After Rama’s long questions about ruling, Bharata’s answer is short and devastating. He refuses the premise: the custom of the family is that the younger cannot rule while the eldest lives. Then, at last, he gives the news no one has dared to tell: their father is dead, and he died “grieving for you alone, longing to see you, remembering you” (verse 9).

Bharata asks Rama to offer water to their father’s spirit, because the offering of a beloved son “becomes imperishable”. Even in breaking the news, he gives Rama something: the assurance that he was the son his father loved most.