Week 5: Reading Diary A (Rama's exile)

Buck's Ramayana
Pages 110-161

• Messengers were sent out to tell Bharata to come back to Ayodhya immediately. They travelled past Panchala and the Elephant city, never stopping, for four days, finally reaching Kekaya City. 
• Bharata was asleep but he was having a nightmare where he saw the ocean dry, the moon fall on to the Earth, the tusks of his father's elephants shatter, the fire in Ayodhya burn out, and smoke coming from the hills of Kosala. **story**
• Finally the messengers came and told him that he needs to immediately return to Ayodhya without specifying the reason, and his grandfather, King Aswapati, gave him horses to ride back on.
• Bharata asks Kaikeyi why Rama is banished when she tells him that the King banished him into exile for fourteen years. Finding out that it was Kaikeyi, he runs off to Kausalya.
• Bharata forgives his mother and goes with the four queens to Rama to take his place in the forest.
• Rama explains to Bharata that a man's word is very important and it cannot be broken and Bharata eventually agrees to let Rama go. Rama asks Bharata to wait for him, for his return after fourteen years. 
• Rama tells Sita the story of the Valakhilyas and about how Indra wasn't very nice to them. 
• The demon Viradha abducts Sita while Rama is telling a story to Sita, but later he finds out that the only way to free him is to end his demon life (by Rama).
• Lakshmana, Rama, and Sita live in Panchavati where Ravana's sister proposes to him.

Bharata and Kaikeyi

Source: Boloji