The Ramcharitmanas 1
Page 27
When the wedding procession was thus heard approaching,
All kinds of musical instruments were played
And the queen summoned her women
To prepare the auspicious articles for the welcoming ceremony.
They made ready all that was required for the arti
And prepared for all the auspicious ceremonies of welcome.
Then those beautiful women proceeded with graceful gait
To welcome the wedding procession.
(317)
The women, doe-eyed, and all with faces as radiant as the moon,
Robbed, with their glowing loveliness, even Rati of all pride in her beauty.
They were dressed in gorgeous garments of many colours,
Their bodies adorned with ornaments of every kind.
Thus auspiciously adorned in every limb,
They sang so melodiously as to put even the sweet-throated kokil to shame.
With tinkling bracelets, girdles and anklets,
Their swaying gait put even Kamdev’s elephants to the blush.
Musical instruments of all kinds began to play,
And songs of blessing filled the sky and the town.
Shachi, Sharada, Ramaa, Bhavani
And the other divine consorts, chaste and wise,
Disguised themselves as beautiful women,
And entered the women’s quarters to mingle with the royal ladies,
Singing songs of good fortune in sweet voices.
Distracted by happiness, no one realized who they were.
But who recognized anyone? Overcome with joy,
All proceeded to welcome brahm, Supreme Spirit, as bridegroom.
Soft songs and sweet-toned drums filled the air
As the gods rained down flowers. There was beauty everywhere.
Beholding the bridegroom, the source of all delight,
The women all rejoiced in their hearts.
In their lotus eyes sprang tears of happiness,
And a joyous trembling overcame their beautiful limbs.
The bliss that arose in Sita’s mother’s heart
When she beheld Ram’s noble appearance
Cannot be described in a hundred kalpas
By a thousand Sharadas and Sheshas.
(318)
Given the auspiciousness of the occasion, the queen put aside her tears
And performed the welcome ceremonies with a glad heart—
The rites and rituals prescribed by the Vedas and the customs of her family,
The queen diligently performed them all.
The music of five kinds of instruments, the five kinds of auspicious sounds, and songs of joy and celebration filled the air,91
And carpets of every description were spread upon the floor in welcome.
The queen performed the arti and the sacred offering of arghya,
After which Ram entered the wedding pavilion.
Dasharath, resplendent, followed with his retinue—
Upon beholding his splendour, even the celestial guardians of the world were put to shame.
Again and again the gods rained down flowers
While Brahmans recited prayers for peace and harmony.
Tumultuous celebration filled the heavens and the town
So that no one could hear himself or another.
In this manner Ram arrived at the wedding pavilion,
And after the sacred libation had been poured, he was led to his seat.
Once he was seated, the women performed the arti—
Gazing upon the bridegroom, they were filled with delight.
Precious jewels, raiment and ornaments were showered upon him
As the women sang songs of joy and celebration.
Brahma and the other gods, disguised as Brahmans,
Observed the spectacle.
As they gazed upon the radiant splendour of the sun of the lotus line of Raghu,
They considered their lives fulfilled.
The barbers, torchbearers, bards and jugglers,
Who received the offerings that had been showered upon Ram,
Were delighted, and bowing their heads in reverence, called blessings upon him.
They could barely contain their joy within their hearts.
(319)
Janak and Dasharath met with great affection
And performed all the ceremonies prescribed in the Vedas and by custom.
The meeting of the two great kings was so glorious
That poets searching for a simile were embarrassed at their failure.
Finding no suitable comparison, they acknowledged defeat in their hearts, declaring,
‘They can be likened only to themselves!’
The gods gazed with affection upon the two fathers-in-law,
And raining down flowers, began to sing their glory.
‘Since the moment Viranchi created this world,
We have seen and heard of many weddings,
But two sides so comparable in pomp and grandeur
And two fathers-in-law so equal, we have seen only today.’
Upon hearing these true and gracious words of the gods,
Great love arose in both sides.
Spreading carpets for him to tread upon and pouring libations as they went,
Janak with reverence brought Dasharath into the wedding pavilion.
Beholding the extraordinary construction and rare elegance of the pavilion
Even munis were captivated.
Janak, wise and discerning, with his own hands
Set out seats for them all.
He paid homage to Vasishtha as though he were his own family’s chosen deity,
And doing humble obeisance before him, received his blessings.
And the supreme love and reverence with which he paid homage to Kaushik
Cannot be described.
To Vamdev and the other rishis
The king paid glad homage.
He gave them all seats of honour,
And from all received their blessings.
(320)
Janak then paid homage to the king of Koshal,
Considering him equal to Ishanlxxviii—there was no other god like him.
