{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry086.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry086.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry086.htm","text":"The damsel's breast with fury burned:\n She answered, as the gift she spurned:\n 'What time, O simple Queen, is this\n For idle dreams of fancied bliss?\n Hast thou not sense thy state to know,\n Engulfed in seas of whelming woe;\n Sick as I am with grief and pain\n My lips can scarce a laugh restrain\n To see thee hail with ill-timed joy\n A peril mighty to destroy.\n I mourn for one so fondly blind:\n What woman of a prudent mind\n Would welcome, e'en as thou hast done,\n The lordship of a rival's son,\n Rejoiced to find her secret foe\n Empowered, like death, to launch the blow;\n I see that R\u00e1ma still must fear\n Thy Bharat, to his throne too near.\n Hence is my heart disquieted,\n For those who fear are those we dread.\n Lakshman, the mighty bow who draws,\n With all his soul serves R\u00e1ma's cause;\n And chains as strong to Bharat bind\n S'atrughna, with his heart and mind,\n Now next to R\u00e1ma, lady fair,\n Thy Bharat is the lawful heir:\n And far remote, I ween, the chance\n That might the younger two advance.\n Yes, Queen,'tis R\u00e1ma that I dread,\n Wise, prompt, in warlike science bred;\n And oh, I tremble when I think\n Of thy dear child on ruin's brink.\n \n \n Blest witn a lofty fate is she,\n Kaus'aly\u00e1; for her son will be\n Placed, when the moon and Pushya meet,\n By Br\u00e1hmans on the royal seat,\n Thou as a slave in suppliant guise\n Must wait upon Kaus'aly\u00e1's eyes,\n With all her wealth and bliss secured\n And glorious from her foes assured.\n Her slave with us who serve thee, thou\n Wilt see thy son to R\u00e1ma bow,\n And S\u00edt\u00e1's friends exult o'er all,\n While Bharat's wife shares Bharat's fall.'\n \n \n As thus the maid in wrath complained,\n Kaikey\u00ed saw her heart was pained,\n And answered eager in defence\n Of Ram\u00e1's worth and excellence:\n 'Nay, R\u00e1ma, born the monarch's heir,\n By holy fathers trained with care,\n Virtuous, grateful, pure, and true,\n Claims royal sway as rightly due.\n He, like a sire, will long defend\n Each brother, minister, and friend.\n Then why, O hump-back, art thou pained\n To hear that he the throne has gained?\n Be sure when R\u00e1ma's empire ends,\n The kingdom to my son descends,\n Who, when a hundred years are flown,\n Shall sit upon his fathers' throne.\n Why is thine heart thus sad to see\n The joy that is and long shall be,\n This fortune by possession sure\n And hopes which we may count secure?\n Dear as the darling son I bore\n Is R\u00e1ma, yea, or even more.\n Most duteous to Kaus'aly\u00e1, he\n Is yet more dutiful to me.\n What though he rule, we need not fear:\n His brethren to his soul are dear.\n And if the throne Prince R\u00e1ma fill\n Bharat will share the empire still.'\n \n \n She ceased. The troubled damsel sighed\n Sighs long and hot, and thus replied:\n 'What madness has possessed thy mind,\n To warnings deaf, to dangers blind?\n Canst thou not see the floods of woe\n That threaten o'er thine head to flow:\n First R\u00e1ma will the throne acquire,\n Then R\u00e1ma's son succeed his sire,\n While Bharat will neglected pine\n Excluded from the royal line.\n Not all his sons, O lady fair,\n The kingdom of a monarch share:\n All ruling when a sovereign dies\n Wild tumult in the state would rise.\n The eldest, be he good or ill,\n Is ruler by the father's will.\n Know, tender mother, that thy son\n Without a friend and all undone.\n Far from the joyous ease of home\n An alien from his race will roam.\n I sped to thee for whom I feel,\n But thy fond heart mistakes my zeal,\n Thy hand a present would bestow\n Because thy rival triumphs so.\n When R\u00e1ma once begins his sway\n Without a foe his will to stay,\n Thy darling Bharat he will drive\n To distant lands if left alive.\n By thee the child was sent away\n Beneath his grandsire's roof to stay.\n Even in stocks and stones perforce\n Will friendship spring from intercourse.\n The young S'atrughna too would go\n With Bharat, for he loved him so.\n As Lakshman still to R\u00e1ma cleaves,\n He his dear Bharat never leaves.\n There is an ancient tale they tell:\n A tree the foresters would fell\n Was saved by reeds that round it stood,\n For love that sprang of neighbourhood.\n So Lakshman R\u00e1ma will defend,\n And each on each for aid depend.\n Such fame on earth their friendship wins\n As that which binds the Heavenly Twins.\n And R\u00e1ma ne'er will purpose wrong\n To Lakshman, for their love is strong.\n But Bharat, Oh, of this be sure,\n Must evil at his hands endure.\n Come, R\u00e1ma from his home expel\n An exile in the woods to dwell.\n The plan, O Queen, which I advise\n Secures thy weal if thou be wise,\n So we and all thy kith and kin\n Advantage from thy gain shall win.\n Shall Bharat, meet for happier fate,\n Born to endure his rival's hate,\n With all his fortune ruined cower\n And dread his brother's mightier power!\n Up, Queen, to save thy son, arise;\n Prostrate at R\u00e1ma's feet he lies.\n So the proud elephant who leads\n His trooping consorts through the reeds\n Falls in the forest shade beneath\n The lion's spring and murderous teeth.\n Scorned by thee in thy bliss and pride\n Kaus'aly\u00e1 was of old defied,\n And will she now forbear to show\n The vengeful rancour of a foe?\n \u00a0\u00a0 O Queen, thy darling is undone\n \u00a0\u00a0 When R\u00e1ma's hand has once begun\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ayodhy\u00e1's realm to sway,\n \u00a0\u00a0 Come, win the kingdom for thy child\n \u00a0\u00a0 And drive the alien to the wild\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In banishment to-day.'","title":"Book II: Canto VIII: Manthar\u00e1's Speech.","type":"page"}