by Tulsidas
10. Balkand, 16.
11. Balkand, 14.
12. Balkand, 227–36.
13. Philip Lutgendorf, The Life of a Text: Performing the Ramcaritmanas of Tulsidas, University of California Press, 1991, p. 7.
14. Aranyakand, 34–36.
15. Balkand, 30.
16. Balkand, 124A.
17. For a more detailed discussion on the title, see Philip Lutgendorf, The Life of a Text: Performing the Ramcaritmanas of Tulsidas, University of California Press, 1991, pp. 19–20.
18. Balkand, 35–36.
19. Balkand, 36–37.
20. As an example, see Uttarkand, 113.
21. Ayodhyakand, 0; this doha, numbered 0, is the first doha after the Sanskrit mangalacharan; from this the Avadhi text of the second book begins.
Book I: BALKAND (CHILDHOOD)
1. The crescent moon is associated with Shiv, who wears it upon his forehead; and therefore, even though it is imperfect, it is honoured everywhere. The full moon, on the other hand, is worshipped in its own right.
2. Siddhanjan is a magical collyrium that is said to make a man able to see things buried underground or that cannot be seen otherwise.
3. The four rewards of existence are i) kama or sensual pleasure, ii) arth or wealth, iii) dharma or religious merit, and iv) moksh or liberation from worldly existence.
4. Nectar or amrit and wine or sura, both emerged from the churning of the ocean.
5. Bathing in the River Ganga frees one from sin; bathing in the Karamnasa destroys the merit of all of one’s good deeds. Both rivers flow through the holy city of Kashi.
6. All three practised deception at some point in their lives, but were all discovered, with disastrous consequences for them. Kalnemi, upon Ravan’s command, disguises himself as an ascetic in order to kill Hanuman, but Hanuman discovers the truth and seizing him by the feet, flings him unceremoniously all the way to Lanka, where he falls before Ravan’s throne in the council room. Ravan appears before Sita in the forest disguised as a mendicant begging for alms and when Sita steps forward with the alms, he throws off his disguise, seizes her and carries her off to Lanka. He is defeated and killed by Ram. The demon Rahu takes on the appearance of a god in order to receive the amrit at the churning of the ocean. He manages to fool Vishnu for a while, but is finally recognized by the Sun and the Moon, and is decapitated by Vishnu.
7. The lunar fortnight during which the moon wanes is known as the ‘krishna paksh’, the ‘dark fortnight’, in the Hindu calendar, while the fortnight in the which the moon waxes is called the ‘shukla paksh’, or bright fortnight—from ‘krishna’, which means dark or black, and ‘shukla’, which means light or bright.
8. Svati is the fifteenth nakshatra or lunar asterism; according to popular belief, the rain that falls under this asterism is endowed with special properties including the attribute that if a drop of it falls into a seashell, it becomes a pearl.
9. Khar, a man-eating rakshasa, was the younger brother of Ravan; he was killed by Ram. The literal meaning of his name is ‘hard, rough, harsh’.
10. Dushan was another rakshasa who fought as one of Ravan’s generals and was also killed by Ram. The literal meaning of his name is ‘fault, defect, blemish, vice’. Dushan is associated with Khar. Sometimes they are referred to as brothers and cousins of Ravan.
11. ‘Mantras and incantations in the common tongue’ or ‘sabar mantras’; these are popular amongst Tantrics and usually consist of a string of meaningless sounds and syllables.
12. Here Tulsi refers to an important event mentioned in the seventh book of Valmiki’s Ramayana that occurred after the return of Ram and Sita to Ayodhya from Lanka: some of the townspeople doubt Sita’s character, saying that she had, after all, spent almost a year in the house of another man. When Ram hears of this incident, out of respect for his subjects’ feelings, he exiles Sita to the forest. Though Tulsi refers to this event here, he does not describe it later in the Ramcharitmanas.
13. Though Kaushalya had given birth to him, all the queens of King Dasharath looked upon Ram as their son, and are regarded as his mothers.
14. As distinguished from the name Ram being borne by Parashuram, the sixth avatar of Vishnu, and Balram, Krishna’s older brother, who is often regarded as Vishnu’s eighth avatar.
