh had earlier offered lavish hospitality to Ram (even though the latter had politely declined to accept it). He regarded Ram as his patron. Seeing Bharat’s army bent to cross the Ganga, he wrongly surmised that Prince Bharat was chasing Ram – the legitimate heir to the Ayodhya throne – to kill him and have the kingdom for himself. Well versed in the politics of his day, Guh alerted his men to be ready for a combat with Bharat’s army. At the same time, he set out to find for himself the true intentions of Ram’s step-brother. Bharat’s open-hearted approach and his devotion to Ram set at rest all the doubts in Guh’s mind. He volunteered to guide Bharat and his followers through the dense forest to where Ram was staying with Sita and Lakshman.
Bharat had now to contend with a more virulent suspicion of his own step-brother, Lakshman. The latter, with the keen eyes of a hawk and the valour that daunted the bravest of his contemporaries, zealously guarded Ram and Sita in the serene surrounds of the Chitrakoot Hills. Ram had taken Sita on a pleasant stroll on the banks of the river Mandakini and the couple rested now in a plain. Then he observed a massive cloud of dust and myriads of wild beasts running helter-skelter in fear. Ram asked Lakshman to climb up a nearby tree and find out what the matter was. It was then that Lakshman espied Bharat’s chariot at the head of thousands of armed men. “Kaikeyi’s son, Bharat is upon us, brother!” he screamed in anger, “He comes as a foe. I don’t see any sin in killing him…Let Kaikeyi, stricken with extreme grief, see Bharat being killed by me in the same manner as an elephant fells a tree…” (ibid, Canto 96(xxiv-xxv). A person less adept than Ram at maintaining calm and reasoning would have been unable to pacify a fiery Lakshman.
Steadfast in devotion to Ram
The constant and unfounded suspicion failed, however, to deter Bharat from his devotion to Ram. There is often an argument as to who among Ram’s brothers was more devoted to him: Lakshman or Bharat. The answer depends on how we look at it. Lakshman had, in a way, subsumed himself into Ram. He did not exist, as it were, outside of Ram. Bharat, on the other hand, committed himself completely to Ram’s cause even while he maintained his distinct identity.
To go back to the story, what transpired upon reunion of Ram and Bharat at Chitrakoot is perhaps unique in the history. We generally find princes fighting among themselves to death in struggle for power. Here, in contrast, were two princes rivalling each other in denying a proffered opportunity to power. Rishi Balmiki devotes as many as 12 cantos of Ayodhya Kand (Cantos 101-112) to this amazing part of his Ramayan. Ram asks Bharat why he has come to the forest. Bharat says it is to request him to accept the crown as their father has died. Ram turns down Bharat’s request. He tells Bharat how Raja Dashrath had pledged before his marriage to Kaikeyi that a son born to her would succeed him to the throne. Queen Kaikeyi had only asserted his – Bharat’s – right to the throne as promised by Raja Dashrath. Bharat contends that the Raghu Dynasty has been following the doctrine upholding the right of the first borne (that is, Ram) to the throne and in no way it should be broken. Ram states firmly that it is only their father’s word that matters to him. Bharat has to succeed him, while he, Ram, must spend 14 years in the forest. Driven to the wall by Ram’s resolute stance, Bharat sits on a dharna. (And we thought that dharna was the device of our own days to bend the powerful!). Ram is left only to plead with Bharat not to be insistent. The rishis, sitting there and those present unseen in the celestial space, get worried. How would Ravan be killed if Ram gave in to Bharat’s pleas and went back to Ayodhya without completing 14 years of vanvas? They persuade him to abide by Ram’s direction. Eventually, Bharat agrees to return to Ayodhya, but not without imposing his own conditions. One, Ram’s used wooden sandals would govern the land and two, he would spend 14 years outside the city, waiting for Ram’s return in his matted hair, clothed in bark and subsisting only on mool-phal (tubers). He ends up warning Ram: “O Paragon of the Raghus! If I don’t see you on the new year day following completion of fourteen years, then I shall enter into a raging fire!” (ibid, Canto 112(xxv).
Breaking the mold
Adhering to his resolve, Bharat installed Ram’s wooden sleepers on the throne on his return to Ayodhya and stayed himself in a village called Nandigram, about 12 miles away, for the entire duration of 14 years, living the life of an ascetic. Yet, a Kshatriya prince he was and that he remained in spite of his austerities. During the Lanka War, Lakshman was injured and Hanuman had to fly with the medicinal herb-bearing mountain for his treatment. As a flying Hanuman entered unbidden into the air-space of Ayodhya, Bharat reacted to the sight instinctively –
Dekha Bharat bisaal ati nisichar man anumaani/
Binu phar sayak mare-u chaap shravan lagi taani//
Bharat saw a gigantic form in the sky and guessed that it was some rakshas. Pulling his bow-string unto his ears, he shot just one headless arrow.
-Ramcharitmanas, Lanka Kand, 58
The confusion was sorted out as Hanuman dropped to the ground calling out Ram’s name. Realizing the urgency of the matter, Bharat made an offer to instantly despatch him along with his mountain back to Lanka, if he cared to ride another of his arrows. Hanaman, however, assured him that he, with Ram’s blessings, would be able to complete his mission effortlessly.
In time, Ram triumphantly returned to Ayodhya with Sita and Lakshman by his side, accompanied also by Hanaman and other warriors who had fought and won the Lanka war with him. With great fanfare he was anointed the king of Koshala. The ‘Ramrajya’ flourished day by day. Under the orders of Raja Ram, Bharat led an expedition to Gandhara (the region now falls in Afghanistan and Pakistan) and returned victorious. He founded two cities, Pushkallavat in Gandhar (the ruins of the city are located on the outskirts of the city Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – Wikipedia) and Takshila (called ‘Texila’, in the present-day Pakistan). Like him, Shatrughan too fought bravely and killed the rakshas king Lavanasur. He ruled his territory and founded a city Madhurapuri.
Bharat holds an emulative place in Ramayan. He was suspected, throughout the best part of his youth, for having an eye on the throne. Even Ram offered him a solid ground for ascending to the throne, reminding him of their father’s pre-wedding agreement with Kaikeyi’s father that the oldest son born to the princess would succeed him. The suspicion of his father and everyone else around him, as also the ambition of his mother, had cast Bharat in a mold of sorts. After Raja Dashrath’s death, he could have easily ascended the throne. The celestial beings too would not have resented him since Ram was already in vanvas and destined to kill Ravan. But Bharat broke that mold in his devotion to Ram.
How many of us have Bharat’s will and determination to break the mould we find ourselves cast in, and follow the path we choose for ourselves?
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