Itihāsa / Rāmāyaṇa chronicle / Araṇya · 24 of 50
24. The circle
Araṇya (अरण्य)
Sītā orders Lakṣmaṇa to go. He refuses. Rāma's instruction was to stay, and he can tell a mimic's cry from a brother's. She accuses him then, in fear and anger, of wanting her, of waiting for Rāma to die. The accusation is false and it works, because he cannot stand in front of it. He leaves. A later telling draws a line and tells her not to cross it. The poem's stable fact is the leaving, unwilling, and her stepping toward the stranger who comes next. This page does not promote the line into the poem.
The stranger is a mendicant. He asks for food. She goes to give it, which is the hospitality the forest hermitages live by. He speaks of Rāma, then he speaks as himself. He is Rāvaṇa. He tells her to come and be his queen. She refuses. He takes her. The page says that he takes her. It does not dwell on the seizing. She calls on the trees, the river, the animals, anyone to witness. Jaṭāyu, an old vulture, hears. The hut is empty.
Lakṣmaṇa meets Rāma on the path, and Rāma, who has already regretted the deer, sees his brother's face and knows the cry was a plan. They run. The philosophical lesson people want from the forest is here, and it is not a sentence. It is a sequence. Desire sent him out. An insult sent Lakṣmaṇa out. Hospitality opened the door. None of the three is a vice by itself. Together they are a kidnapping.
नेपालीमा
सीताले लक्ष्मणलाई जान आदेश दिइन्। उनले अस्वीकार गरे। सीताले डर र रिसले लक्ष्मणलाई आफूलाई चाहेको, रामको मृत्युको प्रतीक्षा गरेको आरोप लगाइन्। आरोप झूट हो, र काम गर्यो। लक्ष्मण गए। पछिल्लो कथनले रेखा कोर्छ। कविताको स्थिर तथ्य अनिच्छाको गमन हो, र अपरिचिततिर उनको पाइला। यो पृष्ठले रेखालाई कविता बनाउँदैन। एक भिक्षु आयो। अतिथि सत्कार गर्न सीता गइन्। ऊ रावण थियो। उसले उनलाई लग्यो। यो पृष्ठले लग्यो भन्छ। समात्ने तरिका लेख्दैन। सीताले साक्षी हुन रुख, नदी र जनावरलाई बोलाइन्, र जटायुले सुने। बाटोमा भाइको अनुहार देखेर राम बुझ्नुभयो, त्यो स्वर योजना थियो। इच्छाले रामलाई, अपमानले लक्ष्मणलाई पठायो, र अतिथि-धर्मले ढोका खोल्यो। तीमध्ये एक्लै कुनै दोष होइन। सँगै भए अपहरण हुन्।