15. The three letter-sounds of the name ‘Ram’ are the ‘bija mantra’ or ‘seed-letters’ that represent the god of Fire, the Sun god and the Moon god. In some traditions, each letter-sound of the Sanskrit alphabet is regarded as representing one or more of the gods of the Hindu pantheon; Tantric tradition believes that these letters, if joined with other spells sacred to a particular deity and repeated with due ceremony a fixed number of times, can result in the manifestation of the deity before the worshipper.
16. Hindus believe that those who die in Kashi attain freedom from rebirth at once. This, says Tulsi, is due to the power of Ram’s name, which is given to the dying person by Shiv, the lord of Kashi.
17. Ganesh is the god of wisdom and the remover of obstacles; he is therefore propitiated at the start of any enterprise. The Puranas relate how one day there was a dispute amongst the gods as to who should be worshipped first; they took their quarrel to Brahma, who suggested that they race around the universe, and the one who won the race would be rewarded with the right to be worshipped first. Ganesh, riding on his steed the rat, was lagging far behind the others on their fleeter mounts; fortunately for him, he ran into the sage Narad, who advised him to scratch the word ‘Ram’ into the dust and walk around it, for the Name contained within it all creation. Ganesh did as Narad advised, and Brahma, appreciating his cleverness and acknowledging the Name of Ram, gave to him the right to be worshipped first. Since then Ganesh has always been the first god to be worshipped in any endeavour or undertaking.
18. Tradition maintains that before he became a sage and the author of the Ramayana, Valmiki was the dacoit Ratnakar, who would waylay travellers and rob and mercilessly kill them. One day, he ran into the sage Narad, who asked him why he did what he did. Ratnakar replied that it was for his family; Narad asked him whether his family appreciated the burden of sin that he was accumulating for their sake and whether they would share it. Ratnakar staunchly replied that they would, but when he asked his wife and children, they refused to accept the burden of his crimes. Ratnakar realized the folly of his ways and begged for forgiveness. Narad then gave him the mantra of Ram’s name, but since this was a mantra that could not be given to thieves and murderers, Narad told him to recite it backwards. Ratnakar did so, and meditated on the name sitting so still and for so long that anthills grew around him. He continued his penance for many long years, till finally a divine voice declared him to be free of the guilt of his crimes, and renamed him Valmiki, or ‘the one born of anthills’.
19. The Padma Purana relates how once, when Shiv asked his wife, Bhavani, to join him in a meal, she replied that she could not because she had not yet chanted the thousand names of Vishnu. Shiv then asked her to say the name of Ram, for saying his name once was equal to chanting a thousand other names of Vishnu.
20. This refers to Ardhanarishvara, ‘the god who is half a woman’, the androgynous form of Shiv. Ardhanarishvara is depicted as half-male and half-female. Usually the right half is Shiv, and the left half is Parvati. This form of Shiv shows the inseparability of masculine from feminine, of Shiv from his cosmic energy, Shakti.
21. At the churning of the ocean, along with nectar, a deadly poison was thrown up; so that it would be rendered harmless, Shiv swallowed the poison and held it forever in his throat, which gives his throat the blue colour, and him the epithet Nilkanth or ‘the blue-throated one’.
22. The fifth and sixth months of the Hindu calendar; these are the months of heaviest rainfall during the rainy season.
23. Uttered separately, the two letters ‘ra’ and ‘ma’ are pronounced differently, bear different meanings as seed-letters, and so their utterance yields different results for the devotee.
24. Nar and Narayan were two ancient sages; the strength of their penance alarmed even the gods. They were the twin sons of Dharma (Brahma’s son) and his wife Ahimsa (daughter of Daksh). The brothers are considered by some to be the fourth avatar of Vishnu. Conceptually, Nar represents the human soul, which is the eternal and inseparable companion of the divine Narayan.
25. According to Hindu mythology, the world rests upon the tortoise Akupara and is supported by the serpent Shesh. The Puranas also tells the story of Vishnu’s second incarnation, when he assumes the form of a tortoise—the gods and Asurs rest Mount Mandar on his back as they churn the ocean.
26. This refers to Vishnu in his avatar as Krishna, with Krishna’s elder brother Balram, who is also called Haldhar (‘he who bears a plough’); the brothers were brought up by Jasomati, Krishna’s foster mother. She is also called Yashomati or Yashoda.
