‘Now I see what you mean.’ Said the king with a smile; ‘you are overfond of being in the sulks. You kept the boons in reserve and never asked for them; and as my way is, I forgot all about them.

Pray do not charge me with a lie; but for two boons ask for four and you shall have them. It has ever been a rule in the house of Raghu to lose life rather than break a promise.

Even a multitude of sins cannot equal a lie. Can millions of tiny Gunja seeds make a mountain? Truth is the root of all noble virtues, as the Vedas and the Puranas declare and as Manu (the first law-giver of the world, the author of Manusmriti) has expounded.

Moreover, I have unwittingly sworn by Rama, the lord of Raghus, who is the very perfection of virtue and the highest embodiment of affection.’ Having thus firmly bound him to his word, the evil-minded queen smiled and said, revealing her wicked scheme and loosing as it were the bandage from the eyes of a cruel hawk.

The king’s desire represented a fair forest and the joy (that prevailed everywhere) stood for flock of happy bird. Queen Kaikeyi, who resembled a Bhil huntress, sought to loose the fierce falcon of her piercing words:

‘Hear, my beloved lord, and grant me the boon my soul desires: install Bharata as regent. And this is the second boon I beg with folded hands – pray fulfil, lord, my desire:

-let Rama dwell in the forest for fourteen years, a perfect anchorite clad in penitential garb.' At these gentle words of the queen, the king's heart grew faint, like the chakava's when it is touched by the rays of the moon.