Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.1922

c9.1922

Rāvaṇa who himself was burning in the fire of amour, was extremely sorry at the death of the girl. He took the ashes of hers to Laṅkā and put them in a golden box and kept the box in a solitary place. He used to visit the place daily. Since the arrival of the ashes, bad omens began to occur in Laṅkā. One day Nārada came to Laṅkā. Rāvaṇa asked Nārada for the reason of constant occurrences of bad omens in Laṅkā. Nārada replied that the cause of bad omens was the golden box he was keeping and that if it was kept in Laṅkā any longer, it would cause destruction and that if it was destroyed, great disaster would follow. Nārada advised Rāvaṇa to remove the box without opening it to somewhere else outside Laṅkā. Accordingly Rāvaṇa caused the golden box to be dropped in the sea. By and by it came with the waves to the shore of Bhārata (India). Robbers took it and went to the north and hid it in a forest. They were not able to take it away again. Thus the box came to be deposited on the basin of a river in Mithilā.