Soon the messengers were provisioned and equipped for the long journey and
furnished with gifts of honour. Mounted on swift and sturdy horses, they sped past rivers
and forests, up hill and down dale, and reached Kekaya, which was somewhere to the west of
the modern Punjab, and found themselves in Raajagriha, its capital, where the Ikshvaaku
princes were residing in the palace of their maternal uncle. They decided to wait on the
princes the next morning.
The night the messengers arrived, Bharata
had evil dreams and woke up in the morning filled with anxiety as to what they might
portend. His face showed the state of his mind. His companions tried to entertain him with
dance and mirth to make him forget his cares, but did not succeed. |
