| NOT far from Chitrakoota was an outpost
of the Raakshasas, called Janasthaana, in charge of a famous warrior named Khara, who was
a brother of Raavana, and from this station, fierce Raakshasas ranged the forest round,
molesting the rishis in their isolated aashramas. They made life so insecure that the
rishis abandoned their hermitages in the Chitrakoota region in spite of all that Raama
could do to dissuade them.
After Bharata's departure Raama was not
quite happy in Chitrakoota. The face of his beloved brother tearful with disappointment
and the sad drooping form of his widowed mother were ever before his mind's eye, and now
that the going away of the rishis had deprived him of even their companionship, the lonely
hut was so full of sad memories that he made up his mind to seek some other resting place
in the Dandaka forest. |
