by Tulsidas
49. The Daitya king, Kanakakasipu, performed severe penance in order to gain immortality. While he was engaged in these austerities, the other gods attacked his home, but Narad intervened to protect Kanakakasipu’s pregnant wife, Kayadhu, and took her into his care. While she was with him, he discoursed to her on the glory of Vishnu, and her unborn son, Prahlad, heard his words and was so influenced by them even in the womb that when he was born he became an ardent devotee of Vishnu. Meanwhile, Kanakakasipu had obtained from Shiv sovereignty over the three worlds and the boon that he may not be killed either by man or beast. This had so emboldened him that he had declared that his subjects give up the worship of Vishnu to worship him instead. Prahlad refused, and his steadfast devotion to Vishnu led ultimately to the death of Kanakakasipu, who was killed by Vishnu in his form of Narsingh, half-man, half-lion.
50. Kamdev would be reborn as Pradyumna, Krishna’s son by Rukmini.
51. The god of Death, Jam or Yama, is represented as green in colour and clothed in red; he is armed with a huge mace and a noose, and rides upon a buffalo.
52. Good-natured teasing and bawdy songs (known as ‘gari’, literally ‘abuse’), mocking the bridegroom’s family, were traditionally sung by the women of the bride’s family as part of the wedding festivities.
53. Bhakti: devotion
Gyan: sacred or religious knowledge (such as is derived from meditation on the higher truths of religion and philosophy, and which teaches man his own nature, and how he may be reunited to the supreme spirit)
Vigyan: worldly knowledge of any kind (including all subjects except that understanding of the true nature of God or Brahma which is acquirable only by abstract meditation and the study of the Vedas)
Vairagya: detachment
54. Jalandhar was born from the sea as a manifestation of the radiance of Shiv’s third eye. As a newborn child, his crying so distressed the gods that they pleaded with Brahma to search for the source of the cry. Brahma did so, and when he went down to the seashore, the sea put the baby in his arms. The child pulled at Brahma’s beard so hard that it brought tears to Brahma’s eyes. For that reason, Brahma named the child ‘Jalandhar’. He took the baby back with him to his palace, and brought him up with love and care. When Jalandhar grew up he married Vrinda, the beautiful daughter of the demon, Kalnemi. Vrinda was a devotee of Vishnu, and because of her intense devotion to him, she was endowed with enormous yogic powers. She was also a chaste and faithful wife, and deeply devoted to her husband, and her prayers to Vishnu for his well-being strengthened the already strong Jalandhar. Ultimately, Jalandhar became so strong that he was crowned king of the Asurs. Very soon, Jalandhar had defeated every king on earth. Now, with the whole earth under his sway, he set about conquering the gods and defeated them easily. In despair they turned to Brahma, who advised them to ask for Shiv’s help since Jalandhar was born of his third eye. Shiv tried to reason with Jalandhar, but Jalandhar was now so powerful that he was rude and dismissive even to Shiv. Controlling his anger with a huge effort, Shiv decided to lead the gods in battle against the Asur king. But Jalandhar, reinforced by his wife’s prayers, trapped Shiv and the gods in a web of illusion. Jalandhar then took on the form of Shiv himself and approached the goddess Parvati. Parvati, however, was not fooled and recognizing him, challenged him to a battle. Jalandhar knew he could not take on the goddess and retreated. Parvati related Jalandhar’s insolence to Vishnu, and asked for his help. So, as Vrinda prayed for her husband’s success on the battlefield against Shiv, Vishnu appeared before her in the guise of her husband. Vrinda was completely taken in by Vishnu, and taking him to be her husband, was overjoyed at seeing him safe and sound. She stopped praying and embraced Vishnu, as a result of which her power was broken, and consequently, her husband’s. At that very instant, Shiv, released from Jalandhar’s trap, killed the Asur king. Vrinda felt that something was wrong, and Vishnu, abandoning his disguise, appeared before her as himself. Angry and grief-stricken, Vrinda cursed Vishnu to be separated from his wife. It is for this reason that he had to take form as Ram, and suffer separation from Sita.
55. Vishvamohini, ‘world-enchanting’, was also the female form take by Vishnu at the churning of the ocean to distract the demons.
56. By placing a garland around a suitor’s neck, the unmarried girl indicates her choice of husband.
57. ‘Hari’ is an epithet for Vishnu, and ‘hari’ means ape—so Shiv’s attendants were punning on the dual meaning of ‘Hari’ and ‘hari’.
