The first Diwali almost began with a fire: Bharat’s story from the Ramayan

Every Diwali, we light diyas for Shree Ram. We clean our homes, make sweets, and wait for the evening, just as Ayodhya once waited for him.

But very few of us know what happened on the evening before Ram came home.

That evening, his younger brother Bharat stood in front of a burning fire. He was ready to walk into it.

This is the story of that evening. Please read it slowly. It is about love, about a promise, and about the people in our lives who quietly wait for us.

A brother who did not want the throne

Fourteen years earlier, Ayodhya was getting ready to crown Ram as king. Then, in a single night, everything fell apart. Queen Kaikeyi asked King Dasharath to keep two promises he had once made her. Ram must go to the forest for fourteen years, and her son Bharat must become king.

Ram left the next morning with Sita and Lakshman, without one word of complaint. King Dasharath could not bear the pain. He died of grief.

Bharat was far away at his grandfather’s home when all this happened. He came back to find his father gone, his brother in the forest, and a crown waiting for him. All of it had been done in his name.

He did not want that crown for even one day.

Bharat walked into the forest with the people of Ayodhya behind him. At Chitrakoot he found Ram, fell at his feet and begged him to come home. Ram held him close, but he would not break their father’s word.

So Bharat asked for the only thing his brother could give him. He asked for Ram’s padukas, his sandals. These would rule Ayodhya, he said, and he would only serve them.

And then, in front of everyone, he made a promise.

“For fourteen years I will wear matted hair and clothes of tree bark. I will live on fruits and roots, outside the city, waiting for you. And if I do not see you on the day the fourteen years are over, I will enter the fire.”

Bharat to Ram, Valmiki Ramayan, Ayodhya Kand 112

Ram gave his word. He would come back on time.

Fourteen years in a hut

Bharat did not go back to the palace.

He placed Ram’s padukas on the royal throne and had the white royal umbrella held over them. Then he made his home in Nandigram, a small village outside Ayodhya. Valmiki tells us that every matter of the kingdom was first offered to the padukas, and only then carried out.

One of the greatest kingdoms on earth was being run by a man who lived in a hut.

He wore bark. His hair grew into matted locks. He ate fruits and roots, and his body grew thin. The palace was only a short distance away, with its soft beds, its music and its food. All of it was his. He touched none of it, because his brother was sleeping on the ground in a forest.

And he counted the days. One day. One month. One year. Fourteen years.

The last day

Then the last day came.

Goswami Tulsidas writes in the Ramcharitmanas that only one day was left, and all of Ayodhya was restless. Men and women gathered everywhere, thin with worry, thinking only of Ram.

Bharat sat alone with his fear. Tulsidas puts his thoughts into one line.

बीतें अवधि रहहिं जौं प्राना। अधम कवन जग मोहि समाना॥

“If I am still alive when this time is over, who in the whole world will be lower than me?”

The sun began to go down. No messenger came. No news. No Ram.

The fire

What happened next is told in the Kamba Ramayanam, the great Tamil Ramayan of the poet Kamban. It is very hard to read without tears.

Bharat believed the fourteen years were over. A fire was made ready. He called his younger brother Shatrughna and asked him to become the king of Ayodhya.

Shatrughna broke down. “What wrong have I done to you,” he cried, “that you want to leave me this throne?”

The news ran through Nandigram. Mother Kaushalya, Ram’s own mother, came running and held Bharat tight in her arms so that he could not go. Behind her came ministers, soldiers, priests and the people of Ayodhya, all of them weeping.

Bharat folded his hands and bowed to the fire.

For fourteen years he had waited for his brother. Now he was ready to give up his life, only so that he would not break his word.

A voice from the sky

And then, as the flames rose higher, a voice thundered from the sky.

It was Hanuman.

Ram had sent him ahead with the news. Kamban writes that Hanuman came in a giant form, put out the fire, and showed Bharat Ram’s own ring. “Ram is coming,” he said. “He will be here before the sun rises.”

Tulsidas paints this moment more gently. In the Ramcharitmanas, Hanuman comes in the form of a Brahmin and finds Bharat sitting on a mat of kusha grass, his matted hair like a crown, his body thin, saying “Ram, Ram, Raghupati” again and again while tears fall from his eyes. The poet writes:

राम बिरह सागर महँ भरत मगन मन होत। बिप्र रूप धरि पवनसुत आइ गयउ जनु पोत॥

“Bharat’s heart was drowning in the ocean of separation from Ram. Hanuman, the son of the wind, came to him like a boat.”

Valmiki tells us that when Bharat heard the news, he fell to the ground, fainting with joy. When he came to, he held Hanuman and bathed him in tears. “Are you a god or a man,” he asked, “who has come here out of pity for me?”

