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

i. 30⁴—] Bhavabhūti — Uttara-Rāma-Charita [24 Lakshmaṇa, to himself—Well then, I will create a diversion. Looking at the picture, aloud. Here now, aged by [the full length of] an eon,¹ is this king of vultures, father Jaṭāyus² of honoured name, and [here] the illustration of his valorous conduct. Sītā—Alas, father! To its most bitter end (nir-) hast thou carried [this] thy filial love! Rāma—Alas, father! Thou descendant of Kaśyapa [and] monarch of the winged tribes! Where can there be found, once again, another like thee— a store of holiness, a saint? Lakshmaṇa—This here, west of Janasthāna, is what they call Chitrakuñja³ —a portion of the Daṇḍakā forest inhabited [once] by the headless Danu. This on the mountain Ṛishyamūka is the hermitage of [sage] Mataṅga, and the grounds (padam) adjoining it. Here is the most saintly Śabara lady, Śramaṇā by name. That again is the lily-pool called Pampā.⁴ Sītā—Here, as I learn (kila), my noble Lord—[all] his passion [for revenge] (amarsha) and courage forsaking him—wept aloud and in the very fullness of his heart (kaṇṭha). Rāma—My Queen, lovely is this [lily-]pool [to me]: [For,] in this [pool]—when in their youthful merriment the [blue-beaked] mallikāksha birds shook with their wings the broad and tremulous stalks of the [white] lotuses—in the intervals between the risings and fallings of tear-drops, I perceived the regions to be full of [blue] lotuses.⁵ 31 Lakshmaṇa—This is the noble Hanūmant (Māruti).⁶ Sītā—This is he who has conferred a mighty blessing on this [entire] living world by uplifting it from the despair wherein it was long plunged—he of resistless prowess, Māruti! Rāma—Happily this is he of mighty arms—the source of Añjanā's⁷ joy—by whose valour blessed [in the attainment of their end] are we ourselves and [all] the worlds! 32 Sītā—Dear brother, this here, with the full-plumed peacocks (barhin) dancing upon its flowering kadamba trees, by what name is this mountain called?—where, his majestic grace being all that is left of his pale beauty—

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¹ A manvantara or eon = 306,720,000 human years. ² The vulture Jaṭāyus was a friend of Rāma's father, and met death in the attempt to prevent Sītā's abduction. ³ Lit. 'having many bowers'; the monster Danu infested it. ⁴ For all these persons and places see the Notes to the passage. ⁵ By a transference of the birds' colour to the lotuses on which they were perching. ⁶ A monkey-chieftain, ally of Rāma. He met Sītā in her captivity at Laṅkā, and carried news of her back to Rāma. ⁷ The mother of Māruti.