SECTION XXXVIII.
WHEN Sitā, having a husband although seeming as if she had none, was putting on the ascetic guise, the people got into a wrath and exclaimed, "O Daāaratha, fie on you!" Aggrieved at the uproar that arose there in consequence, the lord of earth banished from his heart all regard for life, virtue, and fame. And sighing hot, that descendant Ikshwāku spoke onto that wife of his, saying,—"O Kaikeyi, Sitā deserves not to go in a Kuça dress. Tender, and youthful, and worthy of happiness, she is by no means capable of living in the forest. My spiritual guide has spoken the truth. Whom has this one injured that, being the daughter of the foremost of kings, she like a female ascetic, wearing a meagre garb in the presence of all, will (repair to the woods and) remain there like a beggar destitute of everything? Let Janaka's daughter leave off her ascetic guise. This is not the promise that I had made to you before. Let the princess go to the forest in comfort, furnished with all sorts of gems. My sands run out; by me hath this cruel promise been made with an oath. But this (exile of Sitā) has been thought of by you through your ignorance! Let it not, however, consume you like a bamboo flower destroying the bamboo. If, O wicked woman, Rāma has happened to do thee something unbeautiful, what wrong, O base wretch, has Vaidehi done thee in the world? Of eyes expanded like those of a doe, endued with a mild temperament, and virtuous, what harm has Janaka's daughter done thee. Surely, O nefarious one, the banishment of Rāma is enough for thee. Why then dost thou bend thy mind to perpetrate these atrocious sins? O noble dame, having heard you asking for the banishment of Rāma, who had at first been intended by me for being installed, and who came here afterwards, I had promised you (his exile alone.) But since, going beyond that promise of mine, you behold Mithāla's daughter dressed in mendicant garb, surely you wish to find your way to hell." Thus commissioned to the forest, Rāma who was seated sealing his lips, said,—"O righteous one, this my mother is aged and famous and of a lofty spirit. May she not meet with improper treatment at your hands! It behoves you, O bestower of boons, to show greater honor to her when she shall be deprived of me and be plunged into a sea of grief and afflicted with unprecedented woe. O you comparable unto the mighty Indra, you should so behave with my mother smitten with my separation, that exercised by grief in consequence of my residence in the forest, she may not, renouncing life, repair to the mansions of Yama."