शत्रुघ्नस्य प्रस्थानम्

Having taught Śatrughna how Lavaṇa could be killed, Rāma praised him again and again, and then the delight of the Raghus spoke once more; he knew that a newly consecrated king needs an army and a treasury. "Let four thousand horses go with you, bull among men, two thousand chariots and a hundred of the finest elephants. And let the market-streets go too, rich with every kind of merchandise," that is, the traders, "and the actors and dancers. Take a million in gold and bullion, Śatrughna, and go well furnished with wealth and carriages." Rāma looked ahead: a new city needs trade and entertainment as well as soldiers. So he equipped his brother not only for battle but for founding a new kingdom, knowing that once Lavaṇa was dead a city would have to be built there, and he sent every kind of resource. A father's affection and a king's policy are seen together here.

Then Rāma taught him a root principle of kingship. "Keep your army content, hero, well paid, glad and cheerful and well disciplined, winning it over with kind words and gifts, best of men." An army must be won not by wages alone but by gentle speech and generosity, and "disciplined" means an orderly force, not an unruly one. Then he stated the general truth: "Far from home, Rāghava, it is not wealth that stands by a man, nor wives nor kinsmen; it is a well-pleased band of followers." In a distant land money, a wife or relatives are no help; contented followers are a king's real strength. The counsel agrees with the teaching of statecraft that a ruler must keep his people content, and it came from Rāma's own experience, for he had conquered Laṅkā through the devotion of the monkey army.

Next he taught him the tactics of the campaign. "Send this great host full of glad men on ahead, and go alone, bow in hand, to Madhu's forest, so that Lavaṇa, Madhu's son, does not know that you are coming to fight. Go in such a way that he suspects nothing." If Lavaṇa saw a great army he would grow suspicious and have his spear ready, and then he could not be killed. "There is no other way for him to die, bull among men; whoever comes into his sight is killed by Lavaṇa." Secrecy, then, was the way to victory. Rāma named the time as well. "When the hot season is past and the nights of the rains have come, then you should kill Lavaṇa, gentle one, for that is the wicked one's appointed time." The poet does not say plainly why the rains should be the time; perhaps the demon went further afield for food then, or his strength waned. Like one who reads the times, Rāma knew when the moment would be favourable. So all three were settled: the place, the gate; the time, the rains; the method, alone and in secret.

Rāma also laid out the army's route. "Let your soldiers march with the great seers in front, so that they cross the waters of the Jāhnavī while the last of the hot season lasts," when the Gaṅgā runs low and is easy to cross; the seers went ahead to guide them, since they lived on the Yamunā and knew the way. "Station the whole army on the river bank, and you go on ahead, alert, with your bow, you who move so swiftly." When Rāma had said this, Śatrughna summoned the mighty commanders of the army and told them, "These are the camps assigned to you, wherever you are to halt. Stay there without friction, so that no one is troubled." The new king's first concern was to prevent any hardship to the people: the army was not to burden the villagers along the way. That shows how righteous Śatrughna's rule would be, and Rāma's teaching appeared at once in his conduct.

When he had given the commanders their orders and sent the great army on its way, Śatrughna saluted Kausalyā, Sumitrā and Kaikeyī alike, for in Raghu's house all the mothers were equally honoured. He walked reverently round Rāma and bowed his head to him, bowed with joined palms to Lakṣmaṇa and Bharata, and, self-controlled, bowed also to the family priest Vasiṣṭha. With Rāma's leave, mighty Śatrughna, scorcher of foes, walked round them all and went out. To seek the blessing of one's elders at the start of a journey brings good fortune, and that custom was kept here. The poet closes the sarga in a longer metre: having sent the army on ahead, thronged with lordly elephants and the finest horses, he who increased the line of Raghu stayed a month at the king's side, and then set out. The army would wait on the road, and after a month he would travel swiftly to join it. So Rāma's plan, the army ahead and the leader following alone, was carried out exactly.