“Rājadharma at Citrakūṭa: Rāma’s Statesmanship in Dialogue with Bharata”, Indica Today, October 24, 2025
“Introduction
The meeting of Rāma and Bharata at Citrakūṭa, narrated in the Ayodhyākāṇḍa of Vālmīki’s Rāmāyaṇa, is far more than a fraternal reunion—it is a profound exposition of rājadharma. Set against political upheaval and moral crisis, the episode transforms private grief into public instruction. Bharata, innocent of Kaikeyī’s conspiracy, returns to a fatherless kingdom and a fractured populace. His anguish is not only filial but civic: he witnesses the disruption of moral order and the erosion of his own legitimacy.
The encounter becomes a moral testing ground. Bharata rejects a throne tainted by deceit; Rāma reaffirms his commitment to satya and pitṛ-vākya-paripālanam by refusing to return prematurely. Yet the dialogue transcends personal virtue—it becomes a meditation on kingship. In Sarga 100, through seventy-seven ślokas, Rāma frames his inquiry as kuśala praśna—questions of well-being that double as a curriculum of statecraft.
These praśnas span personal discipline, ministerial appointments, judicial fairness, strategic intelligence, economic oversight, and the pursuit of higher ideals. They articulate a dharmic architecture of governance—ethical, consultative, and citizen-oriented. Far from being a prince in exile, Rāma treats the forest as an alternative rājya, a symbolic polity where dharma must be upheld even without a throne or court. Leadership, in this model, is portable and situational—anchored not in privilege but in responsibility…….”
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