THE BROTHERS MEET

But now when he saw Raama, he forgot all this in the great love that surged within him and submerged all other thoughts and fears. He sprang forward to the spot where Raama was seated. He could utter no word, beyond "Brother," and fell at his feet, and sobbed. By this time, Sumantra and Guha joined him.

Raama saw before him lying on the ground Bharata with hands clasped in supplication, with matted locks and in garments of bark. With grief and fasting, his body had grown lean and he was tanned with fatigue and exposure. Raama embraced him, and kissed him on the head, and said: "Brother beloved, why did you leave our father's side and come all this way into the forest? And why have you grown so thin?"

Bharata was speechless. Raama put to him the formal questions which members of the royal family asked each other when they met after an absence.

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