śrīrāma paṭṭābhiṣeka sargaḥ (yuddhakāṇḍam)

The hundred and thirty-first canto of the Yuddha Kanda of Valmiki's Ramayana — the consecration itself — a hundred and twenty-four verses of narrative rather than praise. It opens not with the ceremony but with Bharata giving the kingdom back: hands folded at his head, he tells his elder brother that his mother was honoured and this kingdom was given to him, and that he now returns it exactly as it was given. What follows is the coronation and the reign that begins from it, and the canto closes with the phalasruti of the whole Ramayana attached to it. It sits in this corpus among hymns because it is recited as one, on Rama Navami and at the end of a full reading.