Like Rama, Sita, and Laxman, or indeed, like the Pandava brothers and Draupadi, they wend their way in the forests of Dandak, serving their economic tapasya (ordeal), waiting for the time when they can reenter the kingdom of Ayodhya in triumph (the sad irony of Ayodhya will be revealed in a later section dealing with Yankee Hindutva [“Hinduness,” or the ideology of the Hindu Right]).56
