Kaushalya's Grief and Narada's Message

While Rama enjoys heavenly royal glory in Lanka, his mother Kaushalya burns in the fire of separation from her husband and son. Sitting with her companions on the seventh storey of the palace, she gazes in every direction like a cow parted from its calf and tells a crow on the roof that she will feed it sweet rice if her son Rama comes home.

She laments that her tender sons and the princess Sita, raised in palaces, must walk on stones and thorns, bear cold, heat and rain, find no proper food or bed, and fear wild beasts, while she eats and sleeps in comfort without a moment's peace. She wonders under which tree in the deep forest Rama is resting tonight.

Just then the sage Narada arrives through the sky, famous throughout the earth, wandering the two and a half continents with matted hair and white garments. Kaushalya seats him with honour and gently reproaches him for staying away so long. He explains that he had gone to Dhatakikhanda to see a Tirthankara's birth bath on Mount Sumeru and, loving the sight of the Jina, spent twenty-three happy years there.

Kaushalya tells him all she knows: Bhamandala's coming and kingship, Dasharatha's renunciation, Rama's departure with Sita and Lakshmana, Sita's abduction, the alliance with Sugriva, the war, Ravana's Shakti striking Lakshmana, and the sending of Dronamegha's daughter to Lanka, after which she has heard nothing. Hearing that Sita was carried off and Lakshmana struck, Narada drops his vina and faints, then vows to bring news of her sons.

Flying to Lanka, Narada cleverly asks after Ravana rather than Rama, thinking Ravana's people might be hostile, and puts the question to the servants of Angada, who is sporting with his queens at the Padma lake. Angry at the name, the servants drag him off as Ravana's spy, Angada laughing that they should take him to Padmanabha. Fearing for his life, Narada prays to the yaksha guardians of the Jain teaching.

Brought to Vibhishana's palace, Narada is recognised at once by Rama, who rises from his throne, honours him and sends the servants away. Narada tells the brothers that their mothers are drowning in grief: Kaushalya and Sumitra weep day and night, beat their heads and breasts, have given up food and sleep and may die any day, while Kaikeyi and Suprabha share their pain. Rama and Lakshmana throw down their weapons and weep, thank Narada as their truest friend, and say that one who forgets the kindness of father and mother is truly ungrateful.

Rama tells Vibhishana that time has slipped by in his palace, but now they long to see their mothers and Ayodhya, their second mother. Vibhishana begs them to stay sixteen more days while messengers carry the good news ahead, bowing his head at their feet, and they agree. Seeing the Vidyadharas swooping in from the south, Kaushalya tells Sumitra they must bring good news; the messengers tell Bharata of Ravana's death, Vibhishana's crowning, Lakshmana's discus, the freeing and liberation of Indrajit, Meghanada and Kumbhakarna, and the Garuda lord's gifts.

Vidyadharas arrive with thousands of magical vehicles laden with gold and jewels and rain treasure on the city until every household holds heaps of riches; when it is announced that anyone may take what they wish, the citizens reply that they lack nothing and poverty is gone from Ayodhya. In sixteen days skilled Vidyadhara craftsmen rebuild the city, twelve yojanas long and nine wide, with jewelled temples, golden steps, ruby-edged lotus pools and gardens like Nandana, and then the Baladeva and the Narayana set out from Lanka, thinking only of their mothers.