Chapter 111 — The Northern Cities

After some time, Yudhajit, king of the Kekayas and brother to Queen Kaikeyi, sent his teacher Gargya to Ayodhya. The sage came with a gift: ten thousand horses, blankets, jewels, fine patterned cloth, and ornaments.

Rama went out to meet him, accompanied by his retinue, and received him with honor. Then he asked after Yudhajit and the purpose of his journey.

Gargya spoke for the Kekaya king. On both banks of the Sindhu lay a beautiful country of fruit and root-bearing forests. It was held by Gandharvas, heavenly musicians who could take forms at will and were also formidable fighters. Their ruler Shailusha had three crores—thirty million—warrior sons, the messenger said. Yudhajit asked that the land be won and that two well-ordered cities be established there.

Rama accepted. Before Gargya, he looked to Bharata and named Bharata's sons, Taksha and Pushkala, as the princes who would take the country. Bharata would lead them with an army; after the Gandharvas were defeated, he would install each son in a city and return.

The expedition was no quiet migration. Bharata set out with his sons, the sage Gargya, and a great army. Predatory beings and animals are said to have moved with the force, drawn by the prospect of battle. After a month and a half on the road, the army reached the Kekaya realm. Yudhajit came out with his people, and together he and Bharata advanced against the Gandharvas.

The battle lasted seven nights. Neither side gained the victory. Then Bharata, angered by the impasse, used the dreadful Samvarta weapon, a weapon named for a consuming upheaval. It bound the Gandharvas in Time's noose and tore them apart; in a moment, thirty million of Shailusha's sons were killed.

Afterward Bharata founded two prosperous cities. Taksha received Takshashila; Pushkala received Pushkaravata. For five years Bharata oversaw the settlement of the Gandharva country, with its gardens, public ways, shops, houses, and shrines. Then he returned to Ayodhya and reported what had occurred. Rama was pleased.

Rama next spoke of Lakshmana's sons. The elder bore the name Angada, as the vanara prince of Kishkindha did, and the younger was Chandraketu; both were skilled in dharma and firm with the bow. He wanted places for them where they would not burden other kings or destroy ascetics' hermitages.

Bharata proposed a pleasant region called Karapatha. There Rama established Angada in a city named Angadiya. Chandraketu received a city in the land of the Mallas, called Chandrakanta. Lakshmana followed Angada west and stayed a year. Bharata accompanied Chandraketu and stayed longer than a year. Then both returned to Rama's feet in Ayodhya.

The brothers had spent their lives in one another's orbit: in childhood, exile, war, counsel, and rule. Even when long periods had passed, affection made them slow to recognize time's passage. Ten thousand more years went by as Rama, Bharata, and Lakshmana attended to the work of the city and lived on the path of dharma, bright together, like three sacrificial fires burning in a great rite.

Then, after that immeasurable interval, Time came to Rama's gate.