Dasharath had three queens and no child, and the years were going. The yagya was done, and out of the fire a man came up holding a vessel of kheer.
It was given to the queens to share. What was shared came back as four sons — Ram, Bharat, Lakshman, Shatrughna — and the eldest was born at midday in Ayodhya, on the ninth of Chaitra, under Punarvasu.
The whole of what followed is in that beginning: a thing given, divided, and returned larger.
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