Itihāsa / Rāmāyaṇa chronicle / Ayodhyā · 9 of 50
9. The consecration prepared
Ayodhyā (अयोध्या)
The king announces it. Rāma will be consecrated. The city answers as a city answers when it loves the heir. Houses are dressed. Kausalyā, who waited longest, is told she will be the queen-mother of a king. Rāma and Sītā are asked to fast and to keep a vigil, the ritual quiet before a crowning. He spends the day as if the day were ordinary, which is his way of bearing a joy. He gives away what is asked.
Bharata is not in the city. He has gone with Śatrughna to his uncle's house in Kekaya, Kaikeyī's people. The absence is a kindness Daśaratha intends and a disaster the plot intends. A brother who is away cannot refuse a crown in person, and cannot be asked. The king wants no rivalry. He arranges, without knowing it, a room in which a maid can talk.
Night comes. The vigil is kept. Across the palace, in Kaikeyī's rooms, a servant who has loved her too narrowly is about to speak. The consecration is one night away. The poem lets the reader feel the nearness. That nearness is the blade.
नेपालीमा
राजाले घोषणा गरे, राम अभिषिक्त हुनेछन्। सहरले उत्तर दियो। राम र सीतालाई उपवास र जागरण बस्न भनियो। भरत सहरमा थिएनन्। शत्रुघ्नसँग मामाघर केकय गएका थिए। दशरथले दयाले चाहेको त्यो अनुपस्थिति कथाले विपत्ति बनाउँछ। अभिषेक एक रात पर थियो। त्यो निकटता नै धार हो।