The bazars and the streets repelled the sight as though a wild conflagration had broken out in the city on all sides. Kaikey¶, who was to the solar race what the moon is to the lotuses, was rejoiced to hear of her son’s approach. Preparing lights for waving round his head, she sprang up and ran glad at heart, and meeting him at the very door conducted him into her apartments. Bharata saw with wonder that while the household wore a wretched appearance like a bed of lotuses blasted by frost, Kaikey¶ was as happy as a Bh¶la woman who had set a whole forest ablaze. Seeing her son melancholy and depressed in spirits, she asked him: “Is all well in my mother’s house?” Bharata assured her that everything was well and then enquired after the health and welfare of his own family: “Tell me, where is my father and where all mothers, and where is S¶tŒ and my beloved brothers, Ýr¶ RŒma and Lakƒma˜a?” (1—4)