The people who met him did not speak, but bowed and passed on. For the fear and dismay in his mind Bharat could not ask, “Is all well?”
The market-places and streets were as dreary as though the city had been the prey of a general conflagration. When Kaikeyi heard of her son's approach, the Moon of the lotus-like solar race rejoiced. She sprang up gladly and ran with lamp in hand and met him at the door and brought him in. Bharat saw all the household as woe-begone as a bed of lotuses when smitten by the frost, his mother as jubilant as a wild hill-woman who has set the forest in a blaze. Seeing her son sad and distressed, she asked, “Is all well in my mother's house?” Bharat assured her that all was well, and then asked after the welfare of his own family: “Say, where is my father and where the other queen-mothers? Where is Sita and my dear brothers, Rama and Lakshman?”
The market-places and streets were as dreary as though the city had been the prey of a general conflagration. When Kaikeyi heard of her son's approach, the Moon of the lotus-like solar race rejoiced. She sprang up gladly and ran with lamp in hand and met him at the door and brought him in. Bharat saw all the household as woe-begone as a bed of lotuses when smitten by the frost, his mother as jubilant as a wild hill-woman who has set the forest in a blaze. Seeing her son sad and distressed, she asked, “Is all well in my mother's house?” Bharat assured her that all was well, and then asked after the welfare of his own family: “Say, where is my father and where the other queen-mothers? Where is Sita and my dear brothers, Rama and Lakshman?”