Canto 2 -
Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa
Chapter 90: Bharata Meets Bharadvāja Ṛṣi
Text 2.90.5
समागम्य वसिष्ठेन भरतेनाभिवादितः।
अबुध्यत महातेजाः सुतं दशरथस्य तम्॥
samāgamya vasiṣṭhena bharatenābhivāditaḥ
abudhyata mahā-tejāḥ sutaṁ daśarathasya tam
samāgamya = He met; vasiṣṭhena = Vasiṣṭha; bharatena = and then Bharata; abhivāditaḥ = offered His respectful obeisances unto him; abudhyata = understood; mahā-tejāḥ = the sage of great prowess; sutam = son; daśarathasya = to be Daśaratha’s; tam = Him.
He met Vasiṣṭha and then Bharata offered His respectful obeisances unto him. The sage of great prowess understood Him to be Daśaratha’s son.
Because Bharadvāja and Vasiṣṭha were of the same age, they did not offer obeisances unto each other. Bharadvāja understood that Bharata had come because He had accompanied Vasiṣṭha.1
1. It was well known that Vasiṣṭha was the guru of the Ikṣvāku dynasty. Bharadvāja already knew that Rāma had been unnecessarily exiled with Lakṣmaṇa. So when he noticed the guru of the Ikṣvāku dynasty, he sensed that Bharata, for whose sake Kaikeyī had created such a ruckus, must have come to give the kingdom back to Rāma. That he knew Bharata’s pure devotion to Rāmacandra’s lotus feet will become evident in text 21 of this chapter.