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

21] Act I, Picture-gallery — Translation [—i. 23ᶜ
Our most honoured sire ¹ still alive—we only just wedded to our
brides—the Queen-mothers looking to all our needs: gone indeed
are those [happy] days of ours! 19
And then too this daughter of Janaka [Sītā]—
With her fine, slender, and charming locks-of-hair glistening at
the ends [as they were wafted by the wind]; with her bud-like
teeth enhancing the beauty of her face—child as she yet was;
with her delightfully lovely—as if made out of moon-beams—and
guilelessly sportive and sweet and tender limbs: she was the joy
of our Queen-mothers! 20
Lakshmaṇa—This is Mantharā.²
Rāma, passing on silently to another place—Queen Vaidehī,
This is that iṅgudī tree in the city of Śṛṅgavera, where, formerly,³
we came in contact with that friendly king of the Nishādas
[hill-tribes]. 21
Lakshmaṇa, with a smile, aside—So, I see, my noble brother has skipped
over the story of our second (madhyama) mother!
Sītā—Ha! This is the scene at the tying⁴ of the matted-hair (jaṭā).
Lakshmaṇa—With their sovereignty transferred to their sons what
the old sires of [the race of] Ikshvāku⁵ undertook, that, in his
[very] youth, my noble brother undertook—the holy vow of an
anchorite. 22
Sītā—This is the exalted Bhāgīrathī [Ganges] with her serene and holy
waters.
Rāma—Goddess! Presiding-divinity of the race of Raghu! Salutations
unto thee.
Busily engaged in search of the [lost] horse, when—at the time
of Sagara's⁶ [horse-]sacrifice—[his sons] cleft the earth open and
were through [sage] Kapila's wrathful radiance burnt to ashes, it
was Bhagīratha, practising penances heedless of the sufferings of
his body, who was able, after a very long time, to save [those sixty
¹ His father Daśaratha.
² An old nurse and attendant of Kaikeyī, the
second wife of Daśaratha, and the moving
spirit of the intrigue which brought about
Rāma's banishment, instead of his instal-
lation as heir-apparent.
³ After crossing the Ganges on their way to
banishment.
⁴ In preparation for assuming a forester's life.
⁵ Another famous ancestor of Rāma.
⁶ King Sagara of the Solar race commenced a horse-sacrifice. But the horse was stolen
away. In search, the sixty thousand sons
of Sagara ripped the earth open. There
they came upon sage Kapila, who burnt
them to ashes for their insolence. Their
great-grandson, Bhagīratha, brought the
Ganges down from the skies; and as
the holy waters touched the ashes, the
sixty thousand sons attained heaven.
The Ganges is called Bhāgīrathī after
Bhagīratha.