She could neither detain her Son nor yet say ‘Go’; she felt terrible agony in her heart in either event. “It seemed as though one was going to write ‘moon’ and wrote ‘RŒhu’ (the demon who is believed by the Hindus to devour the moon during a lunar eclipse) instead through a slip of the pen,” she said to herself. “The ways of the Creator (BrahmŒ) are always adverse to all,” she concluded. KausalyŒ’s judgment was swayed on the one hand by her sense of duty and on the other by her affection. She found herself on the horns of a dilemma like a snake that has caught hold of a musk-rat*. “If I press my son and detain him, the moral code will be violated and bad blood created between brothers. And if I allow him to proceed to the woods, it will be a grievous loss.” The queen thus found herself faced with an embarrassing situation and was overwhelmed with grief. Again, realizing the duty of a woman and remembering that both RŒma and Bharata were ordinary rat and latter discovers its identity, it can neither devour it nor disgorge it. For if it devours it, it is sure to die; and if it disgorges it, it goes blind. equally her sons the prudent KausalyŒ (Ýr¶ RŒma’s mother), who had a guileless disposition, spoke as follows with great courage, “You have done well, my child, I swear; a father’s command is the most sacred of all obligations.” (1—4)