In Jaimini's story, there is no mention of Shatrughn reaching Vaalmeeki Aashram on the night Kush and Lav are born. The children are of course taught the Raamaayan by Vaalmeeki, but it is as warriors that they grow up in the Aashram and it is as warriors that we see them in the story. Vaalmeeki gives them two bows and his friend Rishi Raibhya {Raibhya was the friend of Rishi Bharadwaaj] gives them two quivers that never go empty. Other sages give them all kinds of weapons empowered by Mantra.

In Vaalmeeki Raamaayan we do not hear about the wanderings of the sacrificial horse. But in Jaimini, this is described in great detail. The most significant part of the Ashwamedh story begins when the sacrificial horse, guarded by an army headed by Shatrughn, reaches Vaalmeeki Aashram.

The sage is away at Paataal, invited there by Varun for a sacrifice. It is Lav who sees the sacrificial horse and captures it. He is challenged by the note tied to its forehead, which says, among other things, that Raam is the only true hero in the world and his mother Kaushalyaa, the sole mother of a true hero. This infuriates Lav who asks: "Is our mother barren then? Hasn’t she given birth to an unsurpassed hero?"

It is refreshing to note here that Jaimini uses highly colloquial language much of the time in his telling. Lav’s speech here is charmingly colloquial.

A fierce battle follows, in which Lav proves himself an amazingly skilled warrior who is no less than Shatrughn in the battlefield. Eventually Shatrughn uses a sacred, infallible arrow. Though Lav breaks the arrow in two, he is wounded by one half of the arrow and faints. Shatrughn had been feeling great compassion for Lav throughout for two reason – for one thing, he is no more than a child, and another, he resembles child Raam in every way. He gathers the wounded, fainted Lav in his arms and carries him to his chariot.

Seetaa hears from Aashram children that Lav has been wounded in the battlefield by some great warrior and wails at the news. It is then that Kush who was away in the forest returns. She sends him to the battlefield. in the battle that follows, Kush kills Shatrughna’s commander-in-chief and his bother. Shatrughn faints at the fierceness of Kush’s attack. The rest of the soldiers run away to Ayodhyaa to give Raam the news.

By the time Lakshman, sent by Raam, reaches the battlefield with a fierce army, Lav regains consciousness and joins the battle. Together, the two boys rout Lakshman’s army. Kush kills Lakshman’s commander-in-chief Kaalajit and renders Lakshman unconscious, in battles described in at length by Jaimini in passages that remind us of the Mahaabhaarat battle scenes.

Raam cannot go to the battlefield, since he has taken Deekshaa for the sacrifice. Bharat now volunteers to go. But before he does so, he has a few interesting words to say to Raam.

He tells Raam not to grieve about Lakshman – what has happened to him is exactly what he wanted to happen. He had no desire to live ever since he took Seetaa and left Her in the jungle. In fact, he did not want to come back to Ayodhyaa after that but did so only to give Raam the news. But in spite of all that, Raam showed no kindness either to Seetaa or to Lakshman. He has ever since been courting death. Lakshman has voluntarily chosen death along with his brother Shatrughn. Lakshman has finally freed himself from sin and now it is his turn to do so – he too is a sinner. In fact, he says, he had thought of killing himself when Raam abandoned Seetaa, but he did not want to do it in Ayodhyaa. Today his desire to end his life will be fulfilled and Raam should permit him by letting him go to the battle.

The strong guilt the brothers feel about Raam's abandoning Seetaa is an additional feature of Jaimini Bhaarat. They see Raam's action totally unwarranted and unjustified and their guilt about it is so strong, that all three of them want to kill themselves. Though Jaimini does not expressly say it, they feel they too are responsible since they did not stop Raam from doing it.

In the battle with Kush that follows, Angad, Nal, Jaambvaan, and Bharat, all fall into deathlike unconsciousness, seeing which Hanumaan attacks Kush and he too is becomes unconscious in Kush's counter attack. When Raam in Ayodhyaa is informed of this, He too reaches the battlefield, accompanied by Sugreev. Initially Raam refuses to fight with Kush and Lav, seeing they are mere children, but they force him and Sugreev and a fierce battle ensues between the two sides in which the children become victorious and Raam and Sugreev become unconscious, wounded by their arrows.