Folding his hands, he humbly praised him
And recounted at great length his own glorious good fortune.
King Janak paid homage to all the guests in the wedding party
With the same respect he had given to the bridegroom’s father
And conducted them all to suitable seats—
How do I, with but a single tongue, describe the intensity of his joy?
Janak honoured the bridegroom’s party
With gifts, and soft and courteous words.
Vidhi, Hari, Har, the eight guardians of the world and the sun—
Who knew Raghubir’s true strength and glory—
Secretly disguised themselves as noble Brahmans,
And watched the spectacle with great delight.
Janak paid them the homage due to gods
And, without recognizing them, gave them honoured seats.
But who can recognize anyone
When every person has lost even his own sense of being?
Beholding the bridegroom, the source of all bliss,
Both sides were in a state of bliss.
The all-wise Ram recognized the gods,
And worshipped them in his mind,
Assigning them seats of glory.
Beholding the Lord’s innate courtesy,
The hearts of the gods were filled with delight.
As the beautiful chakor drinks the light of the moon,
So everyone’s eyes with reverence drank
The radiant beauty of Ramchandra’s face—
There was no dearth of love and joy in their gaze.
(321)
Seeing that the moment had come, Vasishtha called
For Shatanand, who hearing the summons, respectfully came.
‘Go quickly now and b
ring the princess.’
Receiving the muni’s command, he gladly left to fetch the bride.
The queen heard the high priest’s message,
And she and her companions were filled with joy.
She sent for the Brahman wives and the elder women of the family,
And performed the family rites with songs of joy and celebration.
The noble consorts of the gods, who were disguised as women,
Were all good natured, comely and youthful.
Seeing them the other women were glad,
And even without recognizing them, held them dearer than their own life’s breath.
Again and again the queen honoured them
As equal to Uma, Ramaa and Sharada.
The women adorned Sita, and gathering around her,
They joyously led her to the wedding pavilion.
With reverence, and auspiciously adorned, Sita was brought
To the wedding pavilion by her friends and the royal ladies.
The lovely women were adorned with all the sixteen ornaments
And moved with the graceful gait of elephants.
Hearing their sweet singing, munis abandoned their meditation
And even Kamdev’s kokils were abashed,
While their toe-rings, anklets and pretty bracelets
Tinkled in rhythm with their song.
Amidst that multitude of women,
The naturally lovely Sita shone
Like exceptional beauty in the form of a comely and alluring woman
Amidst a crowd of beautiful women.
(322)
Sita’s loveliness cannot be described,
For my ability is limited and her beauty great.
The bridegroom’s party saw Sita approaching,
The epitome of beauty and in every way chaste and pure.
Everyone paid homage to her in their hearts
While upon beholding her, Ram’s every wish was fulfilled.
Dasharath, with his sons, rejoiced—
The joy in his heart cannot be told.
The gods paid homage and rained down flowers
And the munis gave their blessings, the sound of their chanting itself the source of all well-being.
Amidst the tumult of celebration, of singing and the beating of drums,
Men and women were lost in the happiness of love.
In this manner, Sita arrived at the wedding pavilion,
And the noble munis, rejoicing, began chanting the prayers for peace.
All the Vedic rites and customary ceremonies required for the occasion
Were performed by the two family priests.
The gurus performed the rites
As the Brahmans, rejoicing, worshipped Gauri and Ganpati,
And the gods, manifesting themselves to accept the worship
And give their blessings, felt great bliss.
Whatever sacred or auspicious substances92
The sages needed at any particular time,
Were brought at once by servants and attendants
Who stood ready with brimming golden platters and jars.
The lineage rites were lovingly directed by the Sun himself
And were with reverence performed.
Having thus worshipped the gods,
They seated Sita on a glorious throne.
The look full of love exchanged by Sita and Ram
Was beyond anyone’s ability to understand—
Beyond heart and mind and even the most eloquent language,
How can any poet express this mystery?
At the time of the offerings, the sacred fire assumed bodily form93
And accepted the oblations with great delight,
And all the Vedas, in the guise of Brahmans
Directed the performance of the wedding ceremony.
(323)
Janak’s chief queen, known throughout the world,
And Sita’s mother—how can one describe her?
Glory, virtue, joy and beauty—
Vidhi had brought together all these qualities in her.
When the auspicious moment came, the noble munis sent for her—
Hearing their call, her women with reverence brought her.
Seated on Janak’s left, Sunayana shone as beautiful
As Maina seated beside Himgiri.
