Ramayana — Ayodhya Kanda, Sarga 52, Shloka 41
गङ्गातरणम्, सुमन्त्र-प्रतिनिवर्तनम्, जटाधारणम्
Crossing the Gaṅgā; Sumantra’s Return; Adoption of Ascetic Signs
दैन्यं हि नगरी गच्छेद्दृष्ट्वा शून्यमिमं रथम्।सूतावशेषं स्वं सैन्यं हतवीरमिवाऽहवे।।2.52.41।।
dainyaṃ hi nagarī gacched dṛṣṭvā śūnyam imaṃ ratham |
sūtāvaśeṣaṃ svaṃ sainyaṃ hatavīram ivāhave || 2.52.41 ||
ဤရထားကို ဗလာအဖြစ် မြင်လျှင် မြို့တော်သည် အလွန်အမင်း သနားဖွယ်အခြေအနေသို့ ကျရောက်လိမ့်မည်။ စစ်မြေပြင်၌ သူရဲကောင်းကျဆုံးပြီး ရထားမောင်းသူသာ ကျန်ရစ်သော တပ်မတော်ကဲ့သို့ပင်။
Seeing the empty chariot the people of the city will look pitiable just like an army left only with the charioteer after its hero is killed in the war.
FAQs
Dharma underscores the moral centrality of a righteous leader: when the protector is removed, society feels defenseless—like an army without its champion.
Sumantra intensifies his plea by describing how the empty chariot will symbolize loss and trigger public despair.
Truthful counsel from a loyal retainer—Sumantra speaks difficult truth to Rama to prevent wider suffering.