58. In the hands of Vishvamohini, the object of his infatuation, as well as, more profoundly, in the hands of Vishnu’s maya—which is actually and literally one and the same thing in this case.
59. The first Manu, Svayambhuva (born of Swayambhu, the self-existent Brahma) and his wife Satarupa. According to one account of creation, Brahma divided himself into two, male and female. The male half was identical with himself—he is known as Svayambhuva Manu; the female half was Satarupa, whom Manu took as his wife. From them sprang the entire human race.
60. The Sankhya Shastra or treatise expounding the Sankhya doctrine or system of philosophy, one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy, founded by the sage Kapil; based on systematic enumeration and rational examination, it takes its name from the Sanskrit word ‘sankhya’ which means to count, enumerate, or reason by numerical enumeration.
61. Vaasudev, ‘son of Vasudev,’ is a name for Krishna, i.e., Vishnu. The mantra referred to here is ‘Om Namo Bhagavate Vaasudevaya’—which requires twelve letters to be written in Devanagari; the mantra means ‘Om, I bow to Lord Vaasudev’.
62. The Shrivatsa is a particular mark, or white curl of hair, on the right side of Vishnu’s chest; it is a sign of Supreme Godhead. It is also interpreted to be Shri’s mark, the place where she rests on the Lord’s chest.
63. The Suryavansh or solar lineage was the dynasty of Kshatriyas who sprang from Ikshvaku, grandson of the Sun. Ram was of this lineage.
64. Sarangpani, ‘the one who bears the bow called Sarang’—a name for Vishnu (Sarang is the name of Vishnu’s bow).
65. These are the conch, the discus, the club and the lotus.
66. These are signs of divinity that Vishnu bears on the soles of his feet.
67. Once, the sages could not decide who amongst the three gods, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiv, was the greatest. In order to come to a decision, Brahma’s son, the sage Bhrigu, was sent to visit the three gods one by one. The sage first went to his father, but did not greet him as a dutiful son. Bhrigu’s lack of courtesy angered Brahma greatly, though he somehow managed to calm his rage with reason. Bhrigu then visited Shiv upon Kailash. Shiv rose to meet him, and held out his arms in an embrace. But Bhrigu refused to allow Shiv to touch him, saying that he had broken social conventions by reaching out to him. At this, Shiv lost his temper and picked up his trishul to strike the sage. But Parvati intervened, and calmed him down. Bhrigu then went to visit Vishnu, and found him asleep with his head on Lakshmi’s lap. Angered by this discourtesy, the sage kicked Vishnu on the chest to awaken him. Vishnu started awake, and seeing the sage, apologized for his rudeness in not greeting him, and then gently rubbed the sage’s foot with his hands, expressing concern that it might have been hurt by striking his hard chest. Bhrigu declared Vishnu to be the greatest of the three gods, and since then Vishnu bears the imprint of the sage’s foot upon his chest, as a mark of his unparalleled courtesy and forbearance.
68. The Puranas say that the heavenly stream of the Ganga emerges from the toe of Vishnu. The river was brought down to earth by the prayers of the sage Bhagirath (by which she is called Bhagirathi) to purify the ashes of the sixty-thousand sons of King Sagar, who had been destroyed by the angry glance of the sage Kapil. The gods feared that the force of the Ganga’s descent to earth would be too strong for the earth to bear, so Shiv agreed to receive the river upon his head and checked its furious rush in his matted locks (this is why Shiv is called Gangadhar—the one who holds the Ganga). The river descended from S
hiv’s brow in seven streams, thus forming the Sapta-sindhava (the seven rivers); the Ganga proper is one of these streams.
69. ‘Videh’ is Janak, king of the kingdom of Videha; ‘videh’ also means ‘without a body’ or ‘bodiless’. Tulsi puns on this dual meaning, implying that King Janak lost all awareness of his own body upon beholding Ram.
70. Here, Tulsi is probably referring to an earlier incident (not explained in the Manas) in Sita’s life when Narad had visited Janak’s family and predicted that Sita would meet her future husband in a garden.
