Discarded Ramayana: Rama's Sandals on the Throne by DavidBowles Music not playing? Switch to HTML5 Player. Share:    Facebook Twitter Email

Previously the seventh track in my Ramayana project. Before King Dasharatha can crown Rama prince regent, his wiley second wife, Kaikeyi, forces the ruler to grant the two wishes he'd promised her years before... her desires are to see her son Bharata enthroned and Rama exiled for 14 years. Though it breaks his heart and rends his mind to comply, dharma —the unquestionable rules of conduct for each human being— gives him no option but to grant Kaikeyi's wishes. Rama graciously obeys, understanding dharma better than anyone in the epic, and takes his wife and half-brother Lakshmana into the forest to live as ascetics with him. Bharata, who was away during this tumult, arrives to discover his mother's reprensible actions; horrified, he races after Rama and begs him to return to Ayodhya, their city, and rule as is his destiny. Rama refuses, pointing to the demands of dharma.

Once Bharata sees that his brother will not return, he begs of him a gift: Rama's sandals. Bharata explains that he will only act as a temporary regent during the 14 years of Rama's exile, governing not from Ayodhya, but a nearby village. On the throne of their kingdom he'll never sit, but instead will place the sandals of its rightful lord.

For a decade and a half, those sandals will occupy that symbolic place of authority, awaiting the return of their owner...