The Throne of Sandals

Fourteen years of exile. Two wooden sandals to rule a kingdom.

Why this issue matters The meeting at Chitrakuta settles the question of the throne: Rama will not break his word, and Bharata will rule only in his name. The lesson

Who's who

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The lesson of issue 7

Power held in trust

Everyone begs Rama to return: his brother, his mothers, his priest, his people. The counsellor Jabali even argues that duty to the dead is foolish. Rama answers that a kingdom built on a broken word stands on nothing. Bharata takes Rama's sandals, sets them on the throne, and governs as a caretaker for fourteen years. Anasuya, meeting Sita, honours the same faithfulness.

To think about

What is something you look after on someone else's behalf? How does that change the way you handle it?

Notes on the tellings

Where this issue follows Valmiki, and where other tellings differ. Each note also appears on its page.

Page 9 In Valmiki, Kaikeyi never speaks a line at Chitrakuta. She walks in mourning with Kausalya and Sumitra, wipes the forest dust from Rama's back, and weeps silently at parting.
Page 11 Rama's images of the ripe fruit, the old house and the driftwood on the ocean are drawn as picture strips: our illustration of his words.
Page 12 Here Rama reveals a detail held back until now: when Dasharatha married Kaikeyi, he promised the kingdom itself as a bride-price to her father, King Ashvapati, besides her two battle boons.
Page 16 When Vasishtha's plea fails, Bharata spreads kusha grass before Rama's hut and fasts, until Rama gently rebukes the vow and bids him touch water.
Page 21 As in Issue 6, we keep Bharata in mourning silk at Chitrakuta and show him taking up bark cloth and matted hair when he installs the sandals at Nandigrama.
Page 22 The enthronement of the sandals at Nandigrama is expanded into a full-page picture: our staging.
Page 26 Before the Dandaka forest, Anasuya gives Sita ever-fresh garments, ornaments, a garland and fragrant salve, which is why Sita shines in silk and gold through the exile. In Sita's own telling to Anasuya, the bow was a gift from Varuna; in Issue 3 it is Shiva's bow.
Page 30 On these pages the beasts on Viradha's trident are shown in silhouette, without blood, and Viradha holds Sita at arm's length.
Page 33 This issue spans the end of Valmiki's Ayodhya Kanda and the opening of the Aranya Kanda. Every story beat from the Chitrakuta assembly to Atri's hermitage is in both the critical edition and the vulgate.