us time,
which has been subsequently added to cast a gloom on the strong
cheerfulness of the heroic age."(1036)

"The termination of Rama's terrestrial career is thus told in Sections 116
ff. of the Uttarakanda. Time, in the form of an ascetic, comes to his
palace gate, and asks, as the messenger of the great rishi (Brahma) to see
Rama. He is admitted and received with honour, but says, when he is asked
what he has to communicate, that his message must be delivered in private,
and that any one who witnesses the interview is to lose his life. Rama
informs Lakshman of all this, and desires him to stand outside. Time then
tells Rama that he has been sent by Brahma, to say that when he (Rama,
_i.e._ Vishnu) after destroying the worlds was sleeping on the ocean, he
had formed him (Brahma) from the lotus springing from his navel, and
committed to him the work of creation; that he (Brahma) had then entreated
Rama to assume the function of Preserver, and that the latter had in
consequence become Vishnu, being born as the son of Aditi, and had
determined to deliver mankind by destroying Ravana, and to live on earth
ten thousand and ten hundred years; that period, adds Time, was now on the
eve of expiration, and Rama could either at his pleasure prolong his stay
on earth, or ascend to heaven and rule over the gods. Rama replies, that
he had been born for the good of the three worlds, and would now return to
the place whence he had come, as it was his function to fulfil the
purposes of the gods. While they are speaking the irritable rishi Durvasas
comes, and insists on seeing Rama immediately, under a threat, if refused,
of cursing Rama and all his family."

Lakshman, preferring to save his kinsman, though knowing that his own
death must be the consequence of interrupting the interview of Rama with
Time, enters the palace and reports the rishi's message to Rama. Rama
comes out, and when Durvasas has got the food he wished, and departed,
Rama reflects with great distress on the words of Time, which require that
Lakshman should die. Lakshman however exhorts Rama not to grieve, but to
abandon him and not break his own promise. The counsellors concurring in
this advice, Rama abandons Lakshman, who goes to the river Sarayu,
suppresses all his senses, and is conveyed bodily by Indra to heaven. The
gods are delighted by the arrival of the fourth part of Vishnu. Rama then
resolves to install Bharata as his successor and retire to the fore