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Continued from yesterday's instalment
 Kausalya was a very rude when Bharata went to her. The elaborate drama that follows in Valmiki is cut short by Kamban. 'You are evidently anxious to take the kingdom from my son,' starts Kausalya and showers her anger on him. That is a very natural thing for any mother to do. That too she was mother who was so happily expecting the coronation of her son, who indeed was the child of all in Ayodhya; on whom befell the twin thunders of denial of crown and exile to the forest and who lost her husband because of these events. Her emotions could naturally not be controlled.
Kamban paints a different picture. Bharata, as he enters Kausalya's chamber pours out his heart before she could say anything and his long lamentation presents his heart to Kausalya.
'Where is my father,' cried 'and where my brother? Came I to Ayodhya only to see this misery? Show me a balm to my bleeding heart, O mother! The race whose glory was brighter than the sun has now become blackened by the birth of Bharata,' says the opening verse. (Translated by VVS
Aiyar.)
'He is guileless. He has no part in the conspiracy of Kaikeyi' thought she and asked him 'kaikayar komagal izaitha kaidhavam iya nee arindhilai polumaal' 'Child it looks like you were not aware of what Kaikeyi did.' The question is half-genuine and half-sarcastic. It has an underlying sarcasm 'so you mean to say that you were not aware of what she did and everything was done without your knowledge.'
The observation of Sri VVS Aiyar is worth noting. "Here we should remark that by stopping short with these words, Kamban makes Kausalya more dignified in character… At the same time, by making Bharata eat his own heart and protest his innocence by many a terrible oath the moment he heard even these words, Kamban makes his Bharata also seem more sensitive…"
 The oaths of Bharata when Kausalya uttered these words are captured by Kamban in twenty verses. Let me quote a few of them as translated by Sri VVS Aiyar, not only to show the shining qualities of Bharata, but also to remind us of how high a regard this land - this very same land that is losing its sense of values in private, public and political lives, this very holy land that is ruled by unruly elements - had for values that are trampled under uncaring, impatient and urgent shoes.
If I had known the evil planned by that evil one, may I fall into the hell reserved for men that show not mercy, for those who endeavour to destroy charities, for those who corrupt the wife of another man, and for those who destroy life in wanton cruelty.
May I suffer the torments reserved for those who do harm to the holy ones who have renounced everything and do tapas, for those who flee from before their enemies in war, and for those who rob the poor!
More follows…
Hari Krishnan
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