01Bharata’s shadow
As Lakshmana went everywhere with Rama, Shatrughna went everywhere with Bharata. The two were together in Kekaya when the news came, and together on the road home. In Ayodhya, Shatrughna saw Manthara at the palace door dressed in fine clothes and ornaments, the cause of it all, and seized her by the hair and dragged her across the floor while Kaikeyi fled to her son. Bharata stopped him. Women are not to be killed, he said, and Rama would never speak to them again if they harmed her. Shatrughna let her go.
02Lavana of Madhuvana
In the Uttara Kanda rishis led by Chyavana come to Rama for protection from Lavana, son of the asura Madhu, who held a trident once given to Madhu by Bhagwan Shiva. Shatrughna asked for the task. Rama anointed him king of Lavana’s land before he left and gave him the arrow with which Vishnu had slain Madhu and Kaitabha, telling him to wait at the city gate while Lavana was out hunting without the trident. Shatrughna did, and killed him. On the bank of the Yamuna he built the city of Madhupura, which tradition holds to be Mathura, and settled it over twelve years.
03A night at Valmiki’s ashrama
On his way to Madhuvana, Shatrughna spent a night at Valmiki’s ashrama, and that same night Sita gave birth to twins. He heard the news at midnight and rejoiced. Twelve years later, on his way back to Ayodhya, he stopped at the ashrama again and heard two boys singing Rama’s life to the vina. He and his men sat stunned, but he would not question the wonders of a rishi’s ashrama and asked nothing. At the end he installed his sons Subahu and Shatrughati in his kingdom and entered the Sarayu with Rama.
In Kerala, during Karkidakam, pilgrims make the Nalambalam darshan of the four brothers in one day; Shatrughna’s temple is at Payammal.