Kush and Lav have an idea now. They will tie up Hanumaan and Jaambavaan and present them to Seetaa, who, they believe, will be entertained by them. Hanumaan and Jaambvaan come out of their swoon by then, but they pretend to be still unconscious. When Seetaa sees them, she asks her sons to take them back into the battlefield and release them, fearing their death if they saw Her.

Having described the valor of Lav and Kush and the battle scenes in great detail, Jaimini now, with almost shocking abruptness, ends Raam's Uttar Kathaa, which he calls Kush-Lav Upaakhyaan.

As Seetaa and Her sons are talking, Vaalmeeiki reaches back from Paataal. The children tell their Guru all that has happened. He straight away goes to the battlefield, sprinkles empowered water on all and brings back all from death and unconsciousness. "These are your children," he tells Raam. "Please accept them. And if you consider Seetaa innocent, please take Her too with you."

An amazed Raam gets up and goes back to Ayodhyaa to continue his sacrifice. While the sacrifice is in progress, Vaalmeeki reaches there with Seetaa and Her sons. Raam completes the sacrifice with them beside him and they all live 'happily ever after', their lives filled with love.

As an afterword to his story, Jaimini adds that Vaalmeeki did not describe the tale of the battle between the father and his sons because he did not want the world to drown in an ocean of sorrow.

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Jaimini’s telling of the Kush-Lav Upaakhyaan caught the imagination of India. Ever since he told it, it became an integral part of the Uttar Raamaayan story. I remember watching scenes of the battles of Kush and Lav with their uncles and with Hanuman. I watched them holding my breath as a child in second and third rate reproductions of them in movies. Five decades later, I can still recall the scenes with vivid intensity, in spite of the movies being of very poor quality; such is the power of Jaimini’s narration.

It is interesting to consider why Jaimini gives so much importance to these battle scenes which do not exist in Vaalmeeki Raamaayan.

Perhaps Jaimini was writing for a different audience than Vaalmeeki [and Vyaas] did. There are several strong indications that Jaimini's is a much later composition than the Aadi Kavi's and Vyaas'. For instance, in both Vaalmeeki and Vyaas, all messages are sent verbally, suggesting the absence of writing at the time of the composition of their works. Whereas in Jaimini we clearly see that writing exists. The Ashwamedh horse carries a written message, probably on a plaque, on its forehead, which people read. In the story of Chandrahaas, the girl Vishayaa changes the word Vish [poison] in a written message to Vishayaa [her name]. [A very interesting episode! Chandrahaas who was supposed to be given Vish on arrival is given Vishayaa instead.] The social milieu and the customs described are very different too. Perhaps Jaimini's audience relished the details of the Ashwamedh – both in the case of Raam Ashwamedh and Yudhishthir Ashwamedh – more than the audience of Vaalmeeki and Vyaas did. Perhaps he was writing in, and for, a medieval India that was torn by constant wars.

Also, perhaps poetic and literary conventions had undergone great changes and people expected happy endings to stories. In the case of Jaimini, he very obviously had in mind a happy ending for the Raamaayan, even if it forces him to drop one of the most powerful scenes in the Raamaayan and in world literature. He therefore drops the dramatically awesome scene of Seetaa's rejection of Raam and entering the earth. Instead, he makes Seetaa tamely go with Vaalmeeki to Raam and live with him 'happily ever after'.

I do not see the Uttar Kaand of Vaalmeeki Ramayan as a later composition than Jaiminiya Ashwamedh Parv. To me, it has to be that Jaimini chose to omit Seetaa's entering the earth, a story he was familiar with.

But it must be said that while Jaimini's ending of the story comes as a big disappointment, his war scenes in the Kush-La Upaakhyaan are thrilling. He transforms two young boys who are really just talented singers in the Vaalmeeki Raamaayan into awesome warriors who defeat between themselves such a mighty line of warriors as Shatrughn, Lakshman, Bharat and Raam, apart from Hanumaan, Jaambvaan, Sugreev, Angad, Nal and numerous others, each a legend in his own right as a warrior.

While in the earlier part of his telling of the Uttar Raam Kathaa, Jaimini focus on pathos and succeeds in moving us to great depths of Karunaa, in the later part of the story what he wants is to thrill us with Veer Ras – with the valor of his heroes – and he succeeds admirably in it too.