Bharat and the Sandals on the Throne

Bharat was away at his grandfather's house when everything in Ayodhya changed — Rama exiled, Dasharatha dead.

On his return he was told that he was now the king. What he felt was not pleasure but fury. He told his mother Kaikeyi plainly that he did not want this kingdom, and least of all a kingdom obtained this way.

He performed his father's last rites, and then set out for Chitrakoot with the army, the ministers, the queens and the people of the city — to bring Rama back.

Seeing that vast crowd approach, Guha the Nishada chief suspected Bharat was marching to war. But as they came nearer he saw that Bharat was walking barefoot, in bark cloth, like an ascetic.

The brothers met at Chitrakoot. Bharat put his head at Rama's feet and pleaded, "Come back. This exile was not earned by you — it was earned by us."

Rama said, "It is our father's word. I will return only when the fourteen years are complete. You must carry Ayodhya."

There was long argument. The sages counselled. At last Bharat said, "Then I will hold it not as king but as deputy."

He asked for Rama's paduka, his wooden sandals. Rama took them off and gave them.

Bharat carried them home on his head, installed them on the throne, and did not live in the city himself. He went to a hut at Nandigram — bark cloth, the bare ground for a bed, fruit for food, matted hair.

For fourteen years he governed from there. Every order went out in the name of the sandals. Every tax that came in went to the treasury, not to his own table.

And on the last day of the fourteenth year, as the hours ran out, he had a pyre made ready for himself. It was then that Hanuman arrived with the news that Rama was coming.

Moral: Bharat had the power, the legitimacy and nobody to answer to. He treated it as a trust rather than a possession. Sitting down on a chair that belongs to someone else is easy — putting their sandals on it is not.