Rama’s coronation after returning to Ayodhya is the decisive public completion of the epic’s main story: Rama returns with his rescued queen and is consecrated in the capital of his forefathers. The coronation closes the movement from separation and conflict to restoration, while the poem’s account of the reign that follows gives the return its larger promise of just and lasting rule.

Return and Consecration

The poem describes its principal narrative as epically complete with Rama’s triumphant return to Ayodhya and the consecration and coronation of the king in his ancestral capital. The coronation is not presented as an isolated ceremony: it follows the victory that recovers his queen and restores him to the city. Its significance lies in joining personal return to political restoration, bringing the epic’s central action to a formal close.

The narrative’s conclusion also looks beyond the act of consecration. The final canto of Book VI speaks of Rama’s glorious and happy reign and promises blessings to those who read or hear the poem. In this framing, the coronation inaugurates an idealized period of rule and supplies the victorious return with a future, rather than ending only with the defeat of an enemy.

The Ending and the Appendix

The text distinguishes this ending from the Uttarakanda, or Last Book, which it characterizes as an appendix or supplement recounting events before and after those in the original poem. Its account argues that the main epic was already complete at Rama’s return and coronation; even the final canto of Book VI, though described as evidently the work of a later hand than Válmíki, treats the happy reign and the poem’s blessings as a sufficient conclusion.

The attribution remains a matter of tradition as well as textual judgment. Indian scholars, motivated by reverence for tradition, unanimously attribute the Last Book to Válmíki and regard it as part of the Ramayana. The coronation therefore occupies a distinctive position: it is the close of the epic’s central arc even as the received larger work continues beyond it.

Public Remembrance and Performance

The return also became the subject of annual public performance. In many cities of Northern India, the Bharat-Milap, or meeting with Bharata, forms the closing scene of a dramatic celebration of Rama’s victory and return, held in October. The Rám-Lalá is performed outdoors over fifteen successive days, with one day’s break. This reenactment centers on the brothers’ meeting, not on the coronation itself, but it carries the same return narrative into communal memory.

At Benares, three performances take place at nearly the same time: one near the Maharajah’s palace at Ramnaggur, another near the Missionary settlement at Sigra and elsewhere in the city, and a third at Chowká Ghát near the College, organized by leading residents. The meeting scene draws crowds into streets, squares, balconies, and rooftops; elephants with silver and gold howdahs, jeweled turbans, falling flowers, music, and public cries of joy turn the story’s reunion into a civic spectacle.

Recitation and the Epic’s Afterlife

The poem’s life beyond its written conclusion is also tied to recitation. Válmíki directs its singers to perform the heroic song in tranquil places frequented by sages and in the seats of kings and crowded halls. Those contrasting settings—quiet retreats and public courts—show how the epic’s account of return could circulate among different audiences.

The coronation gives that circulation a natural point of closure: the rightful king is restored, and the epic can be heard as a completed account of victory and renewed rule. Yet the performance tradition extends the ending beyond the page. In the annual Bharat-Milap, the public gathers not simply to recall a finished story but to witness its return scene enacted again.