27. The letters ‘r’ and ‘m’ have half/conjoint forms written above the horizontal line under which Devanagari letters are written: the r is written as a curved line, called a ‘ref’, and the m as a dot, called an ‘anusvara’, above the line. Tulsi has compared the former to a royal umbrella, the latter to a jewel in the crown; both are symbols of royalty.
28. Taraka was the daughter of the Yaksha, Suketu; turned into a Rakshasi by the sage Agastya, she lived in the forest at the confluence of the Ganga and the Sarju and ravaged the surrounding land and terrorized the rishis in the forest. She was killed by Ram upon the request of the sage, Vishvamitra (Balkand 209).
29. Ram lived in this forest for a part of his exile.
30. It is believed that the Ramayana was composed by Brahma himself; it consisted of a 100 crore (1 crore = ten million) verses and was delivered to Shiv through Narad. The three worlds—of gods, men and demons—each demanded the Ramayana. So Shiv divided the 100 crore verses into three sets of 33 crores and gave one set to each of the three worlds. The remaining one crore he again divided into three sets of 33 lakhs (1 lakh = 100,000), the remaining one lakh into three sets of 33,000, the remaining one thousand into three sets of three hundred each, the remaining hundred into three sets of thirty-three each, distributing them equally between the three worlds. Finally one verse remained, of thirty-two letters, which he divided into three sets of ten letters each, giving one set to each of the worlds. The two letters that remained, ‘ra’ and ‘ma’, made up the name of Ram; these two letters Shiv kept for Himself.
31. Shiv is portrayed with matted locks and covered in ashes; he wears a garland of human skulls and snakes and serpents are twined around his neck; his garments are of tiger skin or deerskin, or made from the hide of an elephant.
32. The story of Ajamil is related in the sixth skand of the Bhagavat Purana: Ajamil was a Brahman who led a thoroughly dissolute and disreputable life. He married a prostitute and had ten sons by her. As he lay upon his deathbed, he called his youngest son to his side. By a happy coincidence, this son was called Narayaṇ; hearing his name being invoked, the Lord himself answered Ajamil’s call and granted him liberation from the cycle of birth and death.
The story of the elephant is related in the eighth skand of the Bhagavat Purana: An elephant went down to the river to bathe; there his foot was seized by a crocodile, and though he struggled for two thousand years, he could not free himself. At last, in despair, he called the name of the Lord. Vishnu answered the elephant’s call and cutting off the crocodile’s head with his divine discus, the Sudarshan Chakra, freed him from its clutches.
The story of the prostitute is given in the Bhagavat Purana: Pingala was a prostitute in Videha. One evening, as she is soliciting for business, it dawns on her that sensual and material gratification is temporary and will fade away, and that true pleasure lies only in the Lord. From then on, she immersed herself in devotion to Vishnu.
33. Bhang is the hemp plant from the leaves of which is made an intoxicating drink, also called bhang; this is especially popular amongst worshippers of Shiv. This is being contrasted with the tulsi shrub, said to have been produced from the hair of the goddess Tulsi, and held in great veneration by all Hindus; the tulsi plant is also valued for its medicinal properties. And of course, Tulsi does not pass up this chance for a play on his own name.
34. These are: north, south, east, west, northeast, southeast, southwest, northwest, up and down.
35. Ram killed Baali for the sin of taking his brother, Sugriv’s, wife as his own. Sugriv, too, took his brother’s wife, Tara, as his own after Baali’s death and Vibhishan took Mandodari, his brother Ravan’s wife, as his own after Ravan’s death. The difference between Baali’s action, and that of Sugriv and Vibhishan’s, is that Sugriv and Vibhishan married their brothers’ wives only after the death of their brothers, with the full consent of the women, and in keeping with the customs of their people. Baali, on the other hand, used force and his power as king. Thus, Baali’s fault is a crime, that of the others a misdemeanour.
36. The River Jamuna or Yamuna, and Jam or Yama, the god of Death, are the twin children of the sun god Surya, and his wife Saranyu. While Jam is Death, Jamuna is Life, and bathing in her waters absolves one of sin. Perhaps Tulsi is referring to these opposite characteristics of the twins when he says that Jamuna (as life) has the power to ‘blacken the faces’ of Jam’s messengers (of death), i.e., to dismiss them and send them away in shame.
