उत्तररामचरितम् (महाकवि भवभूति - संस्कृत मूल एवं हिन्दी व्याख्या)

—III 47] UTTARARĀMACHARITA. 119
P 84 तमसावासन्त्यौ—तमसा addressed the following verse
to सीता and वासन्ती addressed it to राम. It is to be remem-
bered that वासन्ती and राम did not see both तमसा and सीता.
Compare a similar device below V 16, 18-19. Verse 48.
Understand दिशतु with each of the nouns in the nomina-
tive viz. अवनि, अमरसिन्धु, कुलपति, वसिष्ठ, अवनि the earth.
अमरसिन्धु the river of the gods, i. e. the Ganges. सार्धं याभिः—
this goes with अमरसिन्धु —together with others like us
कुलपति —a sage who is the head of an institution where 10000
sages are fed and taught ‘मुनीनां दशसाहस्रं योऽन्नदानादिपोषणात्। अध्या-
पयति विप्रर्षिरसौ कुलपतिः स्मृतः॥’ आद्यः श्लोकः—the first person to
employ the metre (अनुष्टुभ्). This refers to वाल्मीकि. अनुध्याता
अरुन्धती दृश् म् अनु ...दीक् —for the affix क, see notes p. 6. त्वयि
मङ्गलाय may (they) bestow blessing on you for your great wel-
fare. It will be seen later on that all the persons mentioned
in this verse contribute to bring about the reunion of Rāma
and Sītā.
In some editions this Act is called छाया. The reason is
that in this Act सीता was throughout present as if she were the
shadow of Rāma, though invisible to him. This Act is the
most important in the drama. At its commencement we see
that Sītā's heart, injured by her undeserved abandonment
under a trick, nurses a feeling of resentment and is almost
indifferent to Rāma. By a skilful manipulation of incidents
the poet shows that she is completely reconciled to Rāma at
the end of the Act. The purpose of the remaining four Acts
is to give visible effect to this unification of two hearts that
had for a time become estranged.
Act IV.
After the highly wrought feeling of the third Act, the
author relieves the tension by introducing a scene in a lighter
vein. The scene is laid in the hermitage of वाल्मीकि. The in-
cidents narrated in this Act seem to have occurred soon after
those narrated in the third. In the second Act (p 38 text)
we saw that after finishing the twelve years' sattra, Vasishtha,
his wife and the mothers of Rāma decided to go to Vālmīki's
hermitage. Their recent arrival is announced in the Vishkam-
bhaka of this Act.