महावीरचरितम् (महाकवि भवभूति - वीररस-प्रधान रामकथा नाटक सम्पूर्ण ७ अङ्क सटीक)

21] Act I, Picture-gallery — Translation [—i. 23ᶜ Our most honoured sire ¹ still alive—we only just wedded to our brides—the Queen-mothers looking to all our needs: gone indeed are those [happy] days of ours! 19 And then too this daughter of Janaka [Sītā]— With her fine, slender, and charming locks-of-hair glistening at the ends [as they were wafted by the wind]; with her bud-like teeth enhancing the beauty of her face—child as she yet was; with her delightfully lovely—as if made out of moon-beams—and guilelessly sportive and sweet and tender limbs: she was the joy of our Queen-mothers! 20 Lakshmaṇa—This is Mantharā.² Rāma, passing on silently to another place—Queen Vaidehī, This is that iṅgudī tree in the city of Śṛṅgavera, where, formerly,³ we came in contact with that friendly king of the Nishādas [hill-tribes]. 21 Lakshmaṇa, with a smile, aside—So, I see, my noble brother has skipped over the story of our second (madhyama) mother! Sītā—Ha! This is the scene at the tying⁴ of the matted-hair (jaṭā). Lakshmaṇa—With their sovereignty transferred to their sons what the old sires of [the race of] Ikshvāku⁵ undertook, that, in his [very] youth, my noble brother undertook—the holy vow of an anchorite. 22 Sītā—This is the exalted Bhāgīrathī [Ganges] with her serene and holy waters. Rāma—Goddess! Presiding-divinity of the race of Raghu! Salutations unto thee. Busily engaged in search of the [lost] horse, when—at the time of Sagara's⁶ [horse-]sacrifice—[his sons] cleft the earth open and were through [sage] Kapila's wrathful radiance burnt to ashes, it was Bhagīratha, practising penances heedless of the sufferings of his body, who was able, after a very long time, to save [those sixty ¹ His father Daśaratha. ² An old nurse and attendant of Kaikeyī, the second wife of Daśaratha, and the moving spirit of the intrigue which brought about Rāma's banishment, instead of his instal- lation as heir-apparent. ³ After crossing the Ganges on their way to banishment. ⁴ In preparation for assuming a forester's life. ⁵ Another famous ancestor of Rāma. ⁶ King Sagara of the Solar race commenced a horse-sacrifice. But the horse was stolen away. In search, the sixty thousand sons of Sagara ripped the earth open. There they came upon sage Kapila, who burnt them to ashes for their insolence. Their great-grandson, Bhagīratha, brought the Ganges down from the skies; and as the holy waters touched the ashes, the sixty thousand sons attained heaven. The Ganges is called Bhāgīrathī after Bhagīratha.