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

iv. 17ᶜ—] Bhavabhūti — Uttara-Rāma-Charita [66 has snatched thee away, as also that cause of our connexion [Sītā]. Now in this world of life, in this dreary hell, accursed be the continuance of me, the sinful! 17 Kausalyā—Dear Jānakī, what can I do? Fastened firm [to my body] with a hard and adamantine cement, this wretched life will not leave me, ill-fated that I am! Arundhatī—Take heart, thou who art sprung from kings! It is at least necessary to allow your tears rest from time to time. And don't you further recall what, in Ṛiṣhyaśṛiṅga’s hermitage, your family-preceptor ¹ [Vasiṣhṭha] said?—‘That it was to be so, we had already divined; but it will all have a prosperous issue.’ Kausalyā—How [can that be] when I have already outlived my wishes? Arundhatī—Do you then, O daughter of kings, regard that as an untruthful utterance? You must not, O noble Princess, think it false: it must come about. The utterances of those Brahmans to whom has been revealed the Light [celestial]—let there be no doubt about them. For, upon their speech awaits the beneficent Lakshmī; ² they never utter words that do not come true. 18 A [confused] noise ³ behind the curtain: all listen. Janaka—To-day being a holiday [in honour] of [distinguished] guests, it is the boys at sport that are raising this noise. Kausalyā—It is very easy indeed, in childhood, to find joys! Observing. Aha! Who now is this [boy] in the midst of these [others]—he with his form (aṅga) supple and handsome and well-proportioned, and endowed with the grace of [our] dear Rāma: who is he that so delights even our sight? Arundhatī, Aside, with joyful tears—This then must be the thing that Bhāgīrathī related to me: the secret that was as a nectar to my ears. We do not yet know, though, which of the two long-lived ones—Kuśa and Lava—he may be. Janaka—Like a blue lotus-leaf dark and mellow [in complexion], marked with the round tufted locks [of a Kshatriya], and by his guileless charms adorning, as with an innate-grace, the circle of his school-mates—the sight of him all of a sudden gives an ambrosial collyrium to my eyes, as if [he were] that Joy of the [race of the] Raghus, my darling [Rāma] himself, become once again a child! Who may he be? 19 ¹ It is not usual for a wife to call her husband ² Goddess of wealth and prosperity. by his name. Cp. p. 63, l. 6, above. ³ As if in confirmation of iv. 18.