Part 18: Question of the succession

After hearing that, Anaraṇyaja felt a desire for emancipation and, after paying homage to him, went home to settle the realm on Rāma, wishing to become a mendicant. Then the king summoned the queens, his sons, ministers, et cetera, and took leave of them properly, his speech like nectar.

Bharata bowed and said: “I will undertake complete self-control with you, lord. I will not remain without you. Otherwise, I will have two misfortunes very hard to bear, master. One is separation from you and the other is satiety with worldly existence.” When Kaikeyī heard that, she thought, “In the future I shall have no husband and no son,” and she said! “Master, you remember the boon you gave me yourself because of my work as charioteer at the svayaṃvara-festival? Give it to me now, O lord who are true to your promise. For a promise of the noble is like a line engraved in stone.” Then Daśaratha said, “I remember the promise. Ask whatever is in my power except interfering with the vow.”

Then Kaikeyī asked, “If you yourself become a mendicant, master, give this earth to Bharata.” Daśaratha replied to her, “My kingdom may be taken at once,” summoned Rāma and Rakṣmaṇa, and said:

“In the past I gave a boon to Kaikeyī because of my satisfaction with her charioteering. Now she has asked for the kingdom for Bharata for this boon.” Rāma, delighted, said: “This has been well asked by the mother—the giving of the kingdom to my brother Bharata, powerful. My father asked me about this as a favor. Nevertheless, this grieves me as an indication to the people of a lack of respect (on my part). If my father were satisfied, let him give the kingdom to a bard. There is no lordship on my part either in refusal or consent, considering myself a footman. Bharata and I are the same. The two are not to be distinguished by you. So let Bharata be crowned with extreme joy.”

While the king, astonished and pleased at hearing Rāma’s speech, instructed the ministers, Bharata said, “Master, in the beginning I asked to take the vow with you. You can not do otherwise, father, at some one’s advice.”

The king said: “Do not make my promise false, son. The boon was given by me to your mother and has been deposited for a long time. It has been asked today by Kaikeyī in the form of giving you the realm, blameless one. You can not violate my command and that of your mother.”

Rāma said to Bharata, “Even if you have no pride, nevertheless take the kingdom to preserve your father’s word.” His eyes filled with tears, Bharata fell at Rāma’s feet and said in words choked by sobs, his hands folded submissively: “To give the kingdom is a suitable thing for the magnanimous father and elder brother, but to take it is not suitable for me. Am I not my father’s son and my elder brother’s younger brother? I am indeed foolish, if I show pride thus.”