Itihāsa / Rāmāyaṇa chronicle / Yuddha · 46 of 50
46. The return
Yuddha (युद्ध)
The flying chariot, the puṣpaka, carries them north. The road of the exile is flown in the reverse direction, and Rāma shows Sītā the places, the shore, the hut, the river. It is a strange tenderness after the speech in front of the army. The poem holds both, the coldness and the pointing at a hill where they were happy. Bharata has been counting the days at Nandigrāma. The plan, if the last day passed with no brother on it, was his own death. The page says he was prepared to die if the day passed. It does not describe a method. The day does not pass. Rāma arrives.
The sandals come off the throne. Bharata, who has ruled as a servant of a pair of shoes, puts his brother where the shoes were. The consecration that was dressed for, fourteen years earlier, happens. Sītā is beside him. The city that followed an empty chariot sees the chariot come back full. Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa's grief is paid, as far as a city can be paid.
The Yuddha-kāṇḍa ends on that payment. A reader who stops here has the poem of the return. The received Rāmāyaṇa does not stop here. The seventh book is coming, and it will spend what this day saves. The consecration is real. It is not the last word about the marriage.
नेपालीमा
पुष्पक रथले उनीहरूलाई उत्तर लग्यो। रामले सीतालाई ठाउँहरू देखाउनुभयो, सेनाअघिको चिसो भाषणपछि यो अनौठो कोमलता हो। दुवै कवितामा छन्। भरतले नन्दिग्राममा दिन गन्दै थिए। अन्तिम दिन भाइ नआई बित्यो भने उनी मर्ने योजनामा थिए। यो पृष्ठले तयार थिए भन्छ। तरिका लेख्दैन। दिन बितेन। राम आइपुग्नुभयो। खराउ सिंहासनबाट ओर्ले। चौध वर्षअघि सजिएको अभिषेक अब भयो। युद्धकाण्ड यही भुक्तानीमा सकिन्छ। प्राप्त रामायण यहीँ सकिँदैन।