Shloka 2.114.13
अयोध्याप्रवेशः — Bharata Enters Ayodhya and Perceives the City’s Desolation
सम्मूढनिगमांस्तब्धां संक्षिप्तविपणापणाम्। प्रच्छन्नशशिनक्षत्रां द्यामिवाम्बुधरैर्वृताम्।।2.114.13।।
sammūḍha-nigamāṃ stabdhāṃ saṅkṣipta-vipaṇāpaṇām | pracchanna-śaśi-nakṣatrāṃ dyām ivāmbudharair vṛtām ||
With merchants bewildered, the city stilled, and its markets and shops shut, Ayodhyā looked like the sky covered with clouds, where moon and stars are hidden.
Ayodhya with its markets and shops closed, and its merchants in a daze looked like the sky covered with clouds obscuring the Moon and stars.
A dharmic kingdom supports social confidence and orderly livelihood; when righteousness is shaken by injustice and sorrow, even everyday economic life becomes paralyzed.
Bharata finds Ayodhyā muted and unsettled; the narrator depicts civic shutdown through the clouded-sky comparison.
The implied virtue is rajadharma—rulers must preserve public stability so that fear and confusion do not ‘cover’ society like clouds.