Sumantra Traces the First Two Nights
Ayodhya Kanda, Doha 150
Doha 150 · Movement 2 of 2
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The minister begins the account the king has demanded. The first night was spent by the Tamasa, still near the city whose people had followed Ram into darkness.
The second resting place lay upon Ganga's sacred bank. Sita and the two heroic brothers bathed, took water, and remained there beneath the open sky.
Two nights become markers in a father's imagination, each carrying the travellers farther from Ayodhya. Sumantra offers simple geography because detail is the last form of nearness he can give. River after river maps the separation while also showing Ram entering the austerity of his vow with calm exactness.
Tamasa and Ganga become two dark beads on the thread by which Dasharatha follows his absent children.
Read the passage from the Manas
प्रथम बासु तमसा भयउ दूसर सुरसरि तीर। न्हाई रहे जलपानु करि सिय समेत दोउ बीर।।150।।
Their first night's rest was by the Tamasa river, the second on the sacred bank of the Ganga. After bathing and taking water, both heroes rested there with Sita.