37. According to tradition, Hulsi is supposed to be the name of Tulsidas’s mother. The word also means happiness or joy.
38. Vikrami Samvat, or era of King Vikramaditya, is about 56.7 years ahead; so Samvat 1631 corresponds to 1574 CE.
39. The three kinds of sin are those relating to thought, word and deed; the three kinds of sorrow are of birth, old age and death; the three kinds of poverty are poverty of body, poverty of means and poverty in men.
40. The chaupai, chhand, sortha and doha and are the poetic metres used by Tulsidas in the Ramcharitmanas.
41. The three kinds of listeners are liberated souls, those who are seeking liberation, and those who are caught in sensual pleasures.
42. Ravan was a devotee of Brahma. Once, he did intense penance for several years and Brahma, pleased, appeared before him and offered him a boon for his devotion. Ravan asked for immortality. When Brahma refused him that, Ravan asked that no god, demon, Gandharva, Kinnara or Naga may kill him. Brahma willingly granted him that boon. Ravan now believed himself to be invincible, not realizing that he had not included men in his list. He was now safe from death, except at the hands of a man.
43. Literally (sat+chit+anand)—‘existence (or entity), thought (or knowledge) and happiness’; an epithet of the Supreme Spirit.
44. Virbhadra was an emanation of Shiv, created from his mouth. According to the Vayu Purana, ‘. . . he had a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet; wielded a thousand clubs, a thousand spears; he held the shell, the discus, the mace, and bore a blazing bow and a battleaxe; he was fierce and terrific, shining with a dreadful splendour, and decorated with the crescent moon; clothed in a tiger’s skin, dripping with blood, with a huge mouth and formidable tusks . . .’ He was created for the specific purpose of stopping Daksh’s sacrifice, and to scare away the gods and others gathered there.
45. In Hindu philosophy, dissolution/destruction is associated with reproduction or regeneration. So Shiv as Shankar is the reproductive power continually restoring what has been destroyed.
46. The woodapple tree; it is sacred to Shiv and its leaves are used as an offering to him.
47. The Haryashva were the five thousand sons of Daksh, begotten by him for the purpose of peopling the earth. Narad dissuaded them from having children, and they scattered themselves across the earth, never to return. Daksh then had another thousand sons, whom Narad similarly dissuaded. For this, Daksh cursed Narad that he too would always be a homeless wanderer.
48. King Chitraketu, the powerful king of Shurasena, was childless though he had ten million wives. One day he was visited by the Rishi Angira. The king made the
rishi welcome and treated him the reverence that was his due. The rishi understood that despite his great wealth and power, his youth and good looks, the king was not happy. Chitraketu explained his problem—that despite his ten million beautiful young wives, he did not have a child. The rishi understood the king’s sadness and performed a sacrifice as a result of which the king’s chosen queen, Kritadyuti, became pregnant. ‘A son will be born to you. He will be the cause of great joy (‘harsha’) and great sorrow (‘shok’)—therefore, name him Harshashok,’ said the rishi and departed. In due course, Queen Kritadyuti gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, whom they named Harshashok, as the rishi had advised. As time went on, Chitraketu showered all his love and affection upon Kritadyuti, so much so that his other wives became wildly jealous and poisoned his little son. The king and his queen were plunged into grief. Chitraketu lost his mind with sorrow and came close to death himself. Learning of the king’s great sorrow, Rishi Angira came once more to visit him, this time accompanied by Narad. Narad had the power to bring the dead back to life, and to assuage the king’s grief (as well as to show him the true nature of existence and the soul), he brought his dead son back to life. The child sat up and began to speak. He spoke of the nature of the soul and the impermanence of relationships. ‘In one life,’ said he, ‘these were my parents, in another, I was their father, their enemy, their friend. These relationships are because of your body, which is mortal; when you die you leave your body and these relationships behind. Ultimately the soul is alone.’ And when his discourse was over, the child lay down again and died. At this, Chitraketu’s grief for his son abated. He had understood the temporary nature of affection and the illusion of existence; he was now able to perform the last rites for his son. Narad then instructed him in the way to true knowledge and departed. Chitraketu followed Narad’s instructions and losing all desire to have a son, he gave up his throne and devoted himself to penance and the pursuit of knowledge.