71. Nimi was the son of Ikshvaku, and the founder of the dynasty of Mithila. According to the Vishnu Purana, he was cursed by the sage Vasishtha to lose his corporeal form, and in response, he pronounced the same curse upon the sage. Both then abandoned their bodily forms. Though Vasishtha took birth again, Nimi’s corpse was embalmed and preserved in death as he had been in life. The gods offered to restore him back to life, but Nimi refused, saying that the separation of the soul from the body was so painful that he did not want to have to experience it again. The gods respected his wishes, and instead, placed him in the eyes of every living creature, because of which their eyelids are always blinking. (A blink of the eye is called ‘nimish’.)
72. In Hindu belief, the twitching or fluttering of various parts of the body are omens of good or bad fortune. For a man, the twitching of the right side of his body foretells good fortune; for a woman it is the left side that is auspicious.
73. The moon, along with poison, was amongst the fourteen treasures received at the churning of the ocean.
74. Some commentators say that the story that Janak told is how the bow was given by Shiv to his ancestor Devarata. After Sati killed herself at Daksh’s fire-sacrifice, and Virbhadra laid waste the ceremonies, Shiv himself appeared, with his formidable bow, Pinaki, in his hand, and determined to destroy the gods who had stood by as Sati died. But the gods managed to calm him down, and Shiv handed his bow to Devarata, who was amongst the kings invited to the fire-sacrifice. Shiv asked Devarata to look after his bow, so that it could not be used for any further violence. Devarata was Janak’s ancestor—he was the son of Nimi, who was the son of Ishkvaku, founder of the dynasty of Mithila. The bow remained with the kings of Mithila, handed down through successive kings. And this is how it came into Janak’s possession. Other commentators say that Janak related an incident from Sita’s childhood, when she had effortlessly picked up Shiv’s bow, upon which Shiv had instructed Janak to give her hand in marriage only to one who could break the bow.
75. Gira (Sarasvati) is the goddess of speech, and hence too talkative; the other half of Bhavani’s body is that of Shiv (this refers to the Ardhanarishwar form of Shiv), so Bhavani has only half a body; Rati’s husband is Kamdev, reduced to ashes by Shiv and condemned to live in bodiless form, so she is ever-sorrowing for him; and Ramaa (Lakshmi) emerged from the churning of the ocean—since posion and liquor also emerged at the same time from the ocean, they are her ‘brothers’.
76. These are the eight mythical elephants that support the earth at each of the eight quarters of the compass. (See also glossary: ‘guardians of the eight quarters’)
77. Kamdev’s banner carries the sign of the fish; the shape of a woman’s eye is also compared to a fish; such a shape is a sign of beauty.
78. The lotus closes at night, imprisoning the bee. Her modesty (the night) caused her mouth (the lotus) to close and imprison her voice (the trapped bee).
79. These are all the celestial creatures that support the earth and hold it steady: the eight elephants that support the earth upon their backs at the eight points of the compass; the tortoise or kurma, the second incarnation of Vishnu, which carries the earth upon its back; the snake or serpent king, Sheshnag, the couch and support of Vishnu, and who holds the earth steady in its coils; the boar or Varaha, the third avatar of Vishnu, which supports the earth upon its tusks.
80. Parashuram is the first Ram and the sixth avatar of Vishnu; though he appeared in this world before Ram, the seventh avatar, they were both living in this world at the same time. In early life, Parashuram was under the protection of Shiv, who taught him the use of arms and gave him his weapon, the parashu, or axe. A follower of Shiv, he was much aggrieved that Ram had broken Shiv’s bow, and challenged him to a trial of strength, which he lost. In some ways this led to him being excluded from the celestial world.
81. The tripund or tripundra, three curved horizontal lines made across the forehead with the ashes of burnt cow-dung and sandalwood, by the followers of Shiv; the mark is indispensable in the worship of Shiv.
82. In Hindu belief, every person is in debt to three people: his father, his mother and his guru. Parashuram is said to have paid his debt to his parents in rather dramatic fashion: Once, his father, Jamadagni, asked his sons one by one to kill his wife, their mother Renuka, whom he suspected of having impure thoughts. The sons all refused, except Parashuram, who did as his father asked. Jamadagni was so pleased with his obedience that he told Parashuram to ask him for a boon. Parashuram asked that his mother be restored to life. Jamadagni granted his request, and his mother was brought back to life immediately, with no memory of her son’s cruel act. Another time, Sahasrabahu (Kartavirya) paid a visit to Jamadagni’s hermitage. Though the sage was not present, he was received with great hospitality by his wife. In return, Sahasrabahu carried off a sacrificial calf belonging to Jamadagni. This so angered Parashuram that he followed him and cut off all his thousand arms and killed him. In retaliation, Sahasrabahu’s sons killed Jamadagni. Parashuram vowed to avenge his father and swore vengeance against them and the entire Kshatriya race. He is said to have cleared the earth of Kshatriyas twenty-one times.
