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Ayodhya was in mourning.
King Dasaratha was dead and the kingdom was now in need of a leader. It
was clear who Aydohya wanted to appoint king. However, there was one major
problem; he had been in exile for years. It was clear in Aydohya that Rama was
to take Dasaratha’s place on the throne. The kingdom begged that he come back,
so Bharata set out to find Rama and bring him back to Aydohya. Bharata traveled
a long distance before he came to a dense wooded area. Bharata was a man and
was not scared of the woods, however, this forest was different. He pressed on
for 3 days and 3 nights but remained lost. As he sat dejected sat in the
forest, he heard a noise in the distance. “Food!” Bharata thought.
“Hello,” came a voice behind him that started Bharata. “I’m
Valmiki! What’s your name?”
As Bharata and Valmiki began to converse, Bharata discovered
that Valmiki had helped Sita find Rama in the wood a couple of years before. Bharata
was so excited that he now had a lead to Rama’s whereabouts. Valmiki led
Bharata out of the forest and pointed him in the direction that Sita traveled
to find Rama. Bharata set out over the mountainous terrain in search of Rama.
However, news got to Rama that Dasaratha had died and that
Bharata was looking for him. Rama was an honest man and did not want to disobey
his father’s exile order, so he decided to hide from Bharata. If Bharata was to
find him, he would have a hard time telling him that he was not coming back to
Aydohya. As Bharata pressed on his journey to find Rama, Rama continued his
hideout. Bharata searched for years for Rama but was unsuccessful in finding
him. The moral of the story shows just how loyal Rama was to Dasaratha that he
would evade someone who was trying to find him and bring him back to the
Kingdom.
(Bharata in the forest. Credit: Richard Shaw Brown)
Author's Note: I thought it was interesting that Rama did not want to return to the kingdom even though Dasaratha had died. I wanted to add more to this, so I chose to add to Bharata's search for Rama and show Rama evading Bharata to remain loyal to Dasaratha.
Bibliography: Buck, William (1976) Ramayana: King Rama's Way