Golden pitchers and a beautiful jewelled basin
Filled with pure, fragrant and holy water,
The king and queen, with their own hands,
Joyfully brought and placed before Ram.
The munis recited the Vedas, and to the auspicious sound of their chanting,
The sky, knowing it to be an important moment, rained down flowers.
Gazing upon the bridegroom, the royal couple were enraptured by him
And began to wash his holy feet.
They began to wash his lotus feet,
Overwhelmed with love and devotion,
While in the sky and in the city, singing, drumbeats and cries of victory
Burst forth and overflowed in all directions.
The lotus feet that forever shine
On the lake that is Shiv’s heart,
By meditating upon which, the mind is at once made pure
And all the impurities of the age of Kali destroyed,
At whose touch the muni’s wife attained salvation
Though imbued with sin,
Whose nectar is resplendent upon Shambhu’s head
And is declared by the gods to be the epitome of purity,94
Which the bees that are the hearts of munis and jogis
Serve to attain the states they desire—
It was those feet that the fortunate Janak washed
As all cheered and joyfully hailed him.
Joining together the hands of the bride and the groom,
The two family priests recited their lineages.
Seeing that the ceremony of the joining of the hands had been completed,
Brahma, gods, men and munis were filled with joy.
Beholding that bridegroom, source of all bliss,
The royal pair trembled with happiness, their hearts full of joy.
Then that jewel of kings, obeying worldly custom and the Vedas,
Gave his daughter away.
As Himvant had given Girija to Mahesh,
And the Ocean had given Shri to Vishnu,
In the same way did Janak give Sita to Ram
And earned sweet glory and renown anew across the world.
How was Videha’s king to bow before Ram?
For Ram’s dark form had made him truly ‘videh’.95
The prescribed offerings were cast into the sacred fire, the ritual knot was tied,
And the pair began circumambulating the sacred fire.
Hearing the sounds of rejoicing, the reciting of eulogies, the chanting of the Vedas,
The songs of celebration and the beating of drums,
The all-wise, knowing gods rejoiced96
And rained down flowers from the divine tree of wishes.
(324)
The prince and the princess circled the sacred fire,
And all those who looked upon them with reverence, received the full reward of their eyes.
The heart-enchanting pair surpasses description—
Any comparisons that I might make will fall short.
Ram and Sita’s beautiful reflections
Glittered in the jewelled pillars,
As though Madan and Rati had taken on innumerable forms
To witness Ram’s incomparable wedding ceremony—
Though eager to watch the ceremony, they were shy
And so appeared and disappeared again and again.
All those watching the wedding were completely absorbed in the sight,
And, like Janak, had lost all awareness of themselves.
Joyously, the munis made Ram and Sita circle the sacred fire,
And together with the giving of ceremonial gifts,
performed all the customary rites.
Then Ram applied sindur to Sita’s head
In a manner graceful and charming beyond description,
As if the serpent that was Ram’s dark arm had filled the lotus-cup of his hand with red pollen
And had adorned the moon that was Sita’s lovely countenance, longing for its nectar.97
Then, upon Vasishtha’s direction,
The bridegroom and the bride sat together upon the same seat.
With Ram and Janaki together upon the same glorious seat,
Dasharath’s heart filled with joy,
And his body trembled with happiness again and again
To see this new fruit upon the Kalpataru of his virtuous deeds.
The universe was filled with delight—
‘Ram has been wed!’ cried everyone.
How can I describe this joy in full?
My tongue is one, the felicity of this auspicious event unbounded.
Then Janak, with Vasishtha’s permission,
Made preparations for another wedding ceremony
And summoned the princesses
Mandavi, Shrutakirti and Urmila.
His brother Kushaketu’s elder daughter, Mandavi,
Who was endowed with virtue, goodness, happiness and beauty,
The king bestowed in marriage upon Bharat,
Lovingly performing every rite and ceremony.
Knowing Janaki’s younger sister, Urmila,
To be the most beautiful of all beautiful women,
The king gave this young maiden in marriage,
With all honour, to Lakshman.
She who was named Shrutakirti, Kushaketu’s younger daughter,
Fair of face, with lovely eyes, endowed with every virtue,
And known for her beauty and her gentle nature,
Was bestowed by the king upon Ripusudan.
Seeing each other as brides and grooms, so appropriately matched,
They shyly rejoiced in their hearts
While everyone, delighted, admired their beauty
And the gods rained down flowers.
The four beautiful brides with their handsome bridegrooms,
Resplendent beneath a single canopy,
Shone as though the four states of being
With their lords had come together in the heart of a single soul.98
The king of Avadh gazed joyfully
At all his sons with their brides—
It was as though that jewel amongst kings