83. Tulsi plays on the word ‘gun’ here, which means ‘bowstring’ as well as ‘virtue’. The nine cardinal virtues are equanimity, self-restraint, penance, purity, forgiveness, straightfrowardness, spiritual knowledge, knowledge of worldly things and faith in the Supreme Being.
84. A complete army is made up of four divisions; these are elephants, chariots, cavalry and infantry.
85. The messengers, since they are from Janak, regard Sita as their own daughter; and by Hindu tradition, a girl’s family cannot accept gifts from her (in this case, future) in-laws.
86. A rare and valuable breed, these horses had black ears and were as white as milk all over; they were considered especially suitable for performing the horse-sacrifice.
87. Purandar is Indra, king of the gods, and Brihsapati, the guru of the gods.
88. This is the Indian roller, known as ‘nil-kanth’, literally ‘blue-throat’, which is also a name for Shiv. It has a blue crown and blue wings and tail (though not a blue throat). Its breast is pale brown. It can be easily seen in India, and is believed by many to be sacred to Vishnu. It is associated with festivals such as Dussehra.
89. These were the eight siddhis, mystical or magical powers often attained through yogic practice and penance.
90. Shankar is often portrayed with five faces, each face with three eyes, hence fifteen eyes; Brahma has four faces, each with two eyes, hence eight eyes; Skand has six faces, each face with two eyes, hence twelve eyes, or one a half times as many as Brahma. But Indra, has a thousand eyes, the result of a curse pronounced upon him by the sage Gautam for seducing his wife, Ahalya. This curse Indra now finds a blessing, for he has a thousand eyes with which to look upon the wedding of Ram and Sita.
91. The five kinds of musical instruments that are played on auspicious occasions, the sounds of which are considered to bring good fortune are tantri or stringed instruments such as the vina, tal or an instrument that sets the beat (this could even be the clapping of hands), jhanjh or cymbals, nagara or the kettledrum, and turhi or a wind instrument such as the trumpet or the shehnai. The five kinds of auspicious sounds are veda-dhvani or the chanting of the Vedas by the brahmins, vandi-dhvani or the eulogies and songs of praise sung by the family bards, jaya-dhvani or the hails of glory, shankh-dhvani or the sound
of the conch, and hulu-dhvani or ululation.
92. Tulsi mentions one in particular—madhuparka. This is a mixture of honey and milk, or honey, ghee and curd offered to gods or to Brahmins during sacrifices and ritual worship.
93. As Agni, the fire-god or fire embodied.
94. This the stream of the River Ganga, which flows from Ram’s feet, and which Shiv carries upon his head, entwined in his matted hair.
95. Once again, Tulsi plays on the double meaning of ‘videh’ here (see stanza 215)—the literal meaning of ‘videh’ is ‘without body or incorporeal’; this is also the title held by the kings of Videha, in this case, Janak. So Tulsi says that beholding Ram’s form, Janak lost all sense of his own corporeal existence.
96. The gods know that the marriage of Sita to Ram is required for the killing of Ravan and rejoice that their end, the death of Ravan, is one step closer to being achieved.
97. Sindur, or vermilion, applied on the head of a woman indicates that she is married; it is applied to the head of the bride for the first time by the bridegroom upon the completion of the wedding rites.
98. The four states of being are jagrat or waking, svapna or sleeping, sushupti or deep repose, and turiya or the state in which the soul has become one with the Supreme Spirit. These four feminine states are each paired a male consort; these are vishva or the creation, tejas or power, pragya or wisdom, and brahm, the universal Absolute.
99. The four ends of life are dharma, arth, kama, and moksh—these are masculine, and are paired with the feminine actions or deeds (kriya) that are the means to their realization, which are variously enumerated, for instance as shraddha or piety, yagya or the performance of sacrifices, tapasya or meditation, and gyan or sacred or religious knowledge such as is derived from meditation.