Then he said a line that India has never forgotten.

“The old saying is true. Joy comes to a man who stays alive, even if it takes a hundred years.”

Bharat, Valmiki Ramayan, Yuddha Kand 126

Ram was hurrying too

This is the part that moves me the most.

While Bharat was waiting, Ram was hurrying.

After the war in Lanka, Vibhishan begged Ram to stay a few days, to rest and to be honoured. Ram said no. In the Valmiki Ramayan he tells Vibhishan that his heart is hurrying to see his brother Bharat, who is suffering because of him.

So while one brother sat by a fire counting the last hours, the other was crossing the whole of India to reach him in time. Two brothers rushing towards each other, both holding on to the same promise.

The day Ayodhya lit its diyas

The next day, Bharat went out to meet Ram. He was still in his bark clothes, still thin from fourteen years of fasting, and he carried Ram’s padukas with great care.

The Pushpak Vimana came down from the sky. Ram stepped out and held Bharat in his arms. The brother who had waited for him. The brother who had almost died for him.

Then Bharat did something Valmiki describes with great tenderness. He placed the padukas back at Ram’s feet, joined his hands, and said:

“This kingdom of yours was kept with me as a trust. Today I give it back to you.”

Bharat, Valmiki Ramayan, Yuddha Kand 127

Ayodhya was overflowing with joy. Roads were washed and sprinkled with water. Flags flew from every house. Flowers covered the streets. And when night fell, so the old stories say, every home in Ayodhya lit diyas to welcome Ram back.

Those were the first diyas of Diwali.

Every diya we light today carries a little of that night. The relief of a mother who got her son back. The joy of a brother who kept his promise. The happiness of a whole city that had waited fourteen long years.

Who is waiting for you this Diwali?

We say Diwali is the day Ram came home. It is also the day of everyone who waited for him.

Look around, and you will find them in your own life. A mother who keeps the door open late, just in case. A father who asks “Did you reach?” every single time. A brother or a sister who will never say it, but is waiting for your call. Grandparents who count the days to the festival, only because the whole family will sit together again.

There is a Bharat in every family. Someone who waited for you and never asked for anything in return.

This Diwali, before you light the first diya, think of that person. Call them. Go and see them if you can. Hold them a little longer than usual.

And light that first diya for them.

A diya from our home to yours

In Indian homes, the evening diya has always been lit with pure ghee or with til oil. Did you know that the word tel itself comes from til? For thousands of years, when India said oil, it meant sesame oil.

At KachiGhaani.com, we still make them the old way. Our A2 Gir cow ghee is made from curd by the bilona method, and our oils are pressed slowly in wooden ghaanis, the way our grandparents knew them.

If you would like your Diwali diyas and sweets to carry the same purity, here is what we keep ready in our own kitchen this Diwali.

A2 Gir Cow GheeFor the first diya of the evening, and for every laddoo.White Sesame Oil (Til Oil)The oil our grandmothers trusted for diyas, and for til laddoo.Groundnut OilFor chakli, chevdo and every crispy Diwali bite.Jaggery (Gur)For sweets with the old village taste.Desi Dhaga MishriFor prasad, and for the sweetest welcome home.

Happy Diwali to you and your family. May every diya you light this year bring someone home.

Jai Shree Ram 🙏
Ankit Makati
Founder, KachiGhaani.com

Where this story comes from

• Valmiki Ramayan: Ayodhya Kand 112 (Bharat’s promise) and 115 (life at Nandigram), Yuddha Kand 121 (Ram hurries home), 125 and 126 (Hanuman meets Bharat) and 127 (the padukas are given back).
• Kamba Ramayanam by Kamban: Yuddha Kandam, the chapter of Ram’s return (Meetchi Padalam), where Bharat stands before the fire.
• Ramcharitmanas by Goswami Tulsidas: the opening dohas of Uttar Kand, the last day and Hanuman’s arrival.

Different Ramayans tell some moments in different ways. In this story, each detail is shared with the book it comes from.

Frequently asked questions

Did Bharat really promise to enter the fire if Ram did not return?

Yes. In the Valmiki Ramayan (Ayodhya Kand 112), Bharat tells Ram that if he does not see him on the day the fourteen years end, he will enter the fire.

Where did Bharat live during Ram’s fourteen years of exile?

In Nandigram, a village outside Ayodhya. He wore bark clothes and matted hair, placed Ram’s padukas on the throne and ran the kingdom in their name (Valmiki Ramayan, Ayodhya Kand 115).

Who saved Bharat from the fire?

In Kamban’s Tamil Ramayan, Hanuman arrived just in time, put out the fire, showed Bharat Ram’s ring and told him that Ram would arrive before sunrise. In Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas, Hanuman comes to Bharat in the form of a Brahmin with the news on the last day.