Rama's younger brother, who refused the throne given to him and ruled Ayodhya as regent in Rama's name for the full fourteen years of his exile.
रामायण · Ramayana
Away from Ayodhya when Kaikeyi, his own mother, secured his coronation and Rama's exile, Bharata returns to find the plot carried out in his name without his knowledge or consent, and refuses to accept the throne, traveling to the forest to beg Rama to return.
When Rama insists on completing the exile to honor Dasharatha's word, Bharata carries Rama's sandals back to Ayodhya and rules as his regent, placing the sandals on the throne rather than himself — an image of renunciation and loyalty held up as its own standard of dharma alongside Rama's.