{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry146.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry146.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry146.htm","text":"Vas'ishtha heard their speech and prayer,\n And thus addressed the concourse there.\n Friends, Br\u00e1mans, counsellors, and all\n Assembled in the palace hall:\n 'Ye know that Bharat, free from care,\n Still lives in R\u00e1magriha \u00a01 where\n The father of his mother reigns:\n S'atrughna by his side remains.\n Let active envoys, good at need,\n Thither on fleetest horses speed,\n To bring the hero youths away:\n Why waste the time in dull delay?'\n \u00a0\u00a0 Quick came from all the glad reply:\n 'Vas'ishtha, let the envoys fly'\n He heard their speech, and thus renewed\n His charge before the multitude:\n 'Nandan, As'ok, Siddh\u00e1rth, attend,\n Your ears, Jayanta, Vijay, lend:\n Be yours, what need requires, to do:\n I speak these words to all of you.\n With coursers of the fleetest breed\n To R\u00e1jagriha's city speed.\n Then rid your bosoms of distress,\n And Bharat thus from me address:\n 'The household priest and peers by us\n Send health to thee and greet thee thus:\n Come to thy father's home with haste:\n Thine absent time no longer waste.'\n But speak no word of R\u00e1ma fled,\n Tell not the prince his sire is dead,\n Nor to the royal youth the fate\n That ruins Raghu's race relate.\n Go quickly hence, and with you bear\n Fine silken vestures rich and rare.\n And gems and many a precious thing\n As gifts to Bharat and the king.'\n \n \n \u00a0\u00a0 With ample stores of food supplied,\n Bach to his home the envoys hied,\n Prepared, with steeds of swiftest race,\n lo Kekaya's land \u00a02 their way to trace.\n They made all due provision there,\n And every need arranged with care,\n Then ordered by Vas'ishtha. they\n Went forth with speed upon their way.\n Then northward of Pralamba, west\n Of Apart\u00e1la, on they pressed,\n Crossing the M'alin\u00ed that flowed\n With gentle stream athwart the road.\n They traversed Gang\u00e1s holy waves\n \n \n Where she Hastinapura \u00a01 lives,\n Thence to Panchala \u00a02 westward fast\n Through Kurujangal's land \u00a03 they passed.\n On, on their course the envoys held\n By urgency of task impelled.\n Quick glancing at each lucid flood\n And sweet lake gay with flower and bud.\n Beyond, they passed unwearied o'er,\n Where glad birds fill the flood and shore\n Of Saradanda racing fleet\n With heavenly water clear and sweet.\n Thereby a tree celestial grows\n Which every boon on prayer bestows:\n To its blest shade they humbly bent,\n Then to Kulinga's town they went.\n Then, having passed the Warrior's Wood,\n In Abhikala next they stood,\n O'er sacred Ikshumati \u00a04 came,\n Their ancient kings' ancestral claim.\n They saw the learned Brahmans stand,\n Each drinking from his hollowed hand,\n And through Bahika \u00a05 journeying still\n They reached at length Sudaman's hill:\n There Vishnu's footstep turned to see,\n Vipasa \u00a06 viewed, and Salmali,\n And many a lake and river met,\n Tank, pool, and pond, and rivulet.\n And lions saw, and tigers near,\n And elephants and herds of deer,\n And still, by prompt obedience led,\n Along the ample road they sped.\n Then when their course so swift and long,\n Had worn their steeds though fleet and strong,\n To Girivraja's splendid town\n They came by night, and lighted down.\n \n \n To please their master, and to guard\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The royal race, the lineal right,\n \u00a0\u00a0 The envoys, spent with riding hard,\n To that fair city came by night. \u00a01b\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n175:1 R\u00e1magriha, or Girivraja was the capital of As'vapati, Bharat's maternal grand father.\n175:2 The Kekayas or Kaikayas in the Punjab appear amongst the chief nations in the war of the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata; their king being a kinsman of Krishna.\n176:1 H\u00e1stinapura was the capital of the kingdom of Kuru, near the modern Delhi.\n176:2 \"The Panch\u00e1las occupied the upper part of the Doab.\n176:3 'Kuruj\u00e1ngala and its inhabitants are frequently mentioned in the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata, as in the \u00c1di-parv. 3789, 4337, et al.' WILSON'S Vishnu Pur\u00e1na. Vol. II. p. 176. DR. HALL'S Note.\n176:4 'The \u1f48\u03be\u03cd\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b9\u03c2 of Arrian. See As. Res. Vol XV. p. 420, 421, also Indische Alterthumskunde, Vol. I. p. 602, first footnote.' WILSON'S Vishnu Pur\u00e1na, Vol. I, p 421. DR. HALL'S Edition. The Ikshumat\u00ed was a river in Kurukshetra.\n176:5 'The Bah\u00edkas are described in the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata, Kama Parvan, with some detail, and comprehend the different nations of the Punjab from the Sutlej to the Indus.' WILSON S Vishnu Purana. Vol.l, p. 167.\n176:6 The Beas, Hyphsis, or Bibasis.","title":"Book II: Canto LXVIII.: The Envoys